This is another of my occasional
reviews concerning Armenian family history. A story of great riches,
unpaid legacies and inevitably great disappointment, of women,
legitimate and illegitmate children, a woman scorned, a spell in jail,
desperate insolvency, a dishonest apprentice and a priest whose head was
turned by the contents of a will.
Various documents are slowly being brought together that fleshes out the story of a vast fortune now lost somewhere.
Arathoon Nicholas, son of Nicholas Arathoon Nicholas was born in Julfa
around 1807. Like so many Armenians he travelled to India in the hope of
starting a business and enriching his life. In 1832 he married
Khachkhatun Hyrapiet in Calcutta and they went on to have 8 children, 4
boys 4 girls. During this marriage he had a relationship with a woman
called Anna Catchick Ter Astwachatoor. Exactly what her personal circumstances were are
unclear, but no marriage record can be found for them. They did however
have a son whom they named Tegran Arathoon Nicholas born in 1841.
Meanwhile his wife Khachkhatun died in 1858, no formal union appears to
have taken place with Anna. In 1883 Arrathoon married the widow Varvar
Lucas nee Sarkies with whom he went on to have two daughters.
Arathoon’s fortunes do not appear to have gone successfully as he can be
found in government gazettes applying to the courts in Calcutta for
relief in December 1855 his occupation listed as River Merchant. It
would appear from original documents I have obtained of the insolvency
order (see image Nos. 1,6,7 & 8 ) that not only was he applying for
relief, he had been in jail since October of that year brought about by
Anna the mother of the illegitimate Tegran above for unpaid debts.
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| Image No. 1 |
He tried and failed to get court protection from arrest in respect to
the debts he owed and hoped that he would be allowed to appear before
the court to plead his side. He was refused and remained in jail, how
long for is unclear.
His two eldest sons by Khachkhatun,
Nicholas and John both die as children aged 5 and 16 repectively. His
youngest son Astur died at the age of 22 leaving only one legitimate son
Nicholas Arrathoon Nicholas and the illegitimate son Tegran Arathoon
Nicholas. These two half brothers became engineers. They worked together
on the ship the SS Scotia, Tegran as the chief Engineer and Nicholas as
the 2nd engineer. On the 17th June 1876 they were sailing the ship from
Calcutta to Penang delivering her to new owners, the ship must have hit
a storm it never made it to Penang and nothing was ever heard from her
again. All perished.
Arathoon Nicholas now did not have any male heirs.
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| Image No. 6 |
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Jumping forward 70+ years
A story of a vast lost fortune was the talk not only of Calcutta but of Julfa too.
In a letter written by Mayill Jordan to his nephew Johny Jordan dated
20th June 1947 Mayill explains to him about a lost fortune and how, with
Johny’s help they could help recover it and earn themselves a portion
for their trouble.
(See Image No. 9 - transcription of image is below)
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| Image No. 7 |
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| Image No. 8 |
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| Image No. 9 |
Tehran
20th June 1947
“Now dear old Johny there is a more important and profitable matter
which I would like to explain to you as briefly as possible and ask your
co-operation.
You must have no doubt heard of the existence of
a Amirkhanian Legacy involving several millions of Pounds. I am now
explaining you the whole affair as has been explained to me by one of
the heirs, Mr. Harutune, the son of Mariam Bulbulian. From the copies of
documents shown to me by Harutune it appears that some 60 or 80 years
ago there has been a Harutune Nicholas, possessing river steamers and
one or two indigo factories somewhere near Calcutta. He had two small
sons who could not help him in his business. Harutune Nicholas inherits
a young and energetic Armenian called Amirkhanian, who gradually
masters the whole business in a faithful manner. Amirkhanian goes to the
Straits on business and upon arrival at Penang he gets seriously sick.
Ter Sahak is being called form Singapore or Rangoon to make his will.
Amirkhanian in this will gives everything to his two step brothers (the
two young sons of his kind step father) and goes to the next world. Ter
Sahak seeing the weight and value of the will, instead of handing it
over to our priesthood in Calcutta puts it in his pocket and while
transferred to Julfa he brings the will to Julfa with him without saying
a word to any official source, except to his daughter Assaneth. The
latter for years tries to get heir of some sort and share the legacy
with him. She fails. Upon hearing that one of the real heirs – Levon
Tussikian – lives in Tiflis, she takes the will to Tiflis, where
Tussikian’s wife becomes aware of the case and makes her [missing text]
and to apply for his share. He succeeds, however, in getting [missing
text] it being £8.000.000. Assaneth returns to Julfa without [missing
text] success where she dies and no body knows what became of [missing
text] original of the will. Amirkhanian will has been in every mouth for
a score of years. Anybody in American, Afrika, Turkey, and elsewhere
bearing that name has claimed to be the proper heir of the deceased
Amirkhanian. People with their advocates have gone to Madras Court but
have returned as empty as they had gone. Mrs. Mariam Bulbulian claims
to be the real heir of the Legacy. She has a pile of documents and
certificates proving that and has been following the case since the past
15 years. She has a good advocate who, I am told, has gone 70% of the
work and he has got to take Mrs. Mariam to Madras to the madras Court
where copy of the Will is and make her claim. To finish the case she
needs nearly Rupees 40.000 which I would not mind to accord provided
what I have been told are bare facts, they are substantiated by
authentic documents, she is really the heir and she will appropriate the
legacy. I want you to go through all the file that Mrs. Mariam will
put before you. If you find the business clear and solid as has been
put before me you may advance her the necessary money for her journey,
and that of her advocate, to Madras and for all the expenses for the
first session which, as I am told will amount to rupees ten thousand.
