The Minor Family of Somerset

R.J.H. Griffiths Exerpts from "A Cambridge Saint"
Henry Mortlock, quite unlike most of the rest of his clan, wa
s a saintly creature possessed of a deep religious faith. Give
n the character of his father John Mortlock III and thatof som
e of Henry's brothers - but not his junior and last brother Will
iam,who, although the author was not on oath, is described on h
is memorial in St.Edward's as "a person of sincere piety and ra
re benevolence" - one can suppose that this sheds some loight o
n a certain sweetness of personality in Henry's mother, Elizabet
h Mary Harrison. Like his brothers Frederick and William,but u
nlike John Cheetham and Thomas and probably Edmund, Henry was qu
ite without personal ambition.
After Bury St. Edmunds Grammar School (with his brother Edmund D
avy Mortlock) and Charterhouse, which he attended 1802-7 and whe
re he was followed, albeit with less happy result, by his erran
t nephew JohnFrederick in 1820. Henry obtained entry to Trinit
y Hall, Cambridge. The availability of a Madras Writership wit
h the Hon. East India Company, and "a change in the family circu
mstances" then intervened. His father John, strappedfor cash
, determined that Henry - who, although not the youngest, was su
rely John's Benjamin - must go to Indian. This decision was ult
imately Henry'sdeath warrant. Henry although deeply disappoint
ed - he was a natural academic - obediently and dutifully compli
ed, saying "it is my father's wish and that is sufficient". Th
e finanacial crisis may have been connected with the need to fin
d a substantial sum to fund Henry's senior brother Charles' firs
t command of an Indiaman, the Charlton, and Charles' marriage, a
nd to finance the cargo speculation for the Charlton's voyage
. As it was this cargo investment was almost certainly a dead l
oss, amounting to the thousands of pounds inspecie and return g
oods, because of Chartlon's being taken by the French in Nover 1
809. This came hard on the heels of the loss of John Mortlock'
s share in the cargo investment in the Streatham which had bee
n taken by the Frenchin May of the same year. On the other han
d, the going rate for facilitatinga Writership - unless present
ed gratis due to family or social obligations -was two thousan
d guineas.
The story has got aHead of itself. Following hisappointment i
n 1807, Henry sailed for Madras in 1808, arriving on 29th Octobe
r. Before his son's departure John Mortlock gave to Henry's fia
ncee, Elizabeth Thomas, Edridge's portrait of Henry, with a deli
ghtful inscription on its back in John's own hand that "he (Henr
y) never caused his father a sigh except when he left him"< whic
h testament in later life Henry - through both natural modesty a
nd perhaps embarrassment - kept pasted over. The chronology i
s important because it shows already by 1808 a cordial and famil
iar relationship between John Mortlock and his rather older pee
r and business partner.Elizabeth's father Captain James Thomas
, as further illustrated by Captain Charles' marriage to Elizabe
th's sister Emelia before setting out in the Charlton. The Edr
idge painting shows Henry in King's College alk with King's chap
el and Clare Hall in the background.
Once in India, Henry appllied himself diligently to scholarship
. He was quite as clver as his Wrangler borthers, and withi
n a year of arriving in India has passed both Hindustani and San
skitexaminations with Distinctions. He not only became an inter
preter in oriental languages but received prizes of 800 pounds a
nd 400 pounds from the Companyfor the excellence of his perform
ance. In April 1811 he was formally appointed Deputy Persian Tr
anslator to the Madras Government. He was also holdingdown a r
egular job as Deputy Register to the Court of Saddr and Fouzdar
y Adawlat, the chief court of the HEIC's Madras Presidency.
The Indian climatewas a disaster for Henry. In June 1815 his b

marriage extraction M055631 1816-1818