Diary of Jane Pearson

Travel diary of a trip taken from Ryde to Calcutta by Jane Frances Matilda Pearson, dated 7 March -2 August 1824. Jane Pearson's diary provides a lively account of life on board ship on a long sea voyage in the early nineteenth century from the relatively rare perspective of a young woman. Entries in the diary also describe her experiences at the various ports of call such as Madeira and Johanna Island in the Comoros and Madras. Having suffered from sea sickness and being unable to write until reaching Madeira she then, retrospectively, makes a record of the journey from leaving London until their arrival in Madeira and then makes regular entries describing events at sea including the throwing overboard of a dog, caring for the parrot of Captain Wilkinson, taking her first singing lesson with Miss Jefferies, teaching Mr. Brady to play backgammon and the ttraditional maritime ceremony marking the crossing of the Equator. Jane's diary also includes her observations of her fellow passengers and she often comments on the state of relations between them as the voyage progresses. The diary also contains her observations of wild life and natural phenomena seen while at sea and on excursions ashore.Their ship 'Larkins' docks at Diamond Harbour, Calcutta on 27 July where the family take up residence in their new home at which point Jane stops keeping her diary.

Jane Frances Mathilda Pearson (b 1808) was the daughter of John Pearson of Tettenhall, Staffordshire and Elizabeth Hooke of Barwell Leicestershire. When her father was appointed to the position of Advocate General in Bengal in 1824, Jane, her older sister, Elizabeth, her brothers Hugh and Thomas Hooke Pearson (known as Hooke) and their parents made the journey from Ryde, Isle of Wight to their new home in Calcutta.
Elizabeth Pearson later married Captain George M. Greville a nephew of the Earl of Warwick. Thomas Hooke Pearson (1806-1892) served in the Indian Army joining the 11th Light Dragoons in 1825.

Source for Thomas Hooke Pearson: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21724?docPos=38 accessed June 2011

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