Frances Johnson

Frances Johnson (née Croke; 10 April 1725/28 – 3 February 1812), known as Begum Johnson, was, according to her memorial, "The oldest British resident in Bengal, universally beloved, respected and revered". She lived most of her remarkably long life in Calcutta, and was witness to an era which spanned the inception of British rule over Bengal in 1757 to its utter consolidation by the early 1800s. She died in Calcutta in 1812. That same year, her grandson, Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and served in that high office for fifteen years (1812–27). Background and early life She was born Frances Croke, the second daughter of Edward Croke or Crook (1690 – 12 Feb 1769), Governor of Fort St. David, 100 miles south of Madras (now Chennai). Her mother was Isabella Beizor (c.1710-80), a Portuguese Indian who was of Indian ancestry. Her sister Sophia married Alexander Wynch, grandfather of Florentia Sale, author of A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan, 1841–42. Frances spent the first few years of her life in south India (the Madras Presidency) and much of her later life in Eastern India (the Bengal Presidency).