Should you not have this money at your disposal, or being unable to
raise it from somewhere to pay her at once till I arrange the remittance
upon hearing form you, you may at once wire me to remit you. By the
time this letter reaches you our relation with Lahoti [a business
contact with whom Mayill is having trouble with] might have been cleared
and I may have plenty of money with him to be remitted to me for my
preliminary expenses. I am enclosing, however, a line or two to Lahoti
to be presented to him or his friend should you find our relation with
these people clear and friendly enough to present this draft of mine
when quite sure that it will not be refused. Anyhow I want to help this
lady first of all because she belongs to my race. She is a child of
Julfa. Her late husband has been my teacher whom I am indebted for my
schooling. Once she gets the will out she will be one of the biggest
millioneers (sic) of the world. Many people will get enriched. She
will make a rich contribution to our dear country and in the meantime
she will make me a liberal remuneration for my co-operation. All you
have to do is to see that her papers are absolutely right and she is
recognised to be the proper heir. Once this is proved you must see what
she is prepared to pay me for my co-operation. The money is a big one
and I don’t think Mrs. Mariam will fail to accommodate me in a liberal
manner. After closing the bargain with her you must get her [to] sign
an official agreement for the amount she promises to pay on collection
of the will. You are a smart boy and you must be very careful in your
investigations. This is not a commercial risk I am going to do. Very few
people will make risks like this and you must be careful that besides
that I do not lose I fairly liberal remuneration is made to me. I leave
the size to you. Once you ascertain that there is a will in the Madras
Court in the name of Amirkhanian you must try to find out what is
nature is. Is it true that everything has been made in the name of
Arratoon Nicholas’s two sons who were drowned with their own steamer.
Should this statement be correct then there is no doubt that the father
of the deceased 2 boys must be recognised as heir. And in as much as
Arratoon Nikolas died after his two sons the legacy will going to the
latter’s heir. As I said in the above after going through the papers
Mrs. Mariam will show you and you find them all in order and after you
are convinced that the legacy is hers and she will inherit it during
current year you may apply to Lahoti for Rs. 10.000 and pay her at once,
should our relation with this Morvari will have been put on clear
understanding and footing then, otherwise you must not refer to him for
money. If you cannot raise the money and pay her at once, pending my
remittance from here. I believe everything is more than clear to you……
My kind regards to your mother, Lucie and Haik. Your loving uncle
Mar---l [his signature is not clear]
Mrs. Mariam Bulbulian
Fairlawn Hotel
13a Sudder St
Calcutta “
Image No. 2,3,4 &5 show that T.A. Zachary a nephew of Arathoon
Nicholas was trying to enlist the help of the US government to track
down his rightful legacy to “millions of Pounds and property”.
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| Image No. 2 |
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| Image No. 3 |
It would seem that after his spell in jail Arathoon Nicholas turned his
luck around, and if we are to believe the above story, became a wealthy
man. But what became of him and his wealth and how and why did
Amirkhanian think he had a fortune to leave in his will in the first
place?
Unfortunately [at the moment] I have not been able to
find anything about Amirkhanian, his presence in Penang (if indeed that
is where he died) is eluding me. However I have the wills of both Tegran
Nicholas and his father Arrathoon Nicholas.
Tegran made his
will on the 16th June 1876 naming his two sisters Catherine and Regina
as exectutrixes and beneficiaries of his estate inheriting the profits
from the sale of his house in Bow Bazar street.
Arrathoon
Nicholas made his will on the 27th January 1890 in which he devised and
bequeathed all his property both real and personal to his beloved wife
Varvar to enable her to look after their two daughters. Arrathoon
subsequently died on the 29th January 1896 in Calcutta.
As far
as I can tell, there never was a fortune; a holy grail pot of gold
inherited by Amirkhanian from Arathoon Nicholas. For nearly 100 years
“legitimate heirs” have been chasing the rainbow trail of
Amirkhanian……does it exist? Who knows but Arathoon Nicholas does not
appear to have left him anything.
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