Katherine Hudson

From Ian Chadwick's information:

http://www.ianchadwick.com/hudson/hudson_00.htm

Katherine Hudson (her unmarried name is unknown) was left very poor when Henry and John failed to return from their last voyage. She tried to get the East India Co., which sponsored the trip, to send out a rescue mission. Three years after Henry Hudson's disappearance, she applied to directors of EIC. They recognized their obligation to the "man who lost his life in the service of the Commonwealth" and sent a ship to look for Hudson. It never found any trace of the abandoned crew, nor did any subsequent ship.

Katherine also sought compensation for her husband's death, for which she was called "that troublesome and impatient woman" in company records. But she was persistent and eventually succeeded.

Katherine also insisted the company take care of her son, Richard. The company paid him 5 pds. and sent him first to Bantam (the Dutch port in Java), then to Japan and finally Bengal as a company factor.

Katherine managed to get the company to give her a post, too, although only after repeated argument. Under the company's approval and with their funding, she went to Ahmadabad, India to purchase indigo. She demanded special privileges there, at the company's expense. According to company manifests, she got "five churles of indigo, quilts, 37 chuckeryes, 46 pieces of simianes." She started suit to get the East India Co. to pay the freight back to England and after much effort got a settlement, which the company described as "the end of Mrs Hudson's tiresome suit."

Katherine returned from that trip in 1622, a wealthy woman, and retired to her home in London. In her last two years, she was received at court at least twice.

She was by all accounts a strong, willful woman. One source says she was married at age 30 in 1592, but that would mean her son Oliver probably probably couldn't have fathered his child Alice by 1608 (possible: he could have been 16 at the time).

Katherine tried unsuccessfully to have a monument erected to her husband in the last years before she died, in 1624. She was buried Sept 11. She left all her belongings to sons Richard and Oliver.

Birth1572,,,England

2 source citations

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Marriage to Henry Hudson1590Age: 18,,,England

1 source citation

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Death1624Age: 52London,,,England

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@R-1098310312@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.

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