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BENGKL

P3ST6PRESENT

JOURNAL OF THE CALCUTTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

■ds

■

■ ^5

^V CONTENTS. ^^H

ARTICLES. "

l^i

Paces '

His EIxcellency's speech at toe opening of Counql House

1-4

11.

•Patna Massacre of 1763: by Sir Evan Cotton, CLE.

5.29

III.

•Patna — Her Rejj^tions with John Company Bahadur : by

A. F. M. Abdul Au. F.R.S.L.. M.A. ...

30-40

^^^^_

IV.

Thackeray's Apologia: by Miss F, M. Sachse

41.50

^^^^L

Dr. J. D. Hooker and Colonel James Cbommeun : by

^^^^H

Rev. H. Hosten. S.J.

51-57

^^^^H

VI.

Mc»iuMENTAL Inscriptions in the United Provinces : by

^^^^H

Capt. H. Bullock. F. R. Hist. S.

58-67

^^^^^^

VII.

Some Foreign European Artists in India: by C. A.

^^^^^v

OlDHAM. CLE.

68-70

^^^^H

VIII.

Major John Morrison (Ambassaix>r from the Great

^^^^H

Mochul) ...

71-73

^^^^H

IX.

Up the Country: by Sir Evan Cotton, CLE.

74-78

^^^^^^

Our Library Table

79.83

^^^^H|

XI.

The Editor's Note-Book

84-95

^^^^^M

XII.

Calcutta Historical Society

96-99

^^^^H

XIII.

George Duncan Beechy : by Sir William Foster. CLE.

101-4

^^^^H

XIV.

•Aca Catchick Arrakiel: by Mesrovb J. Seth, M.R.A.S.

105-18

XV.

*SoME Notes on the Intercourse of teNCAu with the
Northern Countries in toe second half of toe
Ejchteenth Century: by Dr. S. C. Sarkar, M.A..

^^^^H

Ph.D.

1 19-28

^^^^H

XVI.

•Shipping in Bombay in 1795-%: by Dr. R. Bhandarkar ...

129-33

^^^^H

XVIi.

The Wreck of the LORD AMHERST: by Miss F. M.

^^^^H

Sachse

134-37

^^^^H

XVIII.

Old-Time Conveyances in Calcutta : by Fr^k E. Bushby

138-40

^^^^H

XIX.

Captain Alexander Grant (Adjutant-General during the

^^^^H

Siege of Calcutta. 1756): by Major V. C. P. Hodson

141-42

^^^^H

XX.

Some Soldiers c* Fortune : by Captain H. Bullock, F. R.

^^^^^B

HtsT. S.

143-48

^^^^^m

XXI.

Mcmsumental Inscriptions in the U. P.— 11 : by Captain H.

^^^^H

Bullock. F. R. Hist. S.

149.56

^^^^H

XXII.

A Famous Calcutta Firm (The History of Thacker Spink

^^^^H^

and Co.): by Sir Evan Cotton. CLE.

157-64

^^^^H'

XXIll.

The Indian Medical Service: by Sir Evan Cotton. CLE.

165-73

^^^^H

XXIV.

The Good Old Days ...

174-75

^^^^^^

XXV.

Our Library Table

176-78

■

XXVI.

The Editor's Note-Book

179-88

^^p

•R=«i

Md .1

Pam.. I93(

ILLUSTRATIONS.

To Face Page

1. New Bengal Council House

2. Plan of the Fortihcations of the City of Patna

3. Memorial Obeusk dm Patna Cemetry

4. Dr. J. D. Hooker

5. C. R. Crommeun

6. Port Louis ...

7. Warren Hastings (Engraved by John Jones from the

Painting by J. T. Seton)

8. Field Marshal Viscount Combermere

9. Armenian Church of St. Nazareth, Calcutta

10. Old Time Conveyances in Calcutta

(a) Palki Gari

(b) Greenfield

(d) TONJON

11. The Tombstone of the Children of General Perron ...

12. Government Place, North, Calcutta: 1842 ...

13. St. Andmiw's Church and Library: 1825

14. The Tombstone of Surgeon Wiluam Hamilton

15. The Lushington Monument in Eastbourne Parish Church

}

101

105

I3&-40

149
157
158
167
179

BENGKL

PaST6PRESENT

JOURNAL OF THE CALCUTTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY [ | |

^^^^1 CONTENTS. ^^

ARTICLES.

Paces ^H

^^^^H^

George Duncan Beeohy : by Sjr William Foster. CLE.

^^^^H

Aga Catchick Arrakiel: by Mesrovb J. Seth. M.R.A.S,

^^^^H

Some Notes on the Intzrcourse of ^ngal wit>i rm
Northern Countries in the second half of the

Eighteenth Century: by Dr. S. C. Sarkar. M.A.. Ph.D.

^^^^^ll

Shipping in Bombay in 1795-%: by Dr. R. Bhandarkar

^^^^^H

The Wreck of the LORD AMHERST: by ^4^ss F. M.

Sachse

^^^^^Bi

Old-Time Conveyances in Calcutta : by Frank E. Bushb^-

138-40 ■

^^^^H

Captain Alexander Grant (Adjuttant-General durii^i the

Siege of Calcutta. 1756): by Major V. C. P. Hodson ...

^^^^^H

Some Soldiers of Fortune: by Captain H. Bullock, F.R.

Hist.S.

143-48 ■

Monumental Inscription in the U. P. H : by Captain H.

Bullock, F.R. Hist. S. ...

149-56

^^^^1'

A Famous Calcutta Firm (The History of Thackeb Spink

^^^^^^^^V|

and Co.): by Sir Evan Cotton, CLE.

157-64

^^^■'

The Indian Medical Service: by Sir Evan Cotton, C.[.E.

165-73

^^^^B

The Good Old Days

174-75

^^^^H

Our Library Table

176-78 B

^^^^H

The Editor's Note-Boc»(

179-86 ■

ILLUSTRATIONS.

To Face Page ^|

^^^^^Bi

Field Marshal Viscount Combermere

101

Armenian Qhurch of St. Nazareth. Calcutta ...

105

■1

Old Time Conveyances in Calcutta ...

138-40

^■^

(a) Palki Gari 1

^Hr

(b) Greenfield /

(d) TCWJON (

1 "

The Tombstone of the Children of General Perron ...

149

1 ^

Government Place, North. Calcutta: 1842. ...

157

1 ^

St. Andrew's Church and Library: 1825

158

1 7

The Tombstone of Surgeon William Hamilton

167

^^^^M^_

The Lushington Monument in Eastbourne Parish Church

179

BENGAL: PAST AND PRESENT.
VOL, XLI,

FIELD MAf«HAL VISCOUNT COMBERMERE.

(ScH Stapletqn CorroN.)
By CEoB:;t Beechev,

From the Picture at the Bengal Club.
(Repr«lt.ced by kind permilsion of tbr CommiUee),

UP THE COUNTRY.

surprising, for she is the daughter of Sir Cecil Beadon. Li euten ant-Go vemoi of
Bengal (1862-1867). We are thus enabled to discover thai Mr. A., the Private
Secretary, is John Russell Colvin, Mr. B.. the Secretary in the Secret and
Political departments, is Sir William Macnaghten. and Mt. C. the Deputy
Secretary, is Henry Whit lock Torre na. once famous in Calcutta as an
amateur actor. Beadon. who was a young assistant at Chapra at the time, is
disguised as Mr. G.. and a lively account is given of his engagement to
Miss Harriet Sneyd, the sister of Mrs, Colvin. and of their marriage at Allahabad
on December 6. 1837. We notice that Mr. Thompson makes a slip in his
identification (p. 397) of "Mr. T. vi-ho lives at Bankipur a sort of Battersea to
Palna'- (p. II). and who acted as the Edens" host in November 1837. This
i Archibald Trotter (1787-1868). who was Commercial Resident and Opium
Agent at Patna from 1835 to 1840 and after his retirement was a Director of the
Bank of Scotland. His brotherJohi^N^^M^^^pm M». Thompson confuses
"'^■**^"^"^^^^^^ Macnaghten the Judge,
^where he was Opium
. T.. the Resident
Sth a flight of steps
were the sons of
t^OTICE. ,e ,el^(^d JO the

■ These pages should be substituted for
pages 75-78 in the last number of Bengal Past
and Present [Vol. XLI. Part I, January —
rch 1931).

few months after
ted from Calcutta
ch lasted two and
Ti o& at Chandpal
id to Simla accom-
d on December I.

see the advanced

a red eastern sky.

was covered with

_ _ lel-trunks. fires by

which the servants and coolies "were cooking, and in the boats and

waiting for them were 850 camels, 140 elephants, several hundred

horses, the Body Guard, the regiment that escorts us and the camp

followers. They are about 12.000 in all . . . Our tents are pitched on

the Glacis of the Fort, an encampment sacred to the Gove rn or- Gen era I .

The journey from Allahabad to Simla took a leisurely course through

Fat eh pur. Cawnpore (where Christmas was spent and an excursion made to

Lucknow). Kanauj (which is oddly spelt Kynonze on p. 66). Fatehgarh. Bareilly,

Moradabad, Amroha. Garmuktesar Ghat. Meerut. Delhi, Panipal. Karnal,

Saharanpur. Dehra Dun (where a visit was paid to Mussoorie). Nahan (in the

Sirmur State) and Sabathu. At Bareilly (January 22) they were entertained

at dinner by the civilians at the house of "an old Mr. W., who has been

forty-eight years in India and whose memory has failed" (p. 78). It certainly

had. "He asked me if I had seen the house at Benares where 'poor Davies"

was BO nearly murdered by Tutty Rum' or some name of that kind, and he

went on describing how Mrs. Davies had gone to the top of the house, and

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

said 'My dear I I see some dust in the distance' just lilte Bluebeard's wife."
Miss Eden had never heard of the murder of Cherry the Resident at Benares
by Wazir Ali in 1799. or of the defence of Nandeswar Kothi by Samuel Davies.
the Judge. "At last I thought it must have happened since we left Benares,
so i asked 'But when did this take place?' Why let me see. I was at
Calcutta in '90: it must have been in '91 or thereabouts." Mr. Thompson
does not tell us who Mr. W. was. but identification is easy. In 1838 the
senior civilian on the Bengal establishment was William Cowelt, Judge of
Bareilly. who was a wHter of 1789: he retired on May I. 1840. and died in
England on May 21, 1852.

At Simla the EUlens lived in a house on Elysium hlill which is still known
as Auckland f-fouse and was subsequently occupied by Lord EJlenborough
and Lord Hardinge : it is now used as o diocesan school for girls. Miss Eden
calls it "a jewel of a little house': and of Simla itself, she writes (p. 180):
"if the f-fimalayas were only a continuation of Primrose Hill or Penge Common.
I should have no objection to pass the rest of my life on them." It was
here (p. 316) that she made the acquaintance in September 1839 of Mrs. James ;
"such a merry unaffected girl, and undoubtedly very pretty, " who "looks
like a star" in a setting of plain women. This lady obtained considerable
notoriety in later years under the name of Lola Montez. Here also in 1840
she comes across "a regular artist." a Mr. Gwatkin. whose Christian name
are those of his great-uncle. Sir Joshua Reynolds : and Henry Torrens sells by
auction three oil-paintings by him and also a small drawing of hers. Once
more we should have liked a note from Mr. Tliompson. For Gwatkin's
mother. Tlieophila Palmer, was Sir Joshua's favourite niece "Offie" and is
the. original of the charming "Strawberry Girl" in the Wallace collection at
Hertford House r while her husband, who was a Cornish squire, was chief
mourner at Sir Joshua's funeral. Their elder son. Edward Gwatkin (1784-1855)
served in the Bengal Army from 1805 to 1855 and rose to the rank of
Major-General : he died at sea in April 1855 on board the Hotspur, when
off the English cost. TTie elder sister of "Offie" married the Marquis of
Thomond and plays a prominent part in the Farington Diary : the father.
John Palmer, who married Reynolds' sister, was an attorney at Torrington
in Devon,

In November 1838 Lord Auckland and his sister set out for Lahore, to
meet Ranjit Singh, returning to Simla in the middle of March 1839. On
p. 198 we have the famous description of the Lion of the Punjab ; "he is
eiactly like an old mouse with grey whiskers and one eye." He wore
nothing but the commonest red silk dress, and "had two stockings on at
first, but he very soon contrived to slip one off. so that he might sit with one
foot in his hand." At dinner he insisted that Miss Eden should taste "that
horrible spirit, which he pours down like water"— "a sort of liquid fire that
none of our strongest spirits approach." He told the Governor-General
that he understood there were books %vhich contained objections to drunken-
ness, and he thought it better that there should be no books at all than
ihat they should contain such foolish notions (p. 209). Nevertheless "he
has made himself a great king: he is remarkably just in his government, he
hardly ever takes away life, and he is excessively beloved by his people."

UP THE COUNTRY.

