A young man called James Redmond escaped from County Down Ireland in 1816 with his new wife Mary, they were possibly driven out by the hardships, starvation and loss of jobs, caused throughout the world by the Tambora Volcano explosion (Indonesia), which resulted in the so called “Year without Summer”. (Wiki Reference). James’s area of County Down had flax growing and production together with other kinds of farming, both sources of work would have been severely affected by the exceptional cold wet summer. Recruited into the Madras European Regiment he travelled to Chatham and thence, after training, to Madras with his wife and 5 week old baby daughter Mary. This archive contains details of the voyage from Chatham to Madras and extracts of Captain’s logs ------- .

James’s wife Mary died within the year at the Secundrabad army camp to which they had travelled, from either typhoid or cholera, which was endemic in that place and time. His daughter, a very young Mary survived, almost certainly within the army community of wives who would be a close caring self supporting group. Later, there is evidence that James had a relationship with a local woman who bore him a son called James. The church records show that baby James died at only 3 months old and was baptised on the day he died. The record shows James as the Father, the Mother is recorded only as “A Native Woman”.

James left his 'estate' to “Mary Redmond, Daughter”, the document survives in the records. The amount was '25 Rupee 2 Ana 4 pice'