Tales of the South Pacific — Where There be Tapscotts

In October 2016, I received an email from Allegra Marshall, a resident of Australia, who has led a most exciting life. Though she did not tell me, I found that Allegra’s ventures include establishing a refuge for monkeys in the Panamanian jungle, climbing volcanoes, serving as a guide on Easter Island, researching both history in the Pacific (in particular, Tahiti) and the Australian author George Lewis (Louis) Becke (1855-1913).

Tahiti Shores, Where Tapscotts Strolled (Wikipedia).

It was while researching Becke, that Allegra ran into the Tapscotts. She found a private family cemetery, in Papeete, on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti containing graves for Mme. John Bambridge, née Mary Ann Tapscott (16 Dec 1867 – 28 Nov 1918) and John Tapscott, died 4 April 1902, aged 62, and she kindly sent me photographs.

Tapscotts in the South Pacific archipelagos! I could not have been more surprised. Tapscotts are found in Australia, but on the Pacific islands? Where surf pounds white sand beaches; graceful palms overhang azure lagoons; sails billow on copra schooners? But the Tapscott name does indeed appear there, connected with the French post-impressionist artist Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, with the American author James Albert Michener, and with tales of kidnapping and piracy!

So thanks to Allegra, who also took time to review and correct what I have written, I am once again sidetracked from what I though was my present principal interest — the Tapscotts of the Wabash Valley — to pursue, for a bit, the Tapscotts of the South Pacific, the subject of the next two blogs.