At the end of October 1839 the return journey to Simla was begun.
They were again at Delhi in November, visited Brindaban. Muttra and
Gobardhan in December, and went on to Bharatpur. Futtehpur Sllcri, Agra.
Dholpur, and Cwalior. From Gwalior they made for Allahabad and Benares,
where they arrived in February 1840. and proceeded down the river to
Barrackpore, which was reached on March 13. When at Dig on December
10, a Colonel B. arrived in camp : "he is the Resident at Gwalior and is
come to fetch us : he is about the largest man I ever saw, and always brings
his own chair with him. as he cannot fit into any other." Mr. Tliompson
fails us once more : but it is not difficult to discover that Colonel E, is Lieut. -
Colonel John Sutherland of the Bombay Cavalry, who was subsequently
Afient to the Governor- General in Rajputana, and died at Agra on June 24,
1846. after thirty-six years' service in India. He is mentioned also by
Fanny Parks, who met him about the same time at Fatehgarh and Aligarh,
The names of the officers of his escort intrigue Miss Eden — Violet Snook, who
was in reality John Violet Snook, and was ready to call out any one who
called him Snooks. Gandy Gaitskell, and Orlando Stubbs. "Are these names
common in England?" she asks. Tlie Dholpur Raja "seems to run to size
in everything, wears eight of the largest pearls ever seen, rides the tallest
elephant, his carriage has two stories and is drawn by six elephants, and
he lives in a two-storied tent, ricketty, but still nobody else has one so large."
Colonel James Skinner whom she meets at Delhi, is "one of those people
whose lives should be written for the particular amusement of succeeding
generations." Tliackeray was of this opinion also, for he caricatures him in
"The Tremendous Adventures of Major Goliah O' Grady Gahagan." It
will be remembered that the gallant Major commanded the Ahmednuggar
Irregulars, and was very proud of the uniform which he invented for them.
His sowars were dressed in black, and his European officers in yellow ;
while he arrayed himsef in loose trousers, jacket, boots, and turban of a
vivid scarlet. The reference is to Perron's regiment of Irregular Horse, which
came over to the Company's service after Lake's victory at Delhi and which
was placed under Skinner's command, by the unanimous wish of the men.
It is still known as Skinner's Horse, and ranks as the First Regiment of
Indian Cavalry : it retains its yellow jacket and the head of the Skinner family
is always an honorary member of the officers' mess. Miss Eden relates also
how the Colonel's brother Robert, suspecting one of his wives of infidelity,
cut off the heads of all of them and then shot himself, an end which met
with the high approval of his troopers who bought up his effects, in order
to possess relics of a man who "had shown such a quick sense of honour."

The comments of Miss Eden on political affairs are of little value, except
as illustrations of the blindness and folly which marked Lord Auckland's
aggressive and diaas^ous policy in Afghanistan. It is in her thumbnail sketches
of personalities and in her descriptions of Anglo-Indian life that the charm
of these letters is to be found, She was afraid that railroads would vulgarize
India. In May 1866 when she was dedicating her book to her nephew
Lord William Osborne, who had been Lord Auckland's military secretary
and had himself written an account of his visit to "The Court and Camp of
Runjeet Sing.'* ahe declares that "the splendour of a Governor-Cenerars

78 BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

progress was at an end.*' His Elxcellency **will dwindle down into a first-
class passenger with a carpet bag.*' Her fear that the Kutb would become
a military station has not yet been realized : but there is a race-course not
far from the tomb of Humayun.

EVAN COTTON.

amtcan

ieEc[|jg.^

A S one of the many cKildrcn of Sir William Beechey, R. A.. Portrait Painter
to Her Majesty Queen Charlotte, the subject of the present sketch
started in life with many advantages, including that of being a godson of
the reigning monarch (Sir WHIiam Beechey, R.A., by W. Roberts, p. 193),
Bom in 1798, he adopted his father's profession, and at the early age of
nineteen he was exhibiting at the Royal Academy, to which by 1828 he had
contributed no less than twenty-three pictures, all portraits. In 1826 he
determined to try his fortune in India, prompted thereto {as stated in his
application to the East India Company, dated 22 May) by "the invitation
of many of my friends and the absence of Mr. Chinnery. who is not expected
to return." Tlie Directors made no objection, and the desired permission
was given on 31 May : but for some unknown reason Beechey did not avail
himself of it at the time. Two years later, however, he renewed his
request, and fresh sanction was accorded on 18 June 1828.

On arrival at Calcutta, our artist appears to have taken up his residence
at No. 25, Chowringhee. for the Calcutta GooernmenI Gazette of 28 December
1829. in describing a picture by Casanova (for whom see Bengal; Post and
Present, vol. xl, p. 81) of the entry of Lord Combermere into Bhurtpore,
stated that the painting was on exhibition 'at Mr. Beechey 's house" at that
address. On Beechey's own work we may mention first a half-length
portrait of Dr. John Adam, now In the possession of the Bengal Asiatic
Society ; this was executed for the Medical and Physical Society of Bengal,
of which Adam was one of the founders. Another picture attributed to our
artist, in the same collection, is believed to represent Beechey himself in
Indian dress, with his Musulmani consort, Husaini Begum, and a child
(see an article by the late Mr. J, J, Cotton in Bengal: Past and Present.
vol. xxiv, p. 49, where the picture is reproduced), Tliere are also several
examples of his work in the Tagore Collection at Calcutta, Prosunno Kumar
Tagore having been one of his chief patrons. These include a number of
family portaits, "A Nautch Girl." and a sketch of Mirza Faridun Jah, the
last Nawab Nazim of Bengal.

On 2 January 1830 a farewell dinner to Lord Combermere was given
at the Bengal Qub House, when "a splendid picture of His Lordship, which
had just been finished by Mr. Beechey. was placed at one end of the room,
and was considered by every one present as a most admirable likeness"
{Calcutta Gazette, 4 January). The picture has been reproduced in Mr. Justice
Panckridge's Short History of the Bengal Club, published in 1927 on the

(1)1 am indebted to Sir Evan Cotlon, CLE,, for tome of the infotmalion given in
article, particularly (or (he (acts about the porliaiti of Lord Auckland and the quotatioi
the two aucceedina [oolnote*.

(his

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

occasion of the centenary of the Club : but the name of the painter is not
given. It now hangs in the Club Reading Room (2),

About a year later Beechey contributed to the first exhibition of the
Calcutta Brush Qub four portraits, including one of his father and one of
a boy with a pet kid {Calcutta Gazette. 24 and 28 February 1831). The
lastnamed picture was apparently (he occasion of a poem by Miss Emma
Roberts, the well-known authoress, which was printed in the same journal
on 20 January 1831. To the second exhibition of the same club, held a
year later. Beechey sent a portrait of a lady, which was characterized as
"a lovely picture, clear and spirited" {ibit!., 23 January 1832).

The portrait of Sir John Peter Grant, row in the Bombay High Court,
was probably the work of our artist. When the famous quarrel as to juris-
diction occurred between the Bombay Judges and the Bombay Government,
the former found may supporters among the Parsee and other native
inhabitants of the settlement : and these, upon Sir John's retirement,
presented him with an address, begging him to sit for a full length likeness,
to be hung in the Court hfouse. Grant assented, but said that, as he was
sailing for Calcutta in a few days, the picture would have to be painted
there {Bombay Courier, 1 1 September 1830). The portrait was duly com-
pleted, at a cost of 700(., and sent to Bombay ; but the new Chief Justice.
Sir Herbert Compton, declined to allow it to be hung in the building {ibid.,
3 December 1833). It remained, therefore, in the possession of the family
of Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy, one of the principal promoters of the scheme,
until 1885. when his grandson presented it to the High Court (Bombay I
Gazette, 27 May 1885).

At some date undetermined Beechey removed to Lucknow. where he
is stated to have bcome court painter and comptroller of the household to
the King of Oudh. A portrait by him of Wajid AH, the last monarch of
the line, was in 1892 in the possession of a lady in Dublin. Doubtless many
of Beechey s productions were destroyed or looted during the Mutiny : the
late Sir William Ho^vard Russell was the owner of a portrait of one of the
court beauties, which had been taken from the palace at that time (3). A ,

(2) Pnnckiidge quotes (p. 7) the foUowinB "from a conlempoiaiy iiource" : — "We undet-
sland (hat, al a genrral meeting of ihr Bensal Club lately held at tlie Club HouM, Me.
Chafles Ttowe. in the chair, it was determined, as a ma.k of respect to ibe noble President
of the Club, that a committee should be appointed to wait upon His Excellency Lord
Combermere. lo solicit ihal His Lordship -would sit for his [Hcturc, which, when completed,
was lo be put up in the Club House. A committee accordingly was formed, which waited
upon His Lordship, who in suitable terms aclmowledged the complimeni paid lo him by lh«
Club and eiptessed the satisfaction it would ffive him lo comply with iheir request. The
picture, we understand, is already in a state of btcbI forwardness. Lord Combeitnere is
wearing fulldress uniform, the red ribbon of the Balh. and the blue ribbon of ihe Royal
Hanoverisn Cuclphic Order, The figure U full-length, and his riahl arm is reeting on the
back of his chatgei. The features are those of a young man, although Lord Combermeie
was 36 in 1629; and he is credited with inches of slature which 'little Collon of the

(3) The Strand Magazine in 1892 published an illustrated interview with Russell, in the
CDUise of which occurs the following statement concerning this picture ; "In ihe dining
room (of his Sal in Victoria Street] two big canvases ate particularly interesting. One U

GEORGE DUNCAN BEECHEY.

; fortunate fate a He
Sleeman and his wife
These remained on the
famous siege, escaping

ided a pair of portraits by Beechey of Sir WilHam
(the latter, at all events, painted in June 1851).
walla of the Residency at Lucknow all through the
vilh but slight damage from the fire of the enemy.

t of their fra

Ties by a military officer before the building

low in the possession of Sleeman's grandson. Lieut, -

C.M.G.. C.B.E.. M.V.O. The one representing

reproduced in the 1915 edition of his Rambles and

portrait of
n December
writes, unde

Lord Auckland, the
1837. In Emily Eden's
■ the dale of 2 February
me to-day a miniature

by a native from his picture,
vould make it like. I can make
smoothed up at Calcutta, 1 will
1 sent me the original sketch in

ind I hope he has not touched

They were cut t
was evacuated, s
Colonel J. L. Sle.
Sir William has be«
Reco//ec((ons.

Beechey appears to have painted a
Governor-General, who visited Lucknow i
Up the Country (1930 edition, p, 387). she writ
1840; "Mr. Beechey. the painter at Liickm
of G. |her brother. Lord Auckland), done
It is a shocking caricature, but a very little ^
the alteration myself ; and if I can get it i
;nd it home. . . .Mr. Beechey says he has
I to Calcutta. It was an excellent picture. ;

There are two portraits of Lord Auckland in the collection of the
Government of India. One is a half-length, life-size, in diplomatic uniform :

itding to the official catalogue "it is very poorly painted and appears to be
the work of an Indian artist." The other was painted by A. Stuart Worsley
in 1878. "from two likenesses in the possession of His Lordship *s family."

Miss Emma Roberts, in her Scenes and ChaTacteriatics of Hindostan (1835).
vol. ii. p. 144, refers to Beechey as having taken Home's place at the Court
of Lucknow : and in a favourable notice of his work mentions particularly
a portrait of "a native female"— evidently the likeness of the artist's Indian
consort. Husaini Begum, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1832
(as "A Hindu Lady") and two years later at the British Institution (under
the name of "Hinda").

A portrait of Maharaja Dhuleep Singh, "painted by George Beechey in
1852," is reproduced in J. G. A. Baird's Prioate Leitera of Lord Dalhousie
(p. 320),

According to his executor's affidavit, Beechey died at Lucknow on
17 October 1852. Mr. Roberts (Sir William Beechey, R.A„ p. 193) tells us

'The Dealh of Cleopntra." by Beechey. 'Beechey visited bfiia long befote the Muiinj,
and was entertamed by the King of Oude.' explained Dr. Russell, 'He painted this pottiait.
probably of a Circassian. Foi the King. During the looting of the KaiierbaBb ot the lime
of the Mutiny, when we were leaving the palace, I remaiked to an officer that ii was a pity
to leave it hanging there. 'Cut it out of the flame' was hi> advice, I did bo, and a eoldirr
wrapped it lound hii rifte liarrel, and 90 we BOt il away.' The olhei canvas, painted by a
native sitist. is of the King of Oudh himself, suriounded by his court and aoiied in all
his oriental splendour, 'That was one of Thackeiay's favourite pictures,' said Dt, Russell."

Both paintings can be distingvished in an illusiratinn oF the dining room on page 568
of the magaxine. It will be noticed that Sir William Howard Ruuell is evidently confusing
George Beechey with his father. Sir William Beechey. who never visited India. The same
mistake is made in the catalogue of the Tagore collection.

