Four months after his return to Carwar, Harvey died, leaving his girl-wife a widow.  She remained at Carwar, engaged in winding up the trading affairs of her late husband, and asserting her claim to his estate, which had been taken possession of by the Company’s officials, according to custom.  According to the practice of the day, every merchant and factor had private trading accounts which were mixed up with the Company’s accounts, so that on retirement they were not allowed to leave the country till the Company’s claims were settled.  In case of death, their estates were taken possession of for the same reason.  Two months later, Mr. Thomas Chown, the late supercargo of the Godolphin, was sent down to Carwar as a factor, and, a few weeks after his arrival, he married the young widow.  Application was now made to the Council at Bombay for the effects of her late husband to be made over to her, and orders were sent to Carwar for the late Mr. Harvey’s effects to be sold, and one-third of the estate to be paid to Mrs. Chown, provided Harvey had died intestate.  The Carwar factory chief replied that the effects had realized 13,146 rupees 1 fanam and 12 budgerooks; that Harvey had left a will dated the 8th April, 1708, and that therefore nothing had been paid to Mrs. Chown.  It was necessary for Chown and his wife to go to Bombay and prosecute their claims in person.  The short voyage was destined to be an eventful one.

On the 3rd November (1712), Chown and his wife left Carwar in the Anne ketch, having a cargo of pepper and wax on board, to urge their claim to the late Mr. Harvey’s estate.  The coast swarmed with pirate craft, among which those of Conajee Angria were the most numerous and the most formidable.  It was usual, therefore, for every cargo of any value to be convoyed by an armed vessel.  To protect the Anne, Governor Aislabie’s armed yacht had been sent down, and a small frigate, the Defiance,[4] was also with them.  The day after leaving Carwar they were swooped down upon by four of Angria’s ships, and a hot action ensued.  The brunt of it fell on the Governor’s yacht, which had both masts shot away and was forced to surrender.  The ketch tried to escape back to Carwar, but was laid aboard by two grabs, and had to surrender when she had expended most of her ammunition.  In the action, Chown had his arm torn off by a cannon-shot, and expired in his wife’s arms.  So again, in little more than three years from her first marriage, Mrs. Chown was left a widow when she could hardly have been eighteen.  The captured vessels and the prisoners were carried off; the crews to Gheriah and the European prisoners to Colaba.  To make matters worse for the poor widow, she was expecting the birth of an infant.