Clara and Louisa Cheap were born in India in 1802 and 1803 respectively. India was their home as their father John worked for the East India Company from 1782 until his death in 1828. John became known as ‘Cheap the Magnificent’ but there’s no information about why he got that title.
Working for the Company became a family affair as Clara and Louisa’s older brother, George also joined when he was old enough and worked for them until his death in 1855.
Bengal to Leamington
The Cheap family lived in Bengal in Eastern India. Bengal was rich in resources –cash crops like silk, muslin and indigo, as well as being located on the Silk Route across Asia to Europe. We know that John Cheap had businesses in Bengal, including joint ownership of indigo factories. The sisters were brought up in a wealthy family, no doubt interacting with other Company employees in the area.
Clara and Louisa moved to England with their mother, Arabella, in 1829 after their father’s death. They lived together in London and Hastings. We know that the sisters were living in Leamington in 1857, as that year they are recorded donating some objects to the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society.
Donations
That year we have a record of them donating painted tiles from a temple in Bengal, a wooden funerary stela from Egypt and a wafer stamp from the Greek Orthodox Church. How these objects were acquired, we do not know. Objects were often acquired in ways we would see as unethical today. We hope in the future more research will reveal how and why these objects were collected.
As part of the Unlocking Collections project, a group of volunteers researched some of the individuals who contributed to the Warwickshire Natural History and Archaeological Society. Research was undertaken at Warwickshire County Record Office.
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