BENGAL .- PAST AND PRESENT.

that "his death is said to have been accelerated by grief at hearing of the
total los9 of the ship in which he had sent home to England a large number
of his best portraits for exhibition." The house in which he died (in the
Mariaon cantonment, now deserted) was long believed to be haunted by his
spirit ; for the Rev. H. S. Polehampton. in a passage quoted in Bengal Paal
and Preaent, vol. xxxvii (p. 73| from his Leltera and Diaries, wrote on 12 May
1837: "They say that my house is haunted, and that none but a padre
can live in it. I have often been asked whether 1 have seen the ghost, by
English people. They say that Mr. Beechey. who died here, haunts it. Did
I tell you that one night, hearing a strange noise at one of the doors. I went
out with my revolver? No one was there : so I called the chokeedar and
asked him what it was. He looked very solemn, and said 'Beechey Sahib"

Beechey had another house, within the Residency enclosure. L. E. R,
Rees. in his Narratioe of the Siege of Lucknow, writes (p. Ill): "The
Judicial Office, an extensive upper-roomed house, commanded by Captain
Germon, 13th N. I., and situated between Anderson's and the Post Office
garrisons . . . had in the King's time been the residence of the late well-
kno^n Mr. George Beechey."

Beechey 's will, of which there is a copy at the India Office, discloses
that he left but a moderate estate. The bulk of it was assigned for the use,
during her life, of Husalni Begum, the mother of his son. -Stephen Richard
Beechey ; and after her death the money was to be divided between that son
and a daughter (by another woman) whom Husaini Begum had adopted.
Provision was also made for a third consort of Indian birth.

WILLIAM FOSTER.

BENGAL: PAST AND PRESENT.
VOL. XLI,

ARMENIAN CHURCH OF ST, NAZARETH. CALCLTTA.

{rrom Ihe orieinal Elching by Mr. Frank Clme=J ScalUn.)

(Agalj (Eatcl|ttl! ^rraktel

tnd an eminent Armenian merchant of Calcutta in the
aecond'half of the 18th Century.

An illustrious member of the aristocratic Gentloom family. Agah Calchick
Arrakiel, was the head and the most respected member of the Armenian
community of Calcutta in the second-half of the 18th century, and his liberal
gifts to the Armenian holy Church of Nazareth (I), (Calcutta) speak eloquently
of his great piety. He had the church compound surrounded by a substantial
wall, greatly embellished the sacred edifice inside and built the present
beautiful parsonage within the church enclosure in 1790, to which a third
storey was added, in 1906, by his great-grandson, the late Mr. Arratoon Gregory
Apcar of the well-known firm of Apcar & Co. of Calcutta, Agah Catchick
Arrakiel presented the Church also with a valuable English clock,
which after having measured time for about a century and a half, on
the belfry attached to the church, is still considered to be the best of its
kind in Calcutta. The clock was ordered from England in 1789. the year
before his death, but it arrived in Calcutta two years after he had been laid
to rest, aa can be seen from the following inscription which is engraved on
the works inside the clock tower : —

"Ordered from England and fixed at the expense of the late
Catchick Arrakiel Esquire, in the year 1792,
Alexander Hare. Maker, London.

Repaired and two more dials added during the wardenship of
Johannes Avdall (2) in the year 1638, by E. Gray, Calcutta."
But it was for his loyalty to the British that brought him into prominence
as one of the foremost citizens of Calcutta shortly before his untimely death,
which occurred in 1 790 at the early age of forty-eight years.

(l)Thc Armenian Church of Calcutm was erected in 1724 by Aa-h Naiar, an eminenl
Armenian merchant. The belfry, which serves bi a clock- lower as well, was added by the
opulent HeiBrmall family in 1734. Some membeta of ihat family lie buried under ihe belfry.

(2) Johanness Aidall. a native of Shiiaz in Persia, was for a period of 43 yeait, (he
Armenian Head Mastei and Reclor of the "Armenian Philanthropic Academy" of Calcutta.
He was a good classical Armenian Scholar and knew EnaUsh (airly well. In 1826 he
tranalated into classical Armenian. Samuel John.on'. Ros.e/oa. which was printed at the
Press of the Academy. He translated Father Michael Chamchean's "History of Armenia."
known as Khrakhchon. into EngUsh, in 1827. For nearly fifty years, be was a Member of
the "Asiatic Society of Bengal." He died on the Ulh July 1870. aged 67 years and was
buried in the Armenian Churchyard of Calcutta. Il is sad to remark however, that none of
his foul sons walked in his foot-steps, as men of letters.

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

In the Second Volume of "Selections fiom the CalcLTTa GAZETTES
of the years 1 789- i 797." published in 1865. under the sanction of the
Government of India, there is. at page 220. an account of the great rejoic-
ings and the festivities which took place in Calcutta in the month of July 1786,
on receipt of the happy news of the recovery of King George III of England
from his unfortunate malady which, as every student of history koows, was
madness.

The writer of the article, after giving a full and vivid account of the
proceedings on that festive occasion on the part of the Government and the
citizens of Calcutta, of all classes and denominations, concludes thus : —

"We cannot pass over in the occurrences of Tuesday, the liberality of
a Lady of the Settlement who presented a thousand Rupees to be distributed
by the Committee for the relief of debtors in such manner as they judged
most beneficial.

Another instance of liberality was also exhibited by Mr. Catchick
Arrakiel. a wealthy Armenian merchant and an old inhabitant of this
Settlement, who liberated, at his own expense, all the debtors confined by
the Courts of Requests, to the number of one hundred and thirty eight.
TTiia act of generosity cost Mr. Catchick Arrakiel, as we understood, three
thousand Rupees. This gentleman and many other Armenians, illuminated
their houses and their church in the most splendid manner."

The Commissioners of the "Court of Requests" lost no time in informing
the Gov em or- Genera I of the release of all the debtors, confined in the prison
of the Court. Here is their letter :

"To Earl Cornwallis K. G.,

Governor- General, &c., &c., 6c.
My Lord.

A sense of duty and the pleasure we derive from conununi eating to your '
Lordship an act of Benevolence, which has been particularly directed into a
mark of Loyal attention to the day you have appointed for the celebration of
His Majesty's late recovery induce us to acquaint your Lordship that Coja
Cacheek Arakell in Testimony of the Satisfaction he feels on the JoyfuU Event,
has this morning released all the Debtors confined in the Prison of this Court
to the Number of 138 Persons whose Debts he has paid, and humanely
distiibuted 2 Rs. to each for his immediate subsistence.

Court of Requests

Calcutta
the 28th July 1789.

We have the Honor to be

My Lord

Yours Lordships Most FaithfuII

& Obedient Humble Servant*

F. PlERARD

John Durham
Rd. Cs. Birch
Sitting Commrs. of the Court of Requests."

ACAH CATCHICK ARRAKIEL.

The Court of Directors of the "'East India Company" in London, brought
this noble act of the magnanimous Armenian merchant to the notice of the King,
and as a mark of royal approbation. His Majesty King George III. waa graciously
pleased to present Agah Catchick Arrakiel with his miniature portrait and a
valuable sword. Perhaps no higher honour would be conferred by a British
king on a humble subject. But unfortunately Agah Catchick Arrakiel had
departed this life on the 25th day of July 1790, before the royal gifts reached
Calcutta, and they were therefore presented to his eldest son. Agah Mosea
Catchick Arrakiel. by the Governor-General, the Most Noble Marquis
Cornwallis, at a public levee in Government House with the request that he
should always appear at levees and public entertainments decorated with those
interesting souvenirs of his sovereign's signal favour. The writer of those lines
has had the pleasure of handling that valuable miniature portrait in 1891
when it was offered for sale to an Armenian jeweller of Calcutta, by a distant
member of the Arrakiel family, then resident in Calcutta {3). It was a bust in
miniature, of the august sovereign. King George III. neatly painted on a plate
of ivory, and mounted in a substantial gold frame of the finest workmanship.
The whole was surmounted by a miniature gold crown and was suspended by
a solid gold chain long enough to go round the neck, as is customary with
medallions and pendants of that nature.

TTiat he was a very prominent citizen of Calcutta is evident from the
followng interesting obituary notice which appeared in the Calcutta Gazette
on the 29th July 1790. and which clearly portrays the character of Agah Catchick
Arrakiel and depicts the great esteem in which he was held not only by his
own countrymen, the Armenians, but by other nationalities, especially the
Greek residents of Calcutta :

There is the tribute paid by an Ejiglish journal to the memory of an
Armenian Philanthropist of Calcutta.

The 29th July, 1790.
"On Saturday last, in the morning of the 23th instant, departed
this life that truly respectable and worthy character,
Arrakiel, an Armenian merchant of the first rank
in Calcutta and the head and principal of the A
in Bengal.

The goodness, humanity and benevolence of this r

Mr. Catchick
id eminence
nation

1 towards all
nkind, his liberal spirit in contributing to the public welfare on every

(3) In 1925. t wu requeued by the l>le Sic Cslchkk Paul Chaler, (he Aimenian mulU-
millionaire of Hongkong, to try and aecuie ttiat tnlereitinB Family relic {or him. u he was
a descenilant oF Agah Catchick Ariakipl. throuijh his mother, I succeeded. aFtei repeated
advertisement* in ihe local papers, in tracing ihe historic reUc. but while ihe negotialioni
For il9 purrhase were going on. Sir Paul Chalet breathed his last at Hongkong on the 27th
May 1926. and there were no other patriotic Aimenians Bmongsl the wealthy Armenian
Community oF Calcutta to come Forward and secure that historic and priceless relic for ihe
nation. Aide For the callousness oF the I ndo- Armenians of the present day who seem to
be utteily indifferent la all noble sentiments and ideals in this materialistic age. being
immersed in money making and pleasure seeking. Shades of Khojah Petrui Arratoon and
Agah Catchick Anakiel I

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

occasion, the affability of Ms deportment and friendly dispOBition to all,
were dlBtinguiahed traits of his character, he was so warmly and grate-
fully attached to the English notion, that he was continually heard to
express his happiness and a sense of his fortunate lot in being under
their Government. He possessed the regard of the whole Settlement,
unsullied by the enmity of a single individual. Among his own beloved
nation, the Armenians, he was looked up to as a guide and director Ui
all their difficulties and disputes which he was ever studious to settle
with paternal affection.

The inward satisfaction of doing good and love to God, were the
sole motives which governed this virtuous man in the exercise of his
charity and benevolence, without any mixture of vanity or ostentation.
He has left a disconsolate widow and a numerous family of seven
children, whom he most tenderly loved. He died lamented, not only
by his own nation, but by all the different sects in Bengal, and especially
by the Greeks, to whom he rendered the moat essential service. In
short, no individual ever died more universally regretted, or whose loas
will be longer and more sincerely felt.

To this good man. without the smallest deviation from the truth,
may be applied the scriptural character given to Job, (Chap. XXIX).

"I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not, I
searched out, I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, 1 put on
righteousness, and it clothed me. My judgment was a robe and a
diadem, then I said I shall die in my rest and I shall multiply my days
as the stars of the firmament."

Mr. Catchick Arrakiel was born in Upper Armenia (4). and died in
the forty-eighth year of his age : he was descended from a very
respectable family, one of his immediate ancestors (5) was Cazee (Khojah)
Phanoos Calandar (Kalandar) who was greatly distinguished about a
century ago for his zeal and attachment to the English, and by whose
conduct and management the "English East India Company" was
induced (5a) to grant certain beneficial commercial privileges to the
Armenians either trading in or to India.

His remains were interred on Sunday morning, bet^veen ten and
eleven o'clock, in the Armenian Church after the celebration of High
Mass, The funeral was attended by a very numerous and respectable

(4) Thii IB nol catrerl, Agali Cslchick Arrakiel wu not born in Upper Annenia. HU
father, who died at Dacca in 1742, was a native of Julfa, the Aimenian Buhurb of lapahan

ilher. Khojah Phanoos Kalam

, but the area! gland -lather i

of Sural, Saloor Thaikhar

(5) This la nol cor.
of Agah Calchick Airaklel. but the greai grond-iather of his wife Begoom. who was
daughter of Salooi Tharkhan of Sural, Saloor Thaikhan's wife woi the srand-daughler of
Khoiah Phanoos Kalandar.

[5a) The Armeniani and not the "Enghsh Eut India Company" were indaced to enter
into a Commercial Treaty with the Engii.h, in 168B, through their respected repreaenlaltve,
Khoiah Phanoos Kalandat. as «hown in my paper read before the "Indian hliatoricsl Records
CommiBiion" held at Lahore in November 1925.

