The Minor Family of Somerset

Frederick Cheetham's son and heir John Frederick was born in 180
9. One of his early memories was of Blucher's visit to Cambridg
e after the Battle of Waterloo, when Blucher did Frederick Cheet
ham the honour of walKing arm-in-arm with him the while he (Bluc
her) hugged and kissed all the pretty girl groupieswho clustere
d round him.
John Frederick, as an adolescent, sent to Peterborough Grammar S
chool. One can only speculate whether that establishment's exp
erience with h im had anything to do with his younger brother Ch
arles being translated from thence to Catterick to finish his ed
ucation. In his own memoirs John Frederick persistently refer
s to Charterhouse although he is onlycredited with one year the
re (1820). Following Peterborough John Frederickwas then sacke
d by two private tutors. The first, a curate in Croxton calle
d Holmes, got rid of him because he could not stick John Frederi
ck's girl-chasing. A place in Cambridge college was found for J
ohn Frederick but never taken up, he displaying no vocation fo
r the Church. He had some affinity andability for mathematic
s but this never fruited, all his school time being, tohis view
, frittered away on dead languages. In desperation a commissio
n was found - effectively bought - for John Frederick in HEIC'
s Bengal Army, andoff to India he set from Gravesend in 1828, a
board the large Indiaman, Earlof Balcarras. His own account sh
ows him as at nineteen, 5'8" and weighing eleven stone four poun
ds(158 lbs)
John Frederick enjoyed the trip out, particularly revelling in t
he young female company on board to whom he showed off- he wa
s always athletic - by shimmying up the mast faster than the mid
shipmen. DisembarKing in the Hooghly, he amused himself by shot
ting game on hisway up to Calcutta, using a gun bought from a S
cots solicitor on the journeyout. Unfortunately an elderly nat
ive got in the way and the resulting pelletpenetration had to b
e balmed by an application of rupees. In August, maKinghis lei
surely way up the Ganges to a Regiment in Cawnpore, John Frederi
ckweathered watching a bathing companion being taken by a croco
dile. Besides his athleticism John Frederick was a truly excell
ent shot.
He appears to haveavoided much military duty and to have spen
t his time tiger-hunting. Scrapes continued: several near-drown
ings and an encouter with a tiger which, fortunately for John Fr
ederick, had lately gorged on a hapless native. Pleading ill-he
alth, after two years John Frederick chucked his expensive commi
ssion,coming home in March 1830 to find himself somewhat unwelc
ome. He made antoher trip to India, on the return voyage from w
hich, becalmed, his ship was within a whisker of being taken b
y pirates. In India and on subsequent tours ofEurope - John Fr
ederik was an inveterate and extremely inquisitive tourist-he m
aintained himself by winning money at billirds, and by doles fro
m friends and his somewhat reluctant relations. In 1835 John Fr
ederick spent six weeks picketing the Bank with an apple-stall p
lacarded with pamphlets regardingthe handling of his supposed i
nheritance. This must have been more of a nuisance than one mig
ht suppose; a glance at Bee't St shows that there is not much ro
om for the Bank's customers if there is an apple-stall blockin
g the road. The stall was something of a local spectacle, wit
h John Frederick in a magnificent velvet-line coat collecting so
vereigns and half-sovereigns from the Bank's customers in a silv
er salver set before him, presumably calumniatinghis senior rel
atives the while.
John Frederick was tried for trying to kill is Uncle Edmund an
d was sentenced to transportaion for twenty-one years.Joh Fred
erick told the Judge "My Lord, it will save me from starvation."
Heleft on the "Maitland" from Plymouth on 1st September 1843 an
d arrived in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) in January 1844.