The Adventurous
Maria Graham By Margaret Brecknell
Maria Graham on her travels in Chile (in carriage wearing hat)
When Maria Graham passed away, aged 57, in November 1842, one obituary writer noted, “Few women have seen so much of mankind, or travelled so much”.
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he wrote several groundbreaking travel journals, which she herself illustrated, and made a significant contribution to research into the cause of earthquakes. Yet, subsequently, she became known for little other than a popular children’s book and only in recent years have her considerable achievements been properly recognised. This adventurous woman was born here in the North-West, in the Cumbrian village of Papcastle, near Cockermouth, on 19th July 1785. Her father, George Dundas, came from a long line of naval officers and saw plenty of action himself during the early years of the 19th century. Her mother’s family had backed the wrong side during the American War 156
of Independence and had escaped the conflict by fleeing to Liverpool. In time, their daughter, Maria, would prove equally adventuresome in spirit. Because of her father’s profession, the Dundas family was constantly on the move. During Maria’s early years, they are known to have spent time on the Isle of Man before moving to Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula. At the age of 8, Maria was sent to an Oxfordshire boarding school, where she spent much of the next decade. From letters sent by Dundas family members, it seems that they believed George to have married beneath him and this may well have been the reason behind Maria’s move down south. The following year her mother, Ann, was committed to Chew’s Asylum at Billington, near Whalley, apparently because of mental instability. Maria probably never saw her mother again and the unfortunate Ann died there in 1808. Maria didn’t see much of her father,
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
either, during her schooldays, but their relationship was rekindled when, in 1808, he was appointed head of the naval dockyard in Bombay (modernday Mumbai). The now 23-year-old Maria accompanied him to India, together with two of her siblings. During the five-month sea journey on board the HMS Cornelia, she met a young Scottish naval officer named Thomas Graham and the couple were married in India in December 1809. Maria toured extensively around India and Sri Lanka, writing an account of her experiences which was published upon her return to England in 1811. She claimed that her Journal of a Residence in India offered a “comprehensive view of its scenery and monuments, and of the manners and habits of its natives and resident colonists”. During her travels she visited the spectacular cave temples of Elephanta and Karli, as well as the cities of Madras and Calcutta (now Chennai and Kolkata respectively). She wrote extensively about the Hindu religion, together www.lancmag.com