AGAH CATCHICK ARRAKIEL.

company, the Armenian bishops with all the clergy of the same Church,
Colonel Fullarton and two Aides-de-Camp of ih eRight Honourable the
ith many other gentlemen. Civil and Military."
:ommun!ty of Calcutta lost their head and respected
e greatly honoured by being burried inside their
vith a white marble tombstone, may be seen to this
isical Armenian, surmounted by the figure of
lief, holding in his right-hand a spear and in

: of righti

Th,

le inscription <

of Arrakiel of the
when he died on the

Governor-G.
In him the^i
leader. Hi

Church, where his grave,
day, bearing an inscription in c
a rider on a fiery stand tn bold
the left a pair of scales, symbolii
tombstone can be translated thus :

TTiis is the tomb of Agah Catchick. the :

Gentloom family, who was forty-eight years old i

25th July 1790, at Calcutta.
His widow Begoom, who survived him thirty-five years, died on the last day
of November 1825 (5b} and hei remains were placed next to those of her
husband. A black marble slab, with a inscription in ancient Armenian, marks
her grave inside the Armenian Church of Nazareth.

The inscription on her tombstone, can be translated thus : —

TTiis is the tomb of Bagoom, the daughter of Satoor Tharkhan, and

the wife of Agah Catchick Arrakiel of the Gentloom family, who died

on the 30th November 1825 aged 70 years.

In 1837, the Armenian community of Calcutta awoke at last from their

lethargy and remembering the worth of that truly great man, erected, 47 years

after his death, a black marble mural tablet in their Church, near his grave,

as a tribute to his memory, with appropriate inscriptions in Armenian and

EngHsh. the following being a copy of the latter : —

to the memory of the late
CATCHICK ARRAKIEL Esq.

whose patriotism endowed this Church
with a splendid clock, the Parochial
Buildings and the surrounding walls.
Gratefully inscribed by the Armenian
community of Calcutta.

Anno Domini 1837.
Exegi monument um oere perennius.

{5h] At the funeral of Mr>. Besoom Catchick Airakiel. which waa very largely alteRded.
the immorta! Mearovb David ThaliBdean, ihe future poet, author educBiionist and journalist
of the Armenians in Calcutta— then a humble student in "Bishop's College."— delivered a
moM impressive funeral oration in classical Armenian. cstolIinB the virtues of the deceased,
who like her lamented husband, was held in great esteem by the Armenian Community ol
Calcutta for her piety, philanlhropby and noble qualities of the head and the heart.

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Agah Catctiick Anakiel had seven children, two sons and five dau^iters (6b).

His eldest son (6). Agah Moses Catchick Arrakiel, who had inherited the
loyally of his noble father, rendered valuable services to the British Govern-
ment in 1801 by raising in Calcutta and keeping up at his own expense, «
Company of 100 Armenian volunteers, over whom he was appointed Captain
Commandant, when the greater part of the regular Army was required for
active service in the Deccan against the French. For this act of loyalty, the
Governor-General, the Marquis of Wellesley. was pleased lo present him urith
a valuable sword at a full levee at Government House in Calcutta.

For some time, Agah Moses Arrakiel carried on successfully the extensive
business left him by his father, but he sufiered heavy financial losses during
the war between England and France, when his two ships, with much
■able cargo on board, were captured by French privateers in the Indian
Seas, and as no insurance could be ejected iti Calcutta at that lime, for
obvious reasons, he could not therefore recover his losses which must have
been very heavy. Added lo this great, if not crushing, misfortune, he sustained
heavy losses on his large shipments to England which practically completed
hisr

Alas for fallen greatnese I for in August 1833, we find him bringing his
distressed circumstances to the kind notice and consideration of the Governor-
General, Lord William Bentinck, with a view to obtaining some employment
under the benign Government, to whom, in his palmy days, he had rendered
devoted and yeoman services. But as gratitude has always been a rare
virtue, the paternal Government, after a protracted correspondence, in which
great and profound sympathy was expressed for the erstwhile merchant prince
of Calcutta, condescended to grant him "an allowance of Sicca Rupees 100
per mensem" with effect from the lat December [834.

It was most noble of the highly magnanimous Government of the day to
grant such a handsome allowance to a person who In his prosperous days had
cheerfully sacrificed his valuable time and lavishly spent his thousands for the
sole benefit of a paternal Government in their dark hour of need. Perhaps ■

(6b) One oi the 5ve daughters o( Agah Catchick Arcakiel, Elizabeth, matiied i
JohanncBi Saikies. son oF the illuMnous Agah S>rk>» Johannesa of Cskulia They I
eight daughleis. one of whom, Khatchkhalhoon, marcied ii> IB27. Gregocy Apou.
1 Apcai. the (oundei of the well-known iicm of Apcai ft I
of CalcutlB. Cregoiy Apcar was the Father of the late Airatoon Ciegoiy Apcac referred I
in the beginning of this article. His eldest son. John Gregory Apcai, an advcKale of the
Calcutta High Court and the Cleck of the Crown foe many years, who died in London >
few years ago. left by his will, a bequeat ot f 10.000 to the Armenian Holy See of Etcbmiadnn
(the Vatican of Aimenia) and (he residue of his estate, amounting to £56.000. to the Covera-
ment oF Armenia. Foi (he relief of Armenian orphans and widows. Tile aiikount i
in (rust in London and the annual income ia lemilted to (he Government of the /
Republic by (be Trustees.

(6) Agah Catchick Arrakiel*. second son. Rev. Johanness Catchick Arrakiel, who 1
been ordained a priest for the service of the Armenian Chuich of St. John ihe B^itilt
Chinsurah, at the special desire of his pious mother, died at Calcutta on the 29th <
IB32. aged 52 years, and was buried inaide Ihe church of Nazareth, where both hi( pure
and elder brother are interred, in (he north aisle.

AGAH CATCHICK ARRAKIEL.

that was how loyally and patriotiBm were rewarded in those days by a highly
materialistic Government which in a fit of generosity, offered the proud and
the erstwhile affluent Armenian the paltry sum of one hundred rupees as a
recompense for the valuable services and the monetary help he had rendered
to Government in 1801 at the time of the Calcutta Militia, As the corres-
pondence which passed between him and the Government is interesting from
many points of view, it is therefore given jn extenso :

"To the Right Honourable Lord W. C. Bentinck. G. C. B. & G. C. L. H.
Governor-General and Council.

My Lord,

Your Lordship having pleased to open the public service to all classes of
Indian British subjects, and His British Majesty's Ministers having manifested
their intention to act on the same just and benevolent principles, 1 beg leave
to offer myself to your Lordship's notice and to solicit such favourable consi-
deration as the particulars of my case shall, in Your Lordship's judgment, render
me worthy. Your Lordship must be too well acquainted with the History of
British India to need being informed that the "British ELast India Company " in
first forming a Setllement in this part of India received great assistance from
my countrymen and especially from one Cojah Phanoos Calandar, The high
estimation in which the said services were regarded by the British Rulers of
those days is abundantly recorded in historical works and other Public Docu-
ments and it in part appears from the Agreement (7) between the Governor of
the "East India Company" and members of our nation dated the 22nd June
1688, and from two other documents dated on the same day, one being a
personal favour granted to the said Cojah Phanoos Calandar. The titles of the
said three documents are given below (2) and a copy of the whole annexed
severally marked A. B. C.

The said Cojah Phanoos Calandar in rendering assistance to the English
merchants trading to India, may be said to have been the most distinguished of
all the Armenians residing in India, and I trust that branch of hia family.
whereof I am a humble individual, have not failed, as occasions offered, duly
to manifest their attachment to the British nation. Accordingly in the year
1789, on the recovery of His Majesty King George the III, from a grievous
indisposition being known in India, Aga Catchick Arrakel (Coja Phanooh
Calendar's grand-daughter's husband and my revered father), in expression of
the lively gratification which he felt on the occasion, liberated all the prisoners

(7) For lopiei of the ChaTterg or Asieemenls see my Paper on "Armenians and (he
Eaal India Campany" read before the Lahore Sewion of the "Indian Historical Records
Commlasion" m November 1925.

(6) "An aarecment made between the Governor and Company of Merchant* of London
Iradins to the East Indies and the Aimenian nation, dated 22nd June, l6fiS. marked A.
Two documenia, each headed Governor and Company of MeickanU of London trading to the
Eail Indie*, to all whom It may concern, aend greetinK, dated ai above, marked B and C."

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

confined for debt in the Calcutta Jail, which act it appears was viewed in so
favourable a light by His Majesty and the British Government that a miniature
of the King attached to a gold chain was sent out from Ejigland to be conferred
on the said Aga Cachick Anakel, when this mark of Royal approbation
reached Calcutta, my worthy and much esteemed parent having ceased to
exist, it was publicly conferred on me. his eldest son. at a Levee by the
Most Noble Marquis Cornwallia. who. as also the Most Noble Marquts
Wellesley desired me always to appear at their Levees and Public entertain-
ments decorated with the said signal mark of their sovereign's favour, a favour
which I am informed is seldom conferred on a British subject.

In the year 1801, when the British nation was at war with France and the
greater part of the army of the Presidency | Bengal j was required to act at a
distance against Tippoo Sultan (9). the local British Government considered
it expedient to raise a Militia at Calcutta and accordingly the Christian
inhabitants in general were desired to enroll themselves on this occasion.
I. at the desire of His Lordship the Cover nor -General, raised one hundred
of my countrymen, and such of them as were not in affluent circumstances,
1 clothed and occasionally armed at my own expense, I was appointed
Capt. Commandant of this Company and continued to command it as long
as the Calcutta Militia was required by Government, also while holding this
Command the Governor-General, the Most Noble Marquis Wellesley was
pleased in a full Levee to confer on me with his own hands a sword to
be worn whenever I was not on duty with my Company, neither was this the
only kind attention which I received from His Lordship. Thus favoured by
my Sovereign and his representative in India. I cheerfully bore the expenses
of clothing and occasionally arming my countrymen for the service of
Government nor did I repine when our connection with the British nation
much more seriously affected my fortune and eventually produced my ruin.

My father Aga Catchick Arakel was an eminent merchant in this
Presidency. I was brought up and educated to carry on his business to
which I succeeded on his demise. After having for sometime successfully
prosecuted my mercantile concerns in the late war between England and
France, my two ships with much valuable cargo on board were captured by
French Privateers in the Indian Seas. No Insurance could be effected in
Calcutta. This serious misfortune together with heavy losses on my ship-
ments to England obliged me to break up my commercial establishment in
Calcutta. No longer able to carry on the business entrusted from my father,
1 engaged myself in manufacturing indigo and for many years I laboured
industriously in this my new vocation with various success. Eventually 1
might have succeeded but the late almost general failures of Calcutta agents
depriving me in common with many others of the requisite pecuniary accom-
modation, ] was compelled to retire from my Factory and to make over
to my agents.

(9)11.1

error, for the

by the CBptuie o( Seiinsapatam on the 4th day of May 1799

against Tippoo Sultan

AGAH CATCHICK ARRAKIEL.

TTiua when too far advanced in life to enter on uncertain or hazardous
undertakings. I anxiously desired to obtain such employment under Govern-
ment as will enable me creditably to support myself and family. Hoping
1 have ever acted as a faithful British Subject, also hoping I have never done
any discredit to the reputation of my revered parent Aga Catchick Arakel
and my ancestor, the much esteemed Coja Phanooa Calandar, 1 respectfully
solicit from Vour Lordship any such situation as I may be considered qualified
to hold and 1 shall desire to enjoy public employment only so long as I
faithfully perform the duties imposed on me.

I am. my Lord, with the greatest respect.

Your Lordship's
Most Obedient Humble Servant,
M. C. ARAKEL.
Calcutta,
I6th August 1833."

The following is a copy of the letter which the Governor-GeneraL Lord
William Bentinclc, wrote to the Court of Directors, recommending some relief
for the impoverished but the noble Armenian.

"General Department.
To

The Honourable the Court of Directors for the affairs of the Honourable
the United Company of Merchants of Elngland Trading to East India.

Honourable Sirs,

We have the honour to submit for the consideration and orders of your
Honourable Court the accompanying copy of a communication dated 16th of
August last, from Mr. M. C. Arakel. an Armenian Gentleman, with copies

Z It appears that Mr. M. C. Arakel, who thus brings his altered and
distressed circumstances to the notice of the Government, is the eldest son
Aga Cachick Arakel, an Armenian ^ho displayed such generosity and
benevolence at Calcutta in the year I7S9 on the celebrations of rejoicings
after the recovery of His Majesty George the 111 by liberating all the debtors
confined in the prison of the Court, which was considered by Your Honourable
Court so extraordinary an act of humanity and munificence that to testify
your sense of such conduct Your Honourable Court was pleased to forward
a portrait of His Majesty to be presented to Aga Cachick Arakel. and having
heard of his decease Your Honourable Court directed in a despatch dated
16th of May 1792 that the portrait might be presented to his representative.
This honour it would appear was conferred on Mr. M. C, Arakiel, the present
appellant.

3. It would further seem that Mr. M. C. Arakel evinced his attachment
to the British Government in the year 1801. at the time that a Militia was
formed in Calcutta, on which occassion the Marquis of Wellesly presented
him with a sword as a mark of his approbation and esteem.

