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Vol. XXV No. 15, November 16-30, 2015

Our Readers Write

The will of Giacomo D’Angelis

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The mail has brought us images of a few documents which tell stories of a past connected with the City. Jefferis Donald Evans D’Angelis, settled in Chile, and a descendant of Giacomo D’Angelis, the once-famed Madras hotelier and pioneering pilot, sends me a copy of his forefather’s last will and testament which he has translated as follows:

I, Giacomo D’Angelis, lately residing on Mount Road, Madras, but at present residing in Rome, hereby revoke all former wills and testamentary dispositions made by me and declare this to be my last will and testament. I appoint my son Carlo D’Angelis the executor and trustee of this my will.

I am at present possessed, inter alia, Silks Hotel, Ootacamund, the premises known as Burnside, Ootacamund, and a house in Narasingapuram (Madras). The premises known as the Hotel D’Angelis, Mount Road, I have sold, and out of the sale proceeds invested Rs. 1,00,000 (Rupees one lakh) on a Mortgage of landed property belonging to Mr. Venkiah.

I have given to my son Carlo D’Angelis Rs 1,00,000 (Rupees one lakh) for the assistance he has given me in carrying on my late business. I give devise and bequeath all my properties whatever and whenever to my said son Carlo D’Angelis to convert the same into cash and out of the proceeds to pay the following specific legacies to the under-mentioned employees, provided they continue in the service of my son Carlo D’Angelis who is now carrying on the hotel business.

C. Raju Mudaliar Rs 2,500
T. Parthasarathi Mudaliar Rs 2,000
V. Rungaswami Naicker Rs 1,000
D. Annamalai Mudaliar Rs 750
M.P. Murugesam Pillai Rs 500
C. Subramaniam Mudaliar Rs 500
Sundaram Chetty Rs. 500
C. Govindarajulu Naidu Rs 400
C. Kumaran Mudaliar Rs 400

After payment of my just debts, funeral and testamentary expenses and the above legacies, I direct said Executor and Trustee to pay to my daughter Marianna D’Angelis Rs 1,00,000 or assign to her the said Mortgage executed by Mr. Venkiah in my favour. I direct my executor to hold in Trust for my son Frank D’Angelis who is an invalid at present at La Maison Nationale de Sante at Saint Maurice, a sufficient sum of money the income which will be adequate to pay his monthly pension. The residue of my estate I direct my Executor to divide equally between himself, the said Carlo D’Angelis, Marianna D’Angelis my daughter and Louis D’Angelis my other son. On the death of the said Frank D’Angelis, the trust amount shall also be equally divided among my three children aforesaid.

In witness whereof the said Giacomo D’Angelis has hereunder set his hand at Rome this day of October 1919.

G.D’Angelis

The Madras-Bangalore route

The other contribution, out of the pages of the past, came from Dr. Ananthanarayanan Raman from Orange, New South Wales, Australia:

With multiple trains plying between Chennai and Bangalore, offering both day and night services, the route has hit a saturation point in terms of travel options because of the exploding population. At present road services provide the alternate option. State carriers of the Governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and private-bus operators offer bus services from the basic to the luxurious, catering to different levels of affordability. And, of course, there are numerous between Chennai and Bangalore today.

With so many choices of transport available, what was it like more than 150 years earlier. In the first appendix to the Third Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons, in the section titled, ‘Public Works carried out at Madras in 1828’, there is mention ofa road from Madras to Bangalore. This report says: “… the work has been completed to Poonamallee, but beyond that place the work has been restricted to the object of making it possible for carts and ordinance carriages.”

The Madras Road Book (1839), compiled by Captain William John Butterworth, Assistant Quarter-Master General of the Army ( printed by George Calder at the Asyum Press, Madras, and published by Edmund Marsden) lists seven routes to travel from Madras to Bangalore by road. This book provides a comprehensive list titled the ‘Tables of the roads throughout the Presidency of Fort St. George’, first written in 1833, revised and enlarged in 1836-39.

The famous Bradshaw’s Illustrated Hand-Book to the Madras Presidency and the Central Provinces of India, published in 1864, provides a complete route and descriptive guide by road, river and railway, throughout the Presidency of Madras. Initiated by George Bradshaw (1801-1853), an English cartographer, in 1839, Bradshaw’s series served as road and railway guides for Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany and Austria, India, Italy, Syria and Turkey. This series was published by W.J. Adams of London; the titles continued until 1961.

This guide is not limited just to the routes but provides details on social and political status on the various stations located on the various routes. Covering a distance of 207 miles and a quarter furlong, the first route shown is between Madras to Bangalore via Arcot, Waniembaddy (Vaniambadi), Nullapaddy (Nallapadi), Coorumberupatty Pass, and Ossoor (Hosur). This is followed by four different route options with most of them passing through either Arkat (Arcot), Chittur (Chittoor), Colar (Kolar), Ooscotah (Hoskote), or Poonamallee, Chittoor, and Colar.

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Having travelled often between the two cities by bus and train have found that the modern day bus journey follows almost the same route – but the choice is reduced to two alternately: one, via Poonmallee, Vellore, Vaniambadi and Hosur, and the other via Poonamallee, Chittoor, Kolar and Hoskote. NH-4 and NH-207, the two routes meet at Hoskote. A stretch from Hoskote to Bangalore is called The Old Madras Road.

Notes on St. Mary’s

Apropos the notes on St. Mary’s Church, Fort St. George (MM, October 1), may I add the following?
The first chaplain, Rev. William Issaacson from Surat, took over charge in 1647 (not in 1654 as stated). He remained there for a year and was followed by I. Thomson, R. Wynchester and William Whitefield. Issaacson was once again in Madras between 1658 and 1661. Of the past chaplains, those of Puritan background and of the Church of Scotland where gradually ejected from their living when these clerics refused to conform to the Book of Common Prayer (1662) of the Church of England (some of the congregations in Tamil Nadu still stick to it!). By 1676 the Chaplaincy came to be ministered solely under the Anglican Orders.

Though H.D. Love does not recognise Edward Fowle (not Foule) as the architect of St. Mary’s, Robert Watson, a past incumbent (1948-51), states (1951) that Fowle is commemorated by a brass plate near the offertory box not far from the church door. According to another clergy-chronicler P.C. Kerslake (1935), at first the dining hall of the Factory in the northern side was used as a chapel but very soon a light timber room was built on the upper floor of the reconstructed Fort House. A Dutch traveller Havant (1670) wrote about this church prettily built of wood and said “I do not know that I have anywhere in the whole of India seen a finer construction”.

And the whole extent of the church was entirely re-built in 1759 and in the process the churchyard also came to be relaid at the time of Hyder Ali’s invasion. Many tombs came to be used as gun platforms following which many were broken and several others disappeared. According to some records 119 inscribed tombs pertaining to the period 1652-1761 continued to exist. An early note states that Thaniappa Mudaliar was interred in St. Andrew’s Church, Chennapatnam. This Catholic Church was built in 1642, earlier than the emergence of Protestant control. It probably lay in the vicinity of later St. Mary’s, and was subsequently destroyed. So a great deal of relocation of these sites must have taken place.

In the more well-known Powney Vault in the old compound of St. Mary’s was also entombed Capt George Heron, who was the first to chart the course of the river Hooghly in Bengal (d 1727 – “then a sojourner in India, 61 years”). Heron’s daughter was married to one of the Powneys.

Rev. Philip Mulley
Coonoor

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