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Gotts Surname Family History
In the regimental registers we have:
- 24th Sept 1811 William Gotts Sergeant in 24th Regiment, bachelor married Mary Flaherty, widow, at The Garrison, Fort William, Bengal (N/1/8/f435)
- 8 Nov 1812 Robert Gotts, a child buried at The Garrison, Fort William, Bengal (N/1/9/f89). No parents are listed, but was he the son of Mary Flaherty as she was at the same location?
- 25 Jan 1814 Mary Gotts buried at the Garrison, Fort William, aged 30, wife of Sergeant William Gotts (N/1/9/f361) so this must be Mary Flaherty based at the Garrison who married William the Sergeant.
Ian Gotts of Kings Lynn believes he has the answer to William the Sergeant. In his correspondence with David Higgins, Ian has amassed this information:
- Enlisted in the 24th Foot from the East Norfolk Militia 24 August 1807
Two Casualty Index Entries:
- Sergeant. Labourer. Born Lynn Regis. Prisoner 3 July 1810 Prisoner reference: capture by French, along with many others, on Isle de France, Mauritius.
- WO 25 / 1652 Casualty Returns 1st Battalion 24th Foot Regiment Report 50: William GOTTS Sergeant, born North Walsham, labourer: Drowned in river on passage to Dinapore (military cantonment belonging to British on south bank of Ganges in province of Bahor) 30 July 1814. Credit 3 pounds 2 1/2d. Amount paid to his two children present at the Regiment, Margaret and Eleanor Gotts.
This is possibly the William born Worstead 30 January 1785, son of William Gotts and Elizabeth Anderson who married at East Ruston 21 October 1782, who married Mary Flaherty in Bengal.
It is possible that William married and fathered his daughters in Norfolk before enlisting in 1807, but no trace has been found of the baptisms of Margaret & Eleanor to a William Gotts, and the William who married Mary Flaherty was a bachelor. Neither are they shown as born in India in the India Army database on the British Library website. It is possible that they are children of Mary Flaherty, and so William's step-children. Again, they are not mentioned as Flaherty for baptisms, marriages or burials in the India Army database. After their parents deaths, we have no records of what happened to them. The name Eleanor Gotts is distinctive, but we can't find any records in India or England for her.
Movements of the 24th Foot 1807 - 1814: The background to the capture and later his drowning is described below:
On the 10th June 1810, a convoy of three large East Indiamen, the Ceylon, the Windham and the Astell, left Capetown for India. It was primarily crewed by lascar seamen but 250 soldiers of the 24th Regiment of Foot, who had been stationed since 1807 at Cape of Good Hope were carried aboard each ship. On the 3rd July, off the island of Mauritius, the convoy was attacked by a French frigate squadron and both the Ceylon and the Windham were captured; the third ship escaped. The prisoners were taken to the island, where they were held until it was captured by the British five months later. In March 1811, the soldiers rejoined the rest of the battalion at Fort William, Calcutta.
In 1814, the 24th Foot moved from Calcutta to Dinapore in the north owing to problems with Nepal. This is when William drowned."
Sergeant William 3016
The India Army records in the British Library show two William Gottses in the 24th Regiment, one a sergeant based in the Garrison at Fort William in Bengal, and one a private in the ‘Outstations’. We think we can separate these and Sergeant William Gotts of the 24th Foot Regiment is discussed here.