BENGAL .- PAST AND PRESENT.

4. Mr. M. C. Arakel details the circumstances under which he has fallen
into distress, and petitions the Government for relief by giving him some
public employment.

5. We have no employment in which we can make use of Mr. M, C.
Araltel's service, and we do not feel ourselves competent to grant him a
pension, but it is painful to associate his present straitened circumstances
at an advanced period of life with the conduct which brought his father
to the notice of the Honourable Court in 1789. and we therefore submit
his case that Your Honourable Court may if you think proper order some
relief to be bestowed upon him.

We have the honour etc.,
W. C. BENTINCK.
C, T, METCALFE.
Fori William.
30th September 1833."

On the same date, a letter was forwarded to Agah Moses Catchick
Arakiel, of which the following is a copy.

"General Department.
To

Mr. M. C. Arakel.

I am directed by the Right Honourable the Governor in Council to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the 16th of August last, applying
for employment in some situation in the Public Service.

In reply I am instructed to inform you that His Lordship in Council is
much concerned to hear of the adversity of your fortune, and proposes to
bring your altered circumstances to the notice of the Honourable the Court

of Directors, that they if they think proper may i
nake a provision for your declining years. I air
egret of His Lordship in Council that there is no
n the Public Service to which you are eligible.

rder the Government to
directed to express the
situation at his disposal

Your most obedient Servant,
G. A. BUSHBY,
O0g. Secy, to the Gooernment.
Council Chamber,
30th September 1833."

As communication was very slow in those days, Mr. M. C. Arakiel was
informed, 14 months after that his application had received the favourable
consideration of the Court of Directors in London.

AGAH CATCHICK ARRAKIEL.

"Barraclcpore, November 27th, 1834.

Mr. M. C. Arakel.

Dear Sir.

I have the honour to inform you that the orders of the Honourable the
Court of Directors authorizing this Government to confer upon you such
moderate pension for Hfe as your situation and circumstances may appear
justified by the Government upon public grounds, the subject. I am directed
to add, will receive the attention of His Lordship in Council as soon as the
weighty matters, now pressing for decision, are disposed of.

I remain. Dear Sir,

THOMAS PACKENHAM.

Private Secretary.

At long last, Mr. M. C. Arakel was info
had been pleased to grant him a pension fa:

med that the Court of Directors
life. Here is the letter.

"General Department,

Mr. M. C. Arakel.
Sir.

With reference to your letter to the address of the Right Honourable
the Governor-General in Council, under date the 16th August 1633. 1 am
directed by the Right Honourable the Governor of Bengal lo state that
His Lordship has received the authority of the Hi
to whom a reference was made on the subject.
this Department to you dated the 30th Septembe
stipend for life in aid of your reduced
Rupees 100 per mensem has accordingly
from the Gei
instant.

;ral Treasury of this Presidency to

Court of Directors.

intimated in the letter of

833. to assign a moderate

An allowance of Sicca

ide payable to your receipt

from the I st

, Sir, Your most obedient servant.
H. T. PRINSEP,
Secretary to the Gooemment.

Council Chamber.
19th December, ia34.*

Alas for relentless Fate, and the vicissitudes of Time, for Agah Moses
Arrakiet, who was born in the lap of luxury and had never known want, was,
through adverse circumstances, over which he had no control, reduced to such
a state of penury that he was obliged to accept the petty allowance of one
hundred rupees in the vain hope of receiving a much larger sum afterwards,
as can be seen from the following letter, full of pathetic reflections, which he
addressed to the Government, for the last time, on the 30th October, 1836.

BENGAL ; PAST AND PRESENT.

"To the Ri^t Honourable George Lord Auckland, C. C. B..

Govern or -General of India in Council.

My Lord.

When under the sanction of the Honourable the Court of DirectoTo the
allowance of a hundred rupees per month was given to me by Government,
although understanding that His Lordship the Governor-General kindly wished
to give a larger sum, 1 did not think it right to solicit an increase, because it
was said that the Revenues of Government were not sufficient to meet the
current enpenditure here and in England, moreover, at the time in question.
1 hoped, that arrangements would be made respecting a large estate at Dacca
which would prove beneficial to me. also other expectations existed, but I
have been disappointed in all.

During the intervening time I have been obliged to live on the allowance
accorded to me and it hardly can be requisite to state that even with the
assistance of the extra 1450 rupees kindly given to me by His Lordship in
Council, I have experienced very great difficulties in procuring the necessaries
of life with the sum in question, and unless the Government please to augment
my present allowance, my difficulties of course will increase. Now I under-
stand that the revenues of the country are more than sufficient to meet all
demands, both here and in England. I therefore presume that such increased
allowance will be conferred on me as His Lordship the late Governor-General
would have granted even under less favourable circumstances. His Lordship,
before recommending my case to the consideration of the Court of Diteclora,
satisfied himself through enquiries made to the Secretary, Mr. Bushby. that the
representation contained in my address of August 16th. 1633. respecting the
expenses incurred by me in the Calcutta Militia, was correct, but as the
expense was incurred voluntarily, consequently I have no legal claim for
renumeration. But as the amount expended by me in the service of Govern-
ment (which amount Government would have paid) with accumulation of
interest, would, at the present day, procure for me a very considerable
annuity. I hope therefore that this fact will be favourably considered on my
applying for an increase of allowance. Being so reduced by my misfortunes
as to need not only the comforts, but it may be said, even the common
necessaries of life, I wished as long as Heaven blessed me with the ability to
labour to have earned my bread by serving Government in such capacity
as my humble services might be considered available, but His Lordship the
Governor-General's kind consideration of my former condition in life caused
him to decline offering me any situation which then could be held by any
person not a covenanted servant of the Honourable Company. The correct-
ness of what is here stated will appear from my address of August IS33 and
upon Mr, Bushby 's letter to me dated September 30th, 1833. I now most
respectfully solicit that Your Lordship will please to make such addition to

AC AH CATCHICK ARRAKIEL.

to pass the few remaining years of

my present allowance as will enable
my life with some degree of comfort.

[ am, my Lord, with the greatest def<

Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
M. C. ARAK.EL.
Calcutta. 30th October 1836."

Needless to add that this final appeal of the loyal citizen, whose strong
attachment to the British had produced his utter ruin, simply fell on deaf ears,
as was to be expected.

O tempora ! O mores 1

Agah Moses Catchiclt Arrakiel. the last worthy representative of the noble
Gentloom family (10), died at Calcutta, a poor Government pensioner, on the
15th October 1843, aged 71 years, and his mortal remains were honoured by
being buried near his parents, inside the Armeiuan Church of Calcutta, poor
as he was at the time of his death.

His mother, Begoom. was a great-grand daughter of the renowmed Khojah
PhanoDs Kalandar (I I), who, in 1688 entered into a Commercial Treaty with
the English on behalf of the Armenian nation, whereby the Armenians trading
in India were placed on an equal footing viHth the British merchants.

One of the daughters of Agah Moses Arrakiel. Anna Maria, married
Gregory, the son of Astwasatoor Mooradkhan, the Founder of the "Armenian
Philanthropic Academy" of Calcutta, now known as the "Armenian College,
located at No. 39 Free School Street.

Anna Maria Mooradkhan died on the 19th August 1815. aged 21 years,
"deeply regretted by ail those who knew her." Her husband. Gregory
Astwasatoor Mooradkhan, died on the llth June 1826 and they both lie buried
in the Armenian Churchyard of Calcutta. Their descendants, by an iiony of
Fate, are in straitened circumstances to-day.

One of the great-grandsons of Agah Catchick Arrakiel. in the female line,
was the late Sir Catchick Arrakiel Paul Chater. the multi-millionaire of Hot^

the

(10) I h-v

E Gent loom i

t yet been

l«de India.

: to trace the origin of thin old and aiiitociatic family, aa
imenclature and I have not yet >een it borne by any other

I am however inclined to think that the anceator o( the family got the lohriqimt of
"gentilhomme" from the French with whom he may have come in contract, either commet-
cially or diplomatically, either in France ot in India, ai it is a historical fact that French
trade in India waa egtablished in 1667 through the efloTt* of an eminent Armenian merchant.
Khojah Margar Avagsheenenti or "Maicara Avanchini," according to the records of the
"Frertch Eait India Company". As every body, who is conversant with the French lanaTjage.
knows, the word gentilhomme means a gentleman, a nobleman, and it is quite possible that
the French, who are noted for their suavity and can appreciate gentility, save that nickname
to the genteel Armenian,

(II) For fuller information regarding Khojah Phanoos Kalandar, sec my Paper on
"Armeniana and the East India Company" read before the "Indian Historical Records Canr-
mission" at Lithote in Novetnbei, 1925.

1 18 BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Kong, who prior to his death, in 1926, endowed his Alma Mater, the La
Mcutiniere College of Calcutta, with the princely donation of eleven lakhs of
rupees and left the residue of his large estate, amounting to about a crore of
Rupees, to the Armenian Church of Calcutta — ^where he had been christened
on the 3rd day of October 1846, and where most of his illustrious ancestors
sleep.

Mr. P. C. Manuk, the popular and eminent advocate of the Patna High
Court, who is a grand nephew of the late Sir Catchick Paul Chater, is also a
descendant, in the female line, of the illustrious Agah Catchick Arrakiel of
Calcutta.

Miss Anny Apcar of 44 Chowringhee Road, Calcutta — ^that staimch
advocate of the preservation of the beautiful ancient hymns and melodies of
the holy Apostolic Church of Armenia — is also a descendant through her
father, of the renowned Agah Catchick Arrakiel.

MESROVB J. SETH,

^aine ^otes on tlje |3lntotourse of ^atgal

UJttlj iljE ^ortl|ent (Eountriea tit

tlje ^eroitJi ^alf of tljc

(Eigljtejntlj QlEiifatrg.

'T^HE history of the intercourse of Bengal with her northern neighbours —
Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan in the second half at the eighteenth century,
is fairly well-lcnown. Good accounts of it occur quite early, amongst others,
in Markham's Introduction to the Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle
(second edition. 1879). and in an article by Gourdas Baaak in the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal. 1890. Forrest, in his Selection from State Papers
printed certain records in this connection from the material in the Foreign
Department. My object in this paper is simply to examine the documents on
this subject, preserved in the hlome (Public) Department of the Imperial
Record Office in Calcutta.

The main political events in Bengal's relations with the North in this period
will perhaps bear recapitulation. The story really begins with the commence-
ment of the Giukha conquest of Nepal. Tlie Gurkha attack on Muckwanpur
led to the expedition of Mir Kasim against the aggressors but the army of the
Nawab led by his celebrated general Gorgin Khan was destroyed near the fort
of Muckwanpur.(l) The appeal of the Newar Chiefs caused the expedition of
Kinloch. during Verelst's administration, but it failed to penetrate into the
hills, either by Siduli or through Muckwanpur. perhaps on account of the incle-
ment season. (2) Kirkpatrick in his Account of the Kingdom of Nepaul. 1811.
(p. 174) suggests that the desire to secure gold, which in reality came from
Tibet and not Nepal, stimulated both of these unsuccessful attempts. Mean-
while, trouble was brewing from another direction. Deb Judhur. the Debraja
of Bhutan, emidating Prithwi Narayan the Gurkha conqueror, overran Sikkim
and attacked Cooch Behar, so that Hastings, shortly after assuming control of
the Bengal government, had to organise the expedition of Jones (1772-1773).
The Tashai Lama of Tibet sent a letter of intercession for the Bhutanese to
the English government, which was received on March 29. 1774. (3) Hastings
concluded the Treaty with Bhutan in April. 1774, and immediately followed
it up by sending George Bogle's mission (1774-1775) to the court of the Tashai

a OScc.

(1) Copy of Recorda From Indl
Section X (pp. 446-449)— EnglUh Iranslaiton.
Nepaul. 1811 (p. 25n).

(2) Home Dcpailmenl— Original Consullatit
Aiiatic ReiHrarcho quoted in Kirkpatrick (3&4),

(3) TutDcr'a Account of an Embassy lo ihi

Public ConsultBlion
Hi on. KirkpB trick's

, 1771 (p. 1») Seii Mutaqheri
Account of the Kinsdom <

. I o( 31-10-1769. FathsT GuiKppe i
t of the Tuhu Um>. 1800 (ix.iii).

