Josephine Ardwise

Last Name: 
Ardwise
First Name: 
Josephine
Grave Plot No.: 
175
Spatial: 
Date of birth: 
1796
year of death: 
1851
date of death: 
3 Feb 1851
Ethnicity / Origin: 
Indian [?]
Age at death: 
55 yrs
Gender: 
Female
Relationships: 
She is the mother of Joseph Ardwise, the schoolmaster. Her husband is also called Mr Joseph Ardwise. Joseph Ardwise (the schoolmaster) marries Matilda Rebeiro of Chinsurah when he is 30 years old (and is described as a bachelor) and she is 20. Joseph and Matilda have a son who is also buried in the Scottish Cemetery, Calcutta.
Full Epitaph: 
Sacred to the Memory of/ Josephine Ardwise/ Died 2nd February 1851/ Aged 55 years/ This monument is erected/ by her affectionate son/ Joseph Ardwise
Places mentioned 1: 
Baranagar
Place of death: 
Calcutta
Tomb architecture: 
Chest tomb
Detailed information: 

Ardwise's Calcutta Academy is listed among the oldest Anglo-Indian schools in India. In the Alphabetical List of Residents of Calcutta and the Mofussil with Their Addresses the school's address is given as 138 Dhurumtollah Street (now Lenin Sarani). Alexander Duff mentions the elder Ardwise as being the headmaster of a school in Baranagar. His account is as follows:

[O]n the Sabbath which followed the day of Macdonald's death, on the very day on which his funeral sermons were preached, three pupils of the branch school at Barahanagar, the head-master of which was at that time Mr. Ardwise, an East Indian, were received into the Church by the rite of baptism. One
of them was Pran Krishna Ganguli, who afterwards served for some years in the service of the East India Railway Company, and is now head-clerk in one of the district courts of Upper India; the second was Jadu Nath Banerjea, who is now also employed in a district court in Eastern Bengal ; and the third was Kali Das Chakravartti, who is now head-master in a mission school in the Punjab.

[Source: The Recollections of Alexander Duff D.D, LL.D https://archive.org/stream/recollectionsal01daygoog/recollectionsal01day...

Ardwise seems to have worked in other schools in the city and Duff's description of him as 'East-Indian' indicates that he might have been from what is now known as the Anglo-Indian community.
The London Gazette March 1873 lists Joseph Ardwise as an insolvent (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/23962/page/1726/data.pdf).

Any reason for importance: 
Started one of the first Anglo-Indian schools
Buried by: 
J. Thomas, Baptist Minister
Photo name/s: 
This record has been created by:: 

Souvik Mukherjee