Tales of the South Pacific — The Bambridge Family

Tahitian cemetery markers. The stone at the back is for John
Bambridge. The marker is for Mary Ann, her daughter Florey,
and her mother Popua. Photo by Allegra Marshall (2016).

Mary Ann Tapscott, “Mere,” the only known child of John Tapscott and Popoua Taurami, was born 16 Dec 1867 on, it is claimed, Maiana, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. She died in Pirae, Tahiti, French Polynesia on 28 Nov 1918. Mary Ann and her mother, Popoua, have identical death dates, likely due to the influenza epidemic. (Thanks to Allegra Marshall for suggesting this.) The two died the same month that the disease was introduced to Tahiti by the arrival of ailing passengers on the ship Navuna (Monique Layton, The New Arcadia: Tahiti's Cursed Myth). The pandemic is claimed to have killed one-seventh of Tahiti’s inhabitants.

On 5 Feb 1885 Mary Ann married John Maehaa Bambridge (20 Jun 1859-30 Aug 1898), one of 17 children of missionary Thomas Bambridge (1801-1879) and Tahitian wife, Maraea O'Connor (1817-1881). John’s first wife, Hamoura Roau, had died the year before leaving 4 children.

Mary Ann Tapscott and her children shortly after the death
 of her husband.  Bill, the future actor, is seated at the very
front. (FamilySearch).

John and Mary Ann and had nine children, one of whom, the last born, Florey Nui Bambridge (10 Oct 1898 – 10 Dec 1902), is buried with her parents. Another child, “Bill” Bambridge, born 18 Aug 1892 in Papeete, Tahiti, as William Moari'imaiterai Bambridge, was an actor and assistant director, with roles in the Oscar winning movies “Tabu: a Story of the South Seas” (1931) and “Mutiny on the Bounty (1935). A grandson, Ben Bambridge, had a role in the 1956 movie “The Tahitian,” and was a principal, though questionable, source for the tale of the “pirate” John Tapscott. A major painting by the French post impressionist Paul Gauguin portrayed Mary Ann’s sister-in-law Suzanne Teriimarama Bambridge.

Suzanne Bambridge by Paul Gauquin, 1891
(Wikimedia Commons).

In 2003 the extensive and well-known Bambridge family was the subject of a photographic exhibit, “De Londres a Tahiti - la Famille Bambridge et Allies,” in Papeete, the Tahitian capital of French Polynesia. The display combined photography with genealogy and history to describe the descendants of Thomas and Maraea with their European, Polynesian and Chinese bloodlines.

Descendants of John Maehaa Bambridge and wives
Mary Ann Tapscott and Hamoura Roau, at the Pirae,
Tahiti City Hall (Overblog, “Tahiti Passion,” 2006).

Tales of the South Pacific — The Pirate Tapscott

Marker for John Tapscott (Photo
courtesy of Allegra Marshall, 2016)

One of the Tapscott graves on Tahiti is that of John (said by some to have had the middle name “Novele”), who died 4 Apr 1902 at age 62 (born c1840). John reportedly married Popoua Taurami, a native of Maiana, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. A marker for Popoua, who died 28 Nov 1918 at age 81 (born c1837), stands in the same family cemetery in which John rests.

John Tapscott’s origins are unknown, though he was likely British. European contact with Gilbert Islanders began as early as the 1500s with visits from whalers, slave traders, and merchants. In the late 1850s American missionaries came to the islands, followed by missionaries from London. The Gilberts became a British protectorate in 1892, and until 1979 were part of the United Kingdom.

Marker for Popoua Taurami (Photo
courtesy of Allegra Marshall, 2016).

Perhaps John arrived as a missionary. But some descendants believe that he was anything but. It is claimed he kidnapped Popoua, with even further misadventures.

In his book Return to Paradise (Random House, 1951) the American author James A. Michener stated that Tapscott was an “English pirate, ... a hell-raising renegade who abducted a wife from the cannibal islands.” It was the Fijis, rather than the Gilberts, that were once given the designation “cannibal islands,” but Michener, who usually wrote fiction based on history, often changed details in the stories he encountered. And where did he get the story? According to Sam Zebba in his book Aspects of My Life (iUniverse, 2013), Ben Bambridge, a resident of Tahiti and John Tapscott’s great grandson, told Michener about his ancestor being a kidnapper and a pirate.

Was John Tapscott a pirate? Probably not. He appears in no contemporary newspaper articles, which did report other Pacific pirates of the period. But who knows?

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.