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Lama, dirou^ Bhutan, aa the route through Nepal had been blocked by the
Gurkha power. Missions to Bhutan were sent under Hamilton in 1776 and
again in 1777. to congratulate the new Debraja (4). In 1778. a cherished wish
of the Tashai Lama was fulfilled by the granting of land to him, on the banks
of the Ganges opposite Calcutta, for the purpose of establishing a Temple.
This episode was fully discussed in Gourdas Basalt's article mentioned above
and Mr. Ramsbotham recently wrote about it again in Bengal, Past and PresenI,
Vol. XXVI. Part II. In his northern policy.— Warren Hastings had
grand designs — namely to establish relations with China, through the good
offices of the Tashai Lama, who had great influence over the Elmperor and his
advisors (5). In a Minute, preserved as the Original Consultation No. I of
19-4-1779, Home Department, Hastings referred to this project in these
characteristic words — "Like the Navigation of unknown Seas, which are
explored not for the attainment of any certain and prescribed Object but for
the Discovery of what they may contain ; in so new and remote a Search, we
can only propose to adventure for Possibilities. The attempt may be crowned
with the most splendid and substantial success : or it may terminate in the
mere satisfaction of useless curiosity. But the Hazard is small, the Design is
worthy of the pursuit of a rising State". Accordingly in 1779. Bogle was
deputed again to Bhutan and Tibet "for the purpose of cultivating and improv-
ing the good understanding subsisting between the Chiefs of those countries
and this Government (6). But the journey was never undertaken because
the Taahai Lama left for the Emperor's Court, and though Bogle proposed to
meet him in China (7), the Lama's death in Pekin in 1780 shattered the plan
while Bogle himself died in the next year. The friendly messages from
Chanzu Cusho, the half-brother of the late Tashai Lama and regent for the
new infant Tashai. however led Hastings to send Turner to Tibet via Bhutan
on a fresh mission with a salary of Rs 3000 a month (8). (1783-1784). Hastings'
idea of sending yet another mission to Tibet was carried out under Mcpherson
when Puran Gir Gosain. the messenger of the Tashai Lama in 1774 and the
faithful companion of Bogle and Turner, was sent in 1785 and attended the
installation ceremony of the new Lama (9). His report was presented to
Mcpherson on February 6. 1786(10). With Cornwaltis. there is a distinct
reversal of policy and no attempt was made to continue Hastings' efforts to
maintain contact with the northern countries. Meanwhile, strained relations
between the Gurkhas and Tibet had culminated in the Gurkha invasion of
Tibet and the sack of the seat of the Tashai Lama. This promptly provoked
a Chinese expedition against Nepal. Tlie Gurkhas, who had concluded a
commercial treaty with the English, through Duncan, the Resident at Benares,
on March I. 1792. applied for help from Cornwaltis who declined to interfere,

of Georee Bogle. 1879 (lii:

(4> Markham's NairativcB of the Misaio

(5) Home Dept., Original Consultalior

(6) Home Depi.. Public Body SKeels of 19-^1779.

(7) Mailtham-a Bogle (209).

(6) Home Dept.. O.C. No. 3 of 9-1-1783.

(9) Journal of the Aiiatk Society of Bengal. LIX Pan

(10) Maikham'i Bogle (Uxv).

INTERCOURSE OF BENGAL WITH NORTHERN COUNTRIES. 121

September 9, 1792 (i I), because of the British policy of friendship towards
all countries and out of consideration for the China trade (12). He sent ICirk-
pstrick on a mission of mediation to Nepal (1792-1793) which however was too
late, Nepal had already submitted to China. The passes leading into Tibet
were closed by the Chinese, suspicious of British interference, at this time,
and intercourse with Bengal was consequently broken off (13).

The records of the Home Department are full of many interesting details
about the commercial intercourse between Bengal and the northern countries.
There was much eagerness on the part of the English authorities to expand
trade in this direction. Thus the Court of Directors on March 16. 1768.
recommended the obtaining of intelligence as to whether a trade with Nepal
was possible and whether cloth and other European commodities could find a
market through that country in Tibet and West China (1 4) Again in 1771.
the Directors enquired regarding the possibility of the Northern trade and of
sending explorers to Bhutan and Assam (15). In 1774. the Directors recom-
mended enquiry into the chances of successful exploration of the interior of
Bhutan and Assam and adjacent countries, on the suggestion of Mr. Baillie,
who had resided near Goalpara for several years and reported that woollens
and metals may be disposed of in this region in return for lacs, mugga. black
pepper and specie (16). In 1773. enquiries were addressed to Pulling and
Harris. Collectors of Cooch Behar and Rangpur respectively, regarding the
promotion of sale oF British staples in Bhutan and neighbouring countries (17)
and rather unfavourable replies were received from them (18).

These efforts to open new markets indicate a break in Bengal's northern
trade at the beginning of our period. But formerly there was a brisk trade
with the north and our records contain many particulars on this point. Palna,
we are told, had a considerable trade with Nepal and Tibet. "The chief
exports of Pama in this trade were coarse woollen cloths called Parpeteeni,
Coral. Salt. Betelnut. Cotton Cloths. Patna Chintzes, Nutmeg etc. The
imports Gold Ingots, Gold Dust, Borax. Musk, Cow Tails. Chirres etc. The
common current value of gold in Neypall (and it is chiefly brought there from
Tibbett) is said to be 50 per cent, less than it is at Patna" (19). Hastings
wrote in his Minute (Home Dept. Original Consultation No. 1 of April 19.
1779) that the drain of money from Bengal being alarming, it was necessary
to supply that money by opening new channels of commerce. "Gold Dust.
Musk. Cowlails. fine wool similar to that of Katamania and Other valuable
commodities" could be found in Tibet and were formerly extensively exchanged
with "Broad Goth, Coral. Bengal Manufactures and other Goods either

(11) Markham's Bogle (l»v>).

(12) KirLpBirick (3W).

(13) Turner (440-442): Marldiam'. Bogle (1"ii|

(14) Public Letler from Couit. 16-3 1768. para. 41.

(15) Home Depl., O. C No. 1 of 9-12-1771.

(16) Public Letiet from Court, 7-1-1774. paia. 13.

(17) Home Dept,, O. C. No. 10 of 21-6-1773.

(18) Home Dept.. O. C. No. II of 19 7 1773 and O. C. No. 3 of 13-9-1773.

(19) Home Dept.. O. C. No. 1 of 31.10-1769.

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Native of these Ptovinces or imported from Ejigland". Bogle in a
Memorandum (Home Dept. O. C. No. 3 of April 19. 1779) gives the itiforma-
lion that in Tibet, broad cloths of red, yellow and blue colours were most
prized and adds a list of prices. According to this note, small quantities of
European commodities imported by the Gosains were much esteemed.
Common people in Tibet demanded amber beads and higher classes pearls
and diamonds. Returns from Tibet were made in gold dust, musk and
cowtails. Bogle concludes his memorandum with an account of the charges
of transport from Bengal to Tibet. Tibet being barren, It might be added,
required large supplies from outside which were paid for by the valuable
products of the country (20). Turner in his Account of an Embassy to the
Court of the Teshu Lama (pp. 381-384) gives a list of the articles of commerce
between Tibet and her neighbours.

There were different routes followed by the Commerce between Bengal
and Tibet. Tlie Nepal route was the old high road of trade. We are told
that Katamandu was only 8 or 9 days from Patna "and the road at the most
rugged place is such as loaded Bullocks etc. may and do travel". Again,
"the Gandak is navigable for the largest boats used on the Ganges, at all
times, to within two days journey of Neypall. and in the Rains to wthin
a few Coss. The Bagmatty is also Navigable to within 20 Coss" (21). In
Home Dept. O. C. No. 20 of 25-11-1789, there is a good account of the
different routes to Tibet, taken from Bogles Report of 1775-1776. The Nepal
route, we learn, was closed after the Gurkha conquest when the Gosains were
expelled from Nepal for sympathy with the old rulers. They then frequented
a second route through Morung (from the Kusi to the Tista) (22) and the
adjoining Tibetan province of Demo Jung (Sikkim). Unhealthiness and the
Gurkha expansion however threatened this road. A third very difficult route
is mentioned from Benares and Mirzapur through the Mustang country and the
Hills to the northward of Bulivang Sing's territories. It may be mentioned
incidentally that Bogle (p. 139) found in Tibet a vakil from Chait Singh's Court,
who tried to hinder him. Bogle himself was Instrumental in opening the fourth
route through the Debraja's country.

The agency of the Gossains in this trade has been mentioned already.
Tlie report alluded to just now gives a good description of these persona.
"The Gosseinea. the Trading Pilgrims of India, resort hither in great numbers.
Their humble deportment, and holy character heightened by the merit of
distant Pilgrimages, their accounts of unknown countries, and remote Regions.
and above all their possession of high veneration for the Lamas, procure them
not only a ready admittance but great favours. Tho' clad in the garb of
poverty there are many of them possessed of considerable Wealth. Their
trade is confined to articles of great value and small bulk. It is carried on
without noise or ostentation, and often by Paths unfrequented by other
merchants". Kirkpatrick describes them as at once devotees and pilgrims.

(20) Home Dept., O. C. No. 20 of 25-11-1789.

(21) Home Dept.. O. C. No. I of 31-10-1769.

(22) Markham'i Bogle (150).

INTERCOURSE OF BENGAL WITH NORTHERN COUNTRIES. 123

beggars, soldiers and merchants {23). Turner tells us that the Tibetan trade
was in the hands of a few opulent Gosains (24). The most famous of these
Gossains is of course Puran Gir who played quite an important part in the
transactions between Bengal and Tibet. Gourdas Basak in J. A. S. B. —
Vol. LIX — Part I— No. I. gave a full account of this interesting man but
additional details can be gleaned from the records. Thus, Puran Gir was
about to visit Lhasa on his own account in 1790 and he was consequently
asked to procure the tea plant from Tibet (Home Depl. 0,C. No. 22 of
i" M790 and O. C. No. 17 of 21-12-1789), He kept in Nagri a Diary of his
journeys into Tibet and China and this Journal was proposed to be translated
(Public Body Sheets of I4-I-I790. pp. 20-21). The presence of many
merchants in Tibet was reported by Puran Gir in 1785. Turner mentions
another Gosain named Pranpooree who travelled in Turkey, Russia and China
and told the Tashai Lama that he had seen a country in which half the year
was day (25). A third Gosain. Sukh Dev. accumulated much wealth in
mercantile journeys for forty years (26).

The records reveal many efforts to secure interesting commodities from
the north. In 1769 Will. Mirtle was deputed to the Morung country to
obtain tvood for masts, tar. pitch and turpentine (27). On his death, this task
was entrusted to Francis Peacock and James Christie, in 1770. on the recom-
mendation of the Directors, with elaborate instructions not to interfere
in politics or dable in private trade (28). The enterprise was unfortunate for
they failed to enter Bhutan (29). Peacock interviewed the Raja of Morung.
"Coran Singh" and got from him aole grant of cutting firs in his country (30).
The timber he brought down to Calcutta however was pronounced to be
inferior m quality — "rotten at heart and over weighty" (31).

In 1783. Hastings wrote to Turner as follows : — "I have lately seen in the
Possession of Poorungeer Gosein, a small Paper of Powder, which he said
was produced from the dried Bark of a Tree and administered at Tibet for
the case of intermitting Fevers. It had to my Taste, and in the Judgement of
both of Messrs, Campbell and Francis every Appearance of being the same
Substance as that which is called the Jesuit Bark . 1 desire that you will
endeavour to procure both Seeds and young Plants of this Drug, and send
them to me, sparing no Expense for their safe and expeditious Transporta-
tion" (32).

In 1789, Kyd in charge of the Botanical Gardens. Calcutta, suggested to
the Government the procuring of the seed or the plant of Tea from Tibet

(23) Kiikpatiick (iii),

(24) Turner (370).

(25) Ti..n« (269-271).

(26) J- A. S. B,, Vol. LIX, Pi- 1. No. 1.

(27) Home Dept,. O. C. No. 2 (o) of 2fr^lO-l769.

(28) Home Depl,. Public Ptogs of 29.11-1770.

(29) Home Dept., O, C, No, 2 (a) ol 6-6-1772 and O. C. No. 7 of 28-12-1772,

(30) Home Depi.. O, C. No. 20 of 23.1-1775,

(31) Home Depl.. O. C, No, I {<,) of 19-1772 .nd O. C. No. 12 of 10-9-1772

(32) Home Depl., O. C. No. 10 of 13-3-1783.

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

with the enticement of a suitable reward if it could be delivered in a state
of vegetation to the Chief of Rangpur, if possible with a native practised in
the cultivation (23). The scheme was that of Sir Joseph Banks, President of
the Royal Society, contained in a Memo of September 9. 1789 (34).

Cattle and wool from the north were also wanted. In 1779. Bogle
suggested the procuring from Tibet a species of small goats remarkable for
their fine silky wool of the Karamaniah kind. He had sent some goats
formerly to Hastings who tried to transport them lo Ejigland{35). In 1787,
Kyd suggested sending to England the Bhulanese bull and cow obtained from
Tassesuddon through Rangpur" in order to pave the way lo an exchange of
the good things, peculiar to both countries" (36). Kyd also procured in 1791.
from Davis who had accompanied Turner to Bhutan, patterns of cloth made
in Bhutan from a dress once worn by one of the principal priests (37).
to. When the Taahai Lama sent presents to Hastings they included "Ingota

The attraction of gold, which existed in Tibet, has already been alluded
of Gold and Silver Bullion also some Gold Dust" (38). It might be mentioned
incidentally that currency difficulties had some share in creating the strained
relations between Tibet and Nepal in the lime of Cornwallis (39).

During Kirkpatrick's embassy to Nepal, the Mint Committee suggested the
procuring of antimony through him for the purpose of use in refining gold
bullion but the proposal was turned down on the ground that it would be
cheaper to import it from Europe (40). Kirkpatrick however appointed an
intelligent native of Nepal, Dayaram Upadhyaya. to collect useful plants and
seeds, chiefly for dyeing (41).

There are certain documents in the Home Department which are perhaps
more interesting than the details of trade recorded above. They belong to
three topics — the uncertainty in the relations between the Bengal Government
and Nepal after the Kinloch expedition ; the commercial treaties between
Bhutan and Bengal : and the reversal of policy under Cornwallis.

In 1769, Surgeon Jas Logan was sent on a mission to penetrate into
Nepal and he was "permitted to undertake it as he proposed" (42). What
he proposed can be seen from his letter to Verelst preserved as Home Dept.
O. C. No. I of 31-10-1769. Logan argued that after the part already played
by the Company on behalf of the Newar Chief of Khatmandu, abandoning
him would create a very bad impression. Support of the weaker party in the
conflict in Nepal was bound to improve future prospects of trade — through
the restoration of the old chiefs or even through concessions likely to be

(33) Home Depi.. O. C. No. 17 o( 13-1-1790.

(34) Home Dept,. O. C. No. 19 of 25-rM7B9,

(35) Home Depi.. O. C, No. 8 of 19-4^1789,

(36) Home Depi., O. C. No. 13 of 13-8-1787,

(37) Home DepI,. PP. of 18-11-1791 (3825-3826).

(38) Copy of Records from India Office— Public Comultetions 15-1-1776.

(39) Kirkpairick (339-340); Home Dept.. O. C. No. 20 of 25-11-1789.
(«) Home Depi,, PP. of 26-10-1792 (p. 1850).

(41) Home Depl.. O. C. No. 11 of 3-6-1793 and No 16 of 12-8-1793,

(42) Home Dept.. PuUic Body Sheets of 31-10-1769.

INTERCOURSE OF BENGAL WITH NORTHERN COUNTRIES. 125

granted by the Gurkha conqueiors. Moreover, "Raja Juyper Cuss" of
Khalmandu is also closely connected with "the Goora, or white, Lama, the
Pontiff of Laissah" and might thus be useful in expansion of trade to Tibet.
"The Choudind Raja, Coran Sine", to the east of Nepal, was the sworn
enemy of the Gurkhas who had treacherously overthrown his cousin of
Muckwanpur. He had proposed to join Kinloch's expedition and invited
Logan to "his Capital in the Hills to settle the terms of this Coalition". "At
this place, provided my business is unfavourable to the Goorka, I'm pretty
sure of a hearty welcome, and here 1 woud get intelligence Guides etc. in
order to prosecute my journey. Such penetration into Nepal was obviously
practised for Bogle tells us (p. 158) that the Gurkha Raj informed the Tashai
Lama that a Firingi was being sent back from Nepal.

The copy of Public Consultations in 1771, obtained from India Office,
unfolds (pp. 119-123 and pp. 147-153) a story equally suggestive as Logan's
letter to Verelst. The Patna Council in July 1771. wrote to President
Cartier about the possibility of occupying the Tatar Parganas (bounded by
Champaran, Purneah. the Tarai and the Gandak) consisting of 23 mahals
together with Janakpur and belonging to the Tirhut circar. but then in
Gurkha hands. The Patna Council pointed out that this would of course
mean an invasion of Nepal or at least the stationing of two battalions of
Sepoys on the Beltiah and Tirhut frontier. The Board made enquiries and
received a report from Raja Sitabray. The parganas had been seized by
the Muckwanpur people 200 years ago. They used to pay a tribute in
elephants to the Subah of Behar. The Gurkhas conquered the territory
from the Muckwanpur Raja, foiled Mir Kasim's expedition and remained
in possession of the territory with only a brief interval during Kinloch's
operations. The Gurkhas agreed however to pay a tribute of Rs. 12.500
in elephants at the customary rate. The Board disapproved of an expedition
on the ground of expense and apprehension that the Gurkhas would give
much trouble before they could be reduced, "The Board do not mean by
thus letting it lay dormant to give up their demand entirely but would have
our claim kept up to the annual tribute paid for those Purgunnahs and should
the Raja commit any hostilities it will be a proper opportunity to advance
our pretensions and reunite these Pergunnahs to the province of Tirhut to
which they originally belonged."

To turn to the subject of commerce treaties with Bhutan, the Treaty
of April 25. 1774. at the end of the Coochbehar Campaign, promised to
allow Bhutia caravans to visit Rangpur annually free from any duties (43),
Bogle concluded a Treaty with the Debraja in May, 1775, which, in return
for the free passage of non-European merchants of Bengal across Bhutan,
promised freedom of access to the Bhuteas and their 'gomastas' to all places
in Bengal : the privilege of selling horses duty free and the abolition of the duty
on the Bhutea caravan in Rangpur ; and the reservation for the Bhuteas
exclusively the export of indigo, tobacco, red skin and betelnut from

(43) MBckham'i Boirle (4).

126

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Bhutan (44). The Tashai Lama promised Bogle to write to the Debraja to
remove Bogle's uneasiness about his attitude, adding that he bad already
written to Nepal to re-open the ancient route to Bengal (45). Hamilton re-
commened and Turner carried out the cession to Bhutan of two pieces of
territories, held formerly by the Baikuntapur zemindar (46) for the trade had
been hindered by Bbutea complaints about boundaries, as well as the inBuence
of the regent at Lhasa (47). On the death of the Debraja with whom Bogle
had concluded his treaty, secular as well as spiritual power ivas concentrated
in the hands of Lam Rimbochay — the scion of one of the three Lama houses
of Bhutan (48). In 1778. this ruler sent his vakil Narpoo Paigah. to Calcutta,
where he delivered a declaration under his seal ratifying the existing treaty.
The originals of this declaration have come down to ua — one being in Bengali
bearing the date of the 9th Paus. 1(85 of the Bengali era (December. 1778).
I A copy of this document is attached herewith in an Appendix.] The
Bengali version confirms the articles of Bogle's treaty in a different order
on behalf of the Devadhanma Lama Rimboshay (49), The Bengali language
and script were evidently much used for Turner mentions a paper in the
Bengali language sent to him in which the Debraja expressed his wishes (50).
Hastings was anxious to preserve good relations with Bhutan for we find
him instructing Turner to enquire into Bhutanese complaints against English
agents in Assam interfering in a territorial dispute (51). TTie validity of Bogle's
Treaty of 1 775 was still acknowledged by the Debraja in 1 783 |52). The
Directors testified to "the most ample and voluntary assistance" which Puian
Cir Gosain received in Bhutan in 1785 (53).

The harmonious relations with the north broke down in the time of
Cornwallis. The following document is of some interest in this connection
—(Home Dept.— O.C. No. 27 of 22-12-1788).

"To The Right Honourable

Charles Earl Cornwallis K.G.

Governor General etc., etc.. etc.
My Lord,

Last night arrived at this place two Ambassadaurs
Redjeb and Mahomed Willee. deputed by the Grand Lar
Dispatches for your Lordship. TTiey also brought a letter for me from the
Lama, requesting me to provide them with the necessary guides and
Attendants, to conduct them to Calcutta with as little delay as possible,
their business being, as the Lama informs me, of the most urgent nature. ,

imed Mahomed
of Thibet, with

(44) Home Dcpt., O, C. No. 4 of 19-4-1779; M«kh>m'» Boile (184).

(45) Home Dept.. O. C. No. 5 o[ 19-4-1779.

(46) Maikham'B BokIs (lu-1xii>).

(47) Home Depi.. O. C. No. I o( 19-4-1779.

(48) Home Dept.. O. C. No. I and No. 2 of 19-4-1779.

(49) Home Dept.. O. C. No. 6 of 19-4-1779.

(50) Turner (324).

(51) Home Dept., O. C. No. 10 o£ IJ-3-1783,

(52) Turner (376).

(53) Public Letter from Court. 27-3-1787. pwa. 231.

INTERCOURSE OF BENGAL WITH NORTHERN COUNTRIES. 127

In conversing witK them respecting the State of the Lama's Dominions.
they informed me. that they had lately been invaded by the Gooikas who
had taken possession of several frontier forts, and a large extent of Country.
That the Lama had sent them offers of peace, but that they refused to listen
to any terms, unless the Lama would consent to relinquish to them all the
Gold produced in his Country, for the collecting of which, they insisted
on appointing their own officers.

From these Circumstances I am led to suppose, although ! did not think
it proper to ask. that the purport of their Embassy is to solicit the protection
of the English Government against the Goorka Rajah.

1 have the honor to be

with great respect

My Lord

Your Lordship's most obedient

and most humble servant

D. H. McDowall— CoUr"

Rungpore

9th December 1788.

The Gurkha invasion of Tibet in 1788 (distinct from the later attacks
which were followed by the Chinese expedition of 1792) mentioned in the
above letter is corroborated by Markham (LXXVI) who says that they
overran Sikkim in 1788 and Tibet had to cede the head of the Kuti Pass to
them. Kirkpatrick (345-346) alludes to a Gurkha invasion of Tibet prior to
the well-known events of 1790-1792 and adds that this resulted in the exaction
of a tribute from Tibet. The letter of McDowall, introducing the Tibetan
Embassy to Bengal, did not produce any action, and probably Kirkpatrick's
statement (346) that Lassa sent an embassy for help to Mcpherson in vain,
had reference to this episode. Military aid by the English Government
"could not be afforded without a direct departure from the system of policy
laid down for its general guidance by the legislature" as Kirkpatrick remarked
(vii) in another connection. But British mactivity had unfortunate conse-
quences in this direction — for it must have encouraged the more serious
Gurkha aggressions on Tibet in 1790-1792 which in turn led the Chinese to
close the passes leading into Tibet. Turner makes the general observation
(440-442) that British failure to help the Lama was resented and it was
suspected that Nepal had been assisted. This was an unplesant end of
relations which had promised so much and commerce with the north was
naturally interrupted. It was rather unexpected, for the Directors so late as
March. 1787. expressed themselves sanguine of a beneRcial commerce with
Tibet, hoping for import of bullion and export of British manufactures. TTiey
left the actual method of conducting this trade to be decided by the local
authorities (encouraging Gosains, Tibetans etc. to come to Calcutta —
sending out caravans or setting up factories near Bhutan) but they

128 BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

did suggest the conclusion of a treaty of commerce with Tibet and
the Debraja (54). All such hopes were idle after 1792 but the crisis had
commenced as early as 1788.

A few miscellaneous notes on McDowalKs letter to Comwallis suggest
themselves. Rangpur, as we have seen repeatedly, was on the his^ road
of communication with the north. The sending of Moslem ambassadors is
not surprising. Mahomedan merchants are described in the Bengali declara-
tion of 1778, mentioned above, as in the habit of visiting Tibet. Turner
(339-340) remarks that 300 Gosains and sanyasis and even some Mussulmans
were daily fed by the Lama at Teshu Lumbo. The Tashai Lama quoted
Persian varses (55) and the Lama sent letters in Persian (56). Finally, it is
significant that the embassy of 1788 was the first overture from Lhasa to
the English — for hitherto the court of the Grand Lama had kept itself haughtily
aloof from foreign contract.

S. C. SARCAR.

(54) Public Letter from Court. 27-3-1787. parat. 232-235.

(55) Home Dept.. O. C. No. 5 of 19-4-1779.

(56) Markham's Bogle (45); Kirkpatrick (351).

Iljippmg in ^mttbag in 1795-6.

