Georgian Patna Massacre Mourning Ring

Regular price $4,600.00

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This white enamel ring memorializes two brothers, one killed at the Patna Massacre in India in 1763. 

This was the very beginning of the British Empire.

 

The gold letters say "Suffer'd at Pat, E.I." "Pat" is the city of Patna in Bihar, situated on the Ganges river. "E.I" is the East India Company, a monopolistic corporation that exploited India and Southeast Asia for spices, silk, and tea.

 By the mid-1700s to early 1800s, it accounted for half of the world's trade.

 

Employees of the East India Company, if they didn't die of tropical disease, had the chance to get very rich. These two bros never did - instead, at least one of their bodies (along with those of 45 other English men) were thrown down a well by a fed-up ruler named Mir Qasim.

These were the early days of the British Empire.

USUALLY WE SEE memorial rings in black enamel; white means the deceased was unmarried. On the front, a tree of life is embroidered in silk. The tree's "thread" is actually hair.

One side of the white enamel reads G.Willson sufferd at Pat E I Oct 6 1763. Other side reads John Willson Ob 8 March 1764 AE 29. Perhaps the hair was his, if he made it home.

Size 8. 

dedications read:

G Willson Suffered at Pat:EI Oct 6 1763 AET 35

John Willson OB 8 March 1764 AE 29