Description
Dead these fifteen years. An English indigo trader in Bengal who worked outside the Company monopoly, married into a Hooghly boat family because that was how indigo moved, and lived with Sarala Dasi for eighteen years in a household that ran in two languages.
By the standards of his time and place he was fond and decent to that household, which is the whole of what can be said for him and is not nothing.
Background
Around 1799, Gerald Hewitt took a kickback and cut him out of the trade — professionally, deliberately, and without ever thinking about it again, because it was profitable and nobody would ask. The business collapsed inside a year. Silas came home bankrupt and drank himself to death.
He left no will that recognised his family, because English law did not recognise it either. His English relatives arrived, took the daughter who could pass for English, and left his bibi and his younger daughter in Calcutta.
Connections
- Elizabeth Ashby and Malati — his daughters. Sarala Dasi — his partner. Nikhil Dasi — his shipper and brother-in-law, who blames him.
- Gerald Hewitt — the man who ruined him, dead at Wadi al Tih fifteen years later.
Appearances
Connections
People
Family
- Elizabeth Ashby NPC warmHer father, the ruined indigo trader; dead of drink c. 18002 sessions, The Sterile Bay to Landfall
Allied with
- Sarala Dasi NPC warmEighteen years as his bibi; never his wife in English law, because she could not be1 session: The Sterile Bay
Caused by
- Gerald Hewitt NPC hostileHewitt took a kickback and cut him out of the trade c. 1799; the reason for everything that follows1 session: The Sterile Bay
Rival of
- Nikhil Dasi NPC hostileBlames him for what the collapse cost the family's boats
Places
Located at
- Calcutta 1814 Location neutralResident in Calcutta