The Boddington-Ingram Family History

Anna VERDUIJN

• Born: Cir 1811, <Cochin (Kochi), Kerala, India>
• Marriage (1): Thomas William BULLOCK on 20 Aug 1827 in the former Church Of St. Francis Xavier, Cochin (Kochi), Kerala, India ¹
• Died: 6 May 1893, Chennai, (Madras), , Tamil Nadu, India aged about 82 ^{2 3}
• Buried: 7 May 1893, St. Thomas Mount, Chennai (Madras) Tamil Nadu, India ²

   Other names for Anna were Anna VERDUYN, Ann VERDYN and Anna VOORDUIJN.

Notes:

Very little is known for certain about this important female ancestor of ours. She is known to have been the daughter of Josef Librecht VERDUIJN and his wife Ruth Anna of Cochin, (Kochi) in present day Kerala. A family of Dutch settlers with the name VERDUIJN is known to have lived and traded in the former Dutch colony of Cochin since about 1740 ^{[Footnote 1]}. Anna's marriage to Pensioner Sergeant Thomas William BULLOCK was solemnized at the former Church of St. Francis Xavier in Fort Cochin ^{[Footnote 2]}. Her recorded name, (Ann VERDYN) would seem to be an anglicized spelling of her paternal, (Dutch) family and given names. Significantly, her name, (or at least, derivatives of it), quite often recur as a given name in succeeding generations of her family - even to this day.

So far, no record of her birth or baptism has been found. Her marriage to Thomas William Bullock in 1827 is recorded in the Register of Omissions and Corrections to the Ecclesiastical Returns for the Madras Presidency 1801-1850. It is not yet clear why the marriage was omitted from the normal Register returns. The transcribed record of the entry shows Ann, (Anna) as a spinster "of this place", (Cochin). Her age is not given and there are no details of her parents.There were three witnesses to the marriage, all of Dutch nationality: H.R. Lunel, her uncle, (who is also thought to have given her away), J.P Heghtreischer and J. VanWullen

It is now reasonably certain that Anna was of mixed Dutch/Indian descent. Her mother was either a full-blooded native woman, probably from one of the local Nair, (Nayar) communities of the Malabar region, or was herself of mixed parentage. So far, there is no firm evidence to support this assumption. However, several of her son James's children are shown to have distinctive Eurasian features which, even to this day, turn up in various members of our respective families. (Look at the family pictures in the Gallery).

Anna spent most of her married life with Thomas William in Army married quarters at the Pensions Depot in Cuddalore, where she bore her husband six children. She is known to have moved to Madras to live with her youngest son Henry Jacob when her husband Thomas William died in 1865. Anna died in Chennai, (Madras) on 6 May 1893 and was buried at St. Thomas' Mount Garrison cemetery, Madras (Chennai) as.... "Anna Verdyn, relict of Thomas William Bullock, aged 82 years". ^{4 5 6}

Footnote ^[1]. The Dutch had strong trading links with India and operated mainly along the west coast of the sub-continent with a few, smaller settlements on the east coast in the Bay of Bengal. Many settled there, particularly along the Malabar Coast in present day Kerala. (There are several Verduijns buried in the Dutch Reform Church cemetery in Fort Kochi (Cochin), dating from 1740). Over the years, many of them married into local Malayali families, taking young native women as wives. The women were generally baptized into the Dutch Reformed Church and given christian names. (See notes on Petranella De Naaijer).

Footnote ^[2]. The church in Cochin was originally founded by the Portuguese who were the first to establish trading settlements on the west coast of India. The church was built initially of wood in 1503 and dedicated to St. Bartholomew. It was later re-built in stone and re-named after St.Anthony, (Santo Antonio). Vasco da Gama, who died in Cochin in 1524 was buried here. His remains were later exhumed and returned to Portugal for re-internment . It is not clear when or why it was renamed the Church of St. Francis. Some say it was named after St. Francis Xavier, the Roman Catholic missionary who did much of his work in Portuguese India, others say it was after the Franciscan friars who were said to have built the church. The church remained in Portuguese hands until 1663, when it was taken over by the protestant Dutch Reformed Church. In 1805 it finally passed into the hands of the British and was re-consecrated as a protestant church of the Anglican Communion. It remains today a place of protestant worship under the Church of South India, (CSI) and continues to be known as the Church of St Francis. ^{7 8}

Anna married Thomas William BULLOCK on 20 Aug 1827 in the former Church of St. Francis Xavier, Cochin (Kochi), Kerala, India.¹ (Thomas William BULLOCK was born in 1780 in <Roxburgshire, Scotland>, died on 23 Apr 1865 in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India ⁹ and was buried on 24 Apr 1865 in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India ⁹.)