Tadley and District History Society (TADS)

“Memsahibs and their Servants “

Wed May 18, 2022, 8 PM St. Paul’s Church, The Green, Tadley

Join us for a fascinating talk by Jenny Malin

Discover the very first memsahibs to set foot into India in 1617 and how a fair amount of hoodwinking by these ladies enabled them to travel out to the East Indies at a time when the East India Company expressly forbade women to do this. We learn of the ‘fishing fleet’ ladies, English young women of marriageable age who found themselves faced with the social stigma of spinsterhood and were now looked upon as objects of pity, as fate had dealt them an unlucky hand. Their only way to gain a hand in marriage was to go in search of a husband, and quickly… We learn of the challenges that lay ahead for them in running a household and the considerations they would need to bear in mind when hiring their servants.

Jenny Mallin is a researcher, author and now regular public speaker, five generations of whose family lived in India. After an early career in TV production with the BBC, she worked in the high tech industry as a corporate travel buyer before turning to researching and writing about her family history in India, which she has visited more than 30 times. In 2015 she published A Grandmother’s Legacy, a memoir cum cookbook that won the ‘Best in World Cookbook’ award. It mingled with her family’s history when they lived in India, with recipes passed down through the generations.