When I first started researching the life of Jolie Buck – the inspiration for Julie in Simon Called Peter – for my book, Utterly Immoral, I was asked if I knew of the cursed ring that was said to have bought misfortune to all those who wore it. It was suggested to me that Jolie, who died young; her mother, who committed suicide; and her grandmother who also died young, could all have suffered from the curse. As far as I can tell the story of the curse began with the murder of five of Jolie’s great aunts, and her great grandmother.

The Maharajah’s Ring

It is very tempting to guess at how Sarah Beresford came to own the Maharajah’s ring. Perhaps it was a gift from an admirer who hoped to seduce the wife of a young British banker. Maybe it was collateral for some defaulted loan or acquired unfairly.  The truth is I have not been able to find out. Still, for the story of the curse to have any semblance of truth Sarah Beresford must have worn the ring with pride, and over time, allowed each of her five daughters to try it on their smaller hands.

Sarah and George Beresford

If the family genealogist is to be believed Sarah Beresford, born Sarah Purdy, was only 16 when she had her first daughter – also called Sarah. Over the next thirteen years she and her husband had a further four daughters and two sons. Her husband, George Beresford, had been born in England a couple of months after the battle of Waterloo and travelled to India to earn his fortune when just 21. He began as a soldier in the East Indian Company but changed course and by 1843 he had been appointed the first manager of the Cawnpur (or Kanpur) Bank, and six years later he moved to Delhi as head manager of the Delhi and London Bank. Alongside his work for the bank George developed a reputation as a learned oriental scholar, archaeologist and photographer, and he was the author of The Handbook of Delhi published in 1856. Sir John Kaye, in his history of the Indian Mutiny published in 1890, suggested that by 1857 George was the ‘principal unofficial Englishman’ living in Delhi. He and his family had a grand mansion in the centre of town not far from the Red Fort.

1857

In 1857 Jolie’s grandfather Charles Beresford, then aged 11, and his older brother George were at school in England. Their three younger sisters Agnes then 6, Emily 8 and Charlotte 10 were with their parents in Delhi. The two oldest sisters, Sarah, 9, and Rebecca, 17, had been with their brothers in England for a few years, completing their education, but they had now both returned to India.  An American traveller, Robert B Minturn, described them as ‘very charming’. He had been with them the previous Christmas playing ‘old fashioned games of snap-dragon, blindman’s buff, and hunt the ring’. He lamented that despite the arrival of much mistletoe bought by a fellow guest, he was not able to kiss either of them since there were so ‘few young ladies that kissing would have been personal.’

George Beresford, like all Europeans living in Delhi at the time, was totally unprepared for what became known as the Indian Mutiny. For three months there had been disturbances across Northern India but his former colleagues in the East Indian Army seemed to have everything under control.

Everything changed on May 10^th when three Native Indian infantry groups – the 38^th, 54^th and 74^th –rose up against their British superiors. It began in the city of Meerut where, a month before, Indian soldiers had been given a ten-year prison sentence – in chains – for refusing to fire weapons they believed had been greased with animal fat. Hindus believing it was fat from scared cows, and Muslims believing it was fat from pigs. This may well have been the spark for the uprising although low wages, poor working conditions and attempts to encourage soldiers to become Christians were other underlying issues.

On May 10^th the European part of Meerut was destroyed and the next day Indian soldiers, supported by a huge number of people, moved into Delhi. Within 24 hours there was a mob of Indian soldiers and others forcing their way through the Cashmere gates to gain access to the European part of Delhi. George sent his elder daughters, Sarah and Rebecca, to the Palace for protection under the Indian Emperor and he took his wife and three younger children to the bank where he must have assumed they would be safe. They were not.

Sarah and Rebecca were probably the first members of the family to die that day. A number of British soldiers, confronted by the Indian soldiers at the Calcutta gate had retreated to the palace. The Indian soldiers in hot pursuit, very quickly overran the Palace. They searched every room killing every European they could find. Sarah and Rebecca were probably trying to hide with Rev Jennings and his daughters. They were hacked to death.

By midday on May 11^th the Delhi Bank came under attack. All the men defending it, led by the civil servants, were killed and George was forced to take refuge on the roof of one of the outbuildings with his wife and three youngest girls. The story goes that he, with a sword and his wife with a spear defended the stairs up to the roof. Sarah is said to have killed two of the mutineers and the gorge of the staircase became blocked with dead bodies. Seeing no way up the Indian soldiers retreated to the back of the building and began to scale the walls. Ultimately resistance was futile. All five of them were killed, the young girls having their throats cut with broken glass. Their bodies were laid out on the steps of the bank for all to see. The Maharajah’s ring was said to be still on Sarah’s finger when her body was rescued, later returned to her son Charles. It was Charles’ first wife who died aged just 24.

The Delhi and London Bank made sure Charles and his brother George were looked after as orphans. In November 1858 Allen’s Indian Mail reported that that the bank:

in testimony of the devotions of the late lamented Manager, Mr Beresford, to the interests of the bank… (authorised) the disbursement of a sum not exceeding £140 per annum, for a period of four years, for the education of his orphan sons, if their expenses cannot be obtained from another source.

Charles Beresford returned to India and rose up to become the head of the same bank as his murdered father.

Ghosts

The story of the bravery of Sarah Beresford, in trying to protect her daughters is remembered today. The Hindustan Times reported recently:

By the way, the Chandni Chowk neighbourhood is particularly used to the sightings of the Beresford family. The tales about the frequent visitations of the spirits of Beresford family is a part of many a local stories.

According to a newspaper report: ‘Beresford, manager of the Lahore Bank, (sic) and his wife and children were brutally killed by an armed mob of 'rebel sepoys' who had come from Meerut. Some think the mob comprised of local ruffians who had an eye on Beresford's daughters. But the girls were pretty young and probably their mother was the target.’