Honora Dawkes

(b. 1749, Dover, Kent – d. Dec. 11, 1810, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India )

Gender: F

Honora Dawkes was the elder daughter of Mary Dawkes (née Greenland) and Richard Dawkes. She travelled to India and on 16th December 1772 married Captain Philip Pittman (1740-1775) in Madras. Her husband was an engineer and surveyor who had lived for five years in Louisiana and in 1770 published his findings as The Present State of the European Settlements of the Mississippi (London, J. Nourse); he went to India to carry out a similar survey of the Coromandel Coast. They had two children: Gibbon Charles George Pittman (1773-1798), named after his father’s friend, the historian Edward Gibbon, and Mary Moore Casamajor Pittman (1775-1866). Shortly after Mary’s birth, Philip Pittman died in Vizagapatam, the hill region to the north of Madras. Honora married again in Madras on 13th June 1777, to George Taswell (1744-1815). They had two sons, William Taswell (1779-1857) and George Morris Taswell (1784-1868). She died in Madras on 11 December 1810; her husband returned to England and, like many military officers, retired to Cheltenham, but died on 20th November 1814 at Tours in France.

Also known as:

Honora Dawkes

Please note that all dates and location information are provisional, initially taken from the library and archive catalogues. As our section editors continue to work through the material we will update our database and the changes will be reflected across the edition.

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