Eliza Kewark

Lady Colin Campbell in her book "The Queen Mother: The Untold Story", tells us that "James Dorset, the genealogist whose death has been so welcomed by Society in 1987, unearthed the fact that the former Ruth Gill's great-great-grandfather Theodore Forbes had lived with a dark-skinned Indian girl by the name of Eliza Kewark while he was in India working for the East India Company. Such couplings were prevalent at that time, and though they never married, they did have issue, including a fair-skinned daughter named Katherine. She was sent to Scotland for her education. Afterwards, she married locally and the family took to explaining away her exotic ancestry by claiming she was Armenian" http://books.google.com/books?id=L4vUzJHBLFcC&pg=PT720

In Helen Reddy's biography "The Woman I Am", we get more details http://books.google.com/books?id=IIJumSb1zxkC&pg=PT179 "Eliza Kewark (An Armenian) d. after Sep 1820 - never married (mother and daughter mentioned in Forbe's will) - Theodore Forbes Indian Merchant bap Forgue, Aberdeenshire, 3 Aug 1788 d. at sea on board the Blenden Hall 24 Sep 1820. [Their child] Katherine Scott Forbes b Bombay, India 1 Dec 1812

There is evidently something about this Eliza in the magazine The Genealogist's Magazine June 1981 (Vol 20 No 6), "The Ancestry of Lady Diana Spencer,", David Williamson

The death of Theodore Forbes in 1820 was reported in the Edinburgh Annual Review of that year

http://books.google.com/books?id=9mMJAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA527

"September 1. At sea, Theodore Forbes, Esq. of Bombay, second son of John Forbes, Esq. of Boyndlie."

Their daughter Katherine, at her marriage, brought to the alter, ten thousand pounds, which originated in a bequest by her father (in his will) of 50,000 Bombay rupees to her. http://books.google.com/books?id=72ZHAQAAIAAJ&q=%22theodore+forbes%22+1820

More details about the letter written by Eliza are in this story published 15 June 2013

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130615/jsp/frontpage/story_17010140.jsp#.Ub0OqNhmhrd