Born in Bombay, on 23rd June 1839, at the time of the 7th April 1861 English census James Cattrall Price was a visitor from India at 19 Trinity Square, Lambeth, London, lodging with Ann Oldacres, a 62 year-old widow. He was described as an Elected Candidate for the East India Service, aged 21 and born in Bombay. He would have been undergoing training for an administrative post in the Indian Civil Service. At some point he attended the University of Dublin.
James married Alice Evelyn Scott, at the Garrison Church, Chinsural, Bengal, on 21st February 1870. She was described as the eldest daughter of the late Henry Scott Esq. of Burrisaul. A report of the wedding was in the Times of India of 1st March.
The Scott Ancestry
Henry Scott married Jane Gillies in Dacca on 15th October 1839. As they referred to Alice as his ‘eldest’ daughter in her marriage announcement in the newspaper he must have had at least two others. One was Margaret Amelia Scott, born in Dacca on 16th November 1847, but no other children have yet been identified. His wife’s surname, Gillies, was used as a middle name for James and Alice’s only son.
Margaret Amelia married Alexander Douglas Larymore in Calcutta in 1864, had seven children and died in Sussex, England in 1927.
James and Alice’s five children were Beatrice Maud Mary (b. 21st January 1871), Margaret Alice (b. 20th December 1871),Ethel Rose (b. 28th June 1874 in Midnapore, Bengal), William Gillies (b. 4th May 1877 in Musoorie, North West Provinces) and Evelyn Elinor (b. 2nd November 1881). He was known in the family as ‘Jim’ and he died on 23rd December 1902 and was buried, like his father, in West Norwood Cemetery. There is no sign of this family in the English censuses or of the births of any of the children in England, so they may have lived their early lives in India. If so, it seems as if James came to England shortly before his death. On his gravestone, after his name, were the initials “B.C.S.”, which stood for Bengal Civil Service.
Details of his career appear in the Bengal Civil Service Graduation List of 1869 – a list of all Civil Servants in the Bengal Province, showing details of their service. By 1st January 1869 he had completed 7 years and 1 month of service, so had joined in November 1861, and the records show he enlisted in Bombay. He was appointed Joint Magistrate, 2nd Grade to the District of Mymensing, in Bengal on 24th April 1867. (This district was around 6,000 sq. miles and had a population of around 4 million.) He was promoted to Officiating Magistrate and Collector (=District Officer) in Backergunge on 16th July 1868. In this role he was responsible for all civil administration in the District.
Alice Evelyn Price (‘of Independent Private Means’) was living at ‘Rosedene’ 18 Amherst Road, Bexhill, Sussex during the 1911 census, together with her children William and Ethel, and she died there on 6th September 1921. She was aged ‘75 years’ and had been suffering from intestinal dyspepsia for over 7 years before succumbing to heart failure. Her son, William Gillies Price, who lived at the same address, registered the death and was granted probate on 1st November of her Estate of £554 7s 8d. A William G Price died in nearby Hastings in 1931, aged 54 and this could be her son. There are no further details of the fate of the other children – their four daughters – although at the 1911 census one child was recorded as deceased.