We discover the very first memsahibs to set foot into India in 1617, and how a fair amount of hoodwinking by these ladies who travelled 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, those English young women of marriageable age who soon found themselves faced with the social stigma of spinsterhood that were now looked upon as objects of pity as fate had dealt them an unlucky hand and 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 that they would need to bear in mind when hiring their servants.

Jenny Mallin