While going over some of iKe papers of the Home (Public) Department
Original Consultations, connected with 'ships and shippings', one document
(O C. 30 Dec. 17%. No. 5) arrested my attention. It Is a statement of the
arrivals at. and departures of merchant vessels from, the port of Bombay
from the Isl May 1795 to the 30th April 1796. It sets forth not only the
names and tonnage of the vessels but also "an abstract pointing out under
what colours they sailed". This Statement was drawn up by Philip Dundas,
Superintendent of Marine, Bombay, and was forwarded by John Morris.
Secretary, Bombay to George H. Barlow. Secretary at Fort William. Calcutta,
on the 25th November 1 796. As this document throws some interesting light
on shipping about the close of the 18th century, I am appending hereto a copy
of the same. Hie entries given here are worth studying especially in the
light of the Abstract with which the document ends. Let us take into
consideration first the denominations of the vessels referred to in the document.
They are divided into five classes, namely (I) Ships. (2] Brigs, (3) Snows,
(4) Ketches and (5) Schooners. As we do not pretend to be experts in nautical
lore, we will not discuss how these Bve classes are to be distinguished from
one another. Tliese are obviously crafts peculiar lo English shipping of the
18th century. There ate however some types of vessels mentioned in our
document which denote an eastern variety. One such is known as 'grab' and
is distinguished into three denominations as in the case of English ships,
namely. Grab Ship (Noa. 1. II, 25. 77. 91, 148, 171), Grab Snow (Nos. 20, 44.
155, 168) and Grab Ketch (Nos. 18, 57. 80, 84. 92, 102, 117, 154. 158. 177. 186).
Grab was a coasting vessel used in the East and is derived from the Arabic
word ghurab, a kind of Arab ship. And if we consider all the grab vessels
mentioned in this list we shall see that they have all Indian names except
in one case (Nos. 44. 168) and that moat of them also were in charge of Indian
Captains. Then again we have to note in this connection that some vessels
in this list have been styled Indiamen' which meant a 'vessel in the India
trade ; specifically a large vessel belonging to the East India Company.' Three
of these came together from Europe to Bombay (Nos. 63. 64, 65). One goes
to Surat and two to the Coast (Nos. 100, 86. 87). "They then return to Bombay
(Nos. 105, 109. 110) and sail back together to Europe (Nos. 132-4). There is
just one type of vessels which we note in this document. oU., galley, which
signifies 'a large, low. usually one-decked vessel propelled by both oars and
sails* and were used in mediaeval times for war. trading, ceremonial and
pleasure purposes. As we shall see shortly, they belonged to the Nawab of
Arcot. Whether they were built in India or imported from Europe it is
difficult to say. The last type we have to note is Botella which is mentioned
thrice (Nos. 139, 142, 159) in our document. It evidently is the same as the
Marathi word Batela. meaning a boat carrying from 50 to 500 Khandis burden.
It seems to have had more than one variety. But in our list only the Ketch

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

v&nety of Batela bas been mentioned. Three more Mndiamen' eacb bearing
1200 tonnage ate also mentiond as arriving at Bombay from Europe
(Nos. 1 16- 1 20),

Turning now to the nationality of vessels we find that there are as many
a& 168 entries in the statement oF which no less than 143 relate to En^ish
vessels. Of these last, 93 are ships. 13 brigs. 10 snows, 26 ketches and only
I schooner. It is curious that these five denominations are found ot))y in the
cise of vessels classed as English, only two of them being noticeable in regard
to another nationality, namely Arab. The Abstract thus refers to six Arab
ships and six Arab Snows. We have so far taken note of two nationalities,
namely, the English and the Arab. But ships of at least two more nationalities
aie specified, namely 17 American ships and one Danish ship.

From the Abstract also we hnd that over and above these Four nationalities
there were some vessels which belonged to individual owners. They were
three in number, namely. (I) Nabab of Arcatt (Arcot). (2) Chilaby and (3) Ballia
Bebee of Cananore. The last oF these is perhaps the most surprising name,
because that happens to be the name of a Purdah lady of a very high rank.
But the Bibi oF Cannanore had already made herself a celebrity by participating
in the politics of her day. From 1783 onwards she had favoured more than
once the Mysore Sultan as against the British who therefore in 1790. besieged
Cannanore and forced unconditional surrender upon her. A settlement was
made in 1796 with Bibi who agree to pay Rs. 13.000 per annum as the

trade. This shows that ^c waa
It does not seem difficult to
are only two entries relating to her.
namely "Ship Sumdaney Nacqudah
re told arrived at Bombay on the

ment not only on her houses but a

not only a politician but also a

identify her ship. In the Abstract there

They aeem to refer to only one ship,

Hawjee Syed" (No. 103). which we a

6th December 1795 from Cananore. bearing 370 tonnage. The same ship

{No. 175) is reported to have sailed away from Bombay to Bengal. It is tnie

that there is another ship connected with Cannanore, "Ship Gunjavar Captain

James Barber", which came to Bombay on the 18th September. But the

Captain of the ship is a European. The ship could not have thus belonged

to the Bibi. Besides there are at least five entries for Ship Gunjavai, wheieas

there are only two for the Bibi's ship.

The second individual owner whom wc have to consider here is Chilaby
which in modern times might be spelt Chilabhoy. This sounds a Gujarati
Muhammadan surname such as we sometimes meet with in Bombay. The
Abstract informs us that there are six entries for his ships. There can be no
doubt about two of them as his name is actually connected with them. Thus
we are told that on the 22nd April 1 7%. there arrived at Bombay from Surat

(1) Chilaby's Ship SuUeman Shaw Nacquadah Seedey Amber" (No. 179) and

(2) "Chilaby's Ship Eslambole Nacquadah Hawjee Esseeb" (No. 180). It i
scarcely necessary to say Nacqudah is an Arabic word meaning 'the captain |
of a vessel". The second of these Nacqudahs. namely. Hawjee Essoof
worthy of note. Because his name seems to be connected with another ship
from Surat. namely, 'Fize Soobhany Nacqudah Hawjee Esoob' (No. 72). This
ship came to Bombay from Mocho on the 23rd September and sailed for Surat

SHIPPING IN BOMBA Y IN 1795-6,

on the tOth October. It appears that Hawjee Esoob was at first put in charge
of 'Fize Soobhany' and was afterwards made Captain of 'E^lambole'. This
accounts for four entries and we have to identify two more. The fourth ship
owned by 'Chilaby' may perhaps be "Ship Fize Caudery Nacqudah Ka^ee
Bhader" (No. 90) which arrived in Bombay from Surat on the 31st October
1795 and sailed back on the 13th January 1796. Why this ship was detained
in Bombay for more than two months is not quite clear, Probably it was
undergoing some repairs.

The third individual owner mentioned in the Abstract is Nawab of Arcalt
(Arcot). against whom seven entries have been shown in the Abstract. It is
somewhat difficult to identify them, but. it seems that they were the galleys
referred to above. They also are mentioned seven times and are connected
with Madras (Nos. 52. 53. 54. 59, 60. 61. 187). These points make it all but
certain that the galleys belonged to the Nawab.

Let us now see what position Bombay occupied in the trade routes of the
sea about the end of the 18th century. Let us begin with the foreign
nationalities. Tliere are 17 entries against the American ships. One of these
came from Philadelphia (No. 16). one from Rhode Island (No. 26). two from
New York (Nos. 28. 31) and one from Boston (No. "13) all of which afterwards
proceeded to China. A sixth American ship came from Bengal (No. 141) and
staying for a month in Bombay sailed away to Pulopenang (No. 151). The
seventh came from Madeira (No. 153). The eighth and last American ship
that we have to note is curiously named 'Five Brothers'. It came to Bombay
from Boston (No. 112). It afterwards sailed to Surat (No. 138). from where it
returned to Bombay (No. 167) and then left for Mauritius (No. 170).

Of the Danish nationality only one ship is mentioned. It is named "King
of Denmark" (No. 178) and came to Bombay from Copenhagen via Vanquebar.
What are styled the Arab ships are three in number (Nos. 77. 65. 88). They
all came from Muscat which was the capital of Oman. Two of them on their
way back seem to have touched the port of Surat (Nos. 91. 98). After
some months they returned to Bombay (Nos. 148. 162) and again went back
to Muscat (Nos. 171. 185), The third ship first came to Bombay on October 26
(No. 68) and stayed there till November 28 when it left directly for Muscat.
It returned to Bombay on March 19. We find that the vessel stayed in Bombay
for one month and two days. If we suppose that it similarly stayed for about
one month at Muscat before it set out for Bombay again, we obtain nearly
80 days as the period it took for going to Muscat and coming back to Bombay.
We thus see that the vessels in those days generally took 40 days from Bombay
to Muscat. It is to be observed that one of these Arab vessels has been
originally described as a 'Snow' (No. 85, 98) but it is shown as a "ship" on its
second visit to Bombay (Nos. 162, 185).

It has been stated at the beginning that the nationality of ships is deter-
mined by the colours under which they sailed. That the American. Danish
and even Arab ships sailed under the colours of their different nationalities
can be easily seen. That the ships belonging to the Nawab of Arcot and
Ballia Bebee of Cannanore who were more or less independent rulers should

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

sail under the colours of their »tate* U also inteUigible. But some question
arises about the ships of Chilaby's? Under what colours could they have
sailed > We have seen that these ships were connected with Surat. and we
know that the Nawab of Surat maintained his power fill 1799. It i» but
reasonable to infer that the Chilaby ships bore the colours of this Nawab.

There now remains to be considered the last entry, namely, English vessels.
This must mean vessels that sailed under the British colours but that does
not necessarily mean that they all belonged to Englishmen and not even some
to Indians who were British subjects. That some of these vessels pertained
to the British subjects in India is clear from the names they bear. Thus one
ship is caUed Zoroaster (Nos. 23. 183). and one Darius (Nos. 93. 181). These
are obviously the names sacred to the religion and history of the Parsees.
It may however be argued that as the names of the captains of these ships
are English, they belonged to English owners. As a matter of fact, we Icnow
From our document that two of the Ejiglish owned ships were named Neptune
(Nos, 136. 152) and Minerva (Nos. 143. 160) who were deities from Greek
Pantheon. And if they named some ships after the Greek deities, they might
have named some after the founder and the propagator of the Parsee religion.
But what about such names of ships as Shaw Jehangii (Nos. 9. 125), Shaw
Ardeseer (No. 35), Shaw Muncher (No. 42) and so forth? They are individual
Parsee names and could not have been adopted by any European owners for
their vessels. Above all. there is a ship which b called Lowjee Family
(Nos. 6, 1 1 1). This is a typically Parsee family name and shows that the ship
in question belonged to that family.

The Parsees were not the only British subjects who serU their ships under
British colours. There were some which were owned by Muhammadans.
Two names will suffice, namely Coodabux Grab Ketch (Nos. 18. 154) and
Shydey Grab Snow (No. 20) whose captains also were Indians. It is true that
no vessel owned by Maharashtriyas are found but it may be explained away
I the ground that as there were hostilities between the English and the
rathas, no ships belonging to the latter could sail under any colours. TTiere
iels which shows that they pertained to

Ma.

itish subjects, and were probably settled
lud Grab Ship (No. t) another Mahadew

aie ho%vever two curious names ot v
some upcountry Hindus, who were I
in Bombay. One is styled Cuncspur
Pursad Botella Ketch (No. 142).

The captains of almost all Indian Muhammadan vessels were
Muhammadans, styled either Nacqudah or Sarang. One Muhammadan vessel
changed captains. Thus Coodabux Grab Ketch (No. 18). when it sailed away
from Bombay to Bengal, was captained by Thomas Lambert but when it
arrived from Bengal on March 8, it had a Parsee as Captain, namely Nacqudah
Pestonjee (No. 154). The upcountry Hindus referred to above of course
employed non-Hindus as captains of their vessels. Thus Gunespursaud is
captained by Thomas Dobinson and Mahadew Pursad by Sarang Cossim, It is
doubtful whether the Hindus even served as Captains. Tliere are three
vessels with English names but with Muhammadan captains, namely 'Nancy
Ketch*. Sarang Amudjee (No. 3), Mary Ketch Nacqudah Carmoodeen (Nos. 74.
82. 126) and "Wolf Ketch" Sarang Mutiammad Cauder (No. 79).

SHIPPING IN BOMBAY IN 1795-6. 133

In connection with most of the vessels adverted to above, mention has
been made about their movements and the places where they sailed. If we
start from Bombay northwards, we have names of such places as Surat, Broach,
Bhawnagar, Bussorah (Basra), Muscat and Mocho. Mocho, it need scarcely be
stated, is in Turkey in Asia and both the Elnglish and Muhammadans of India
traded with that part of the globe. Proceeding south of Bombay, we have to
note such places as Goa, Cannanore, Tellicherry, Calicut, Cochin, Aleppee
(Alleppey) and Ceylon. Turning northwards we notice only Madras and
Bengal. But moving south of Bengal, we have to take note of Pulopenang,
Bencoolen or Fort Marlborough, Acheen in Sumatra, Batavia, Manila and
lasdy China. It is worthy of note that most of the Parsee vessels mentioned
above traded with China. It took more than seven months for a ship to go
to China and come back to Bombay. Thus ship Lowjee Family left for China
on May 8 and returned to Bombay on December 31. China being an un-
familiar country to Indians, the Parsees had naturally to employ Elnglish
captains. It is curious to note that Indians traded even with Africa at that
period. Thus on February 21, 17%, we find, there sailed from Bombay *Ship
Travaney* under Nacqudah Aucobjee to Patta which is an island in Elast
Africa (No. 147).

D. R. BHANDARKAR.

®lic IJreck nf tljE |Corh JVml|crst in 1S33.

'T'HE wreck of the Lord Amherat proves how real were the perils and
dangers of the deep to the early Ejiglish residents in Bengal : die experi-
ences of Hicky were by no means unique. This E^st-india-man was a good ship,
quite new. only built at Blackwall in 1824 : she was registered in London,
her owner was a certain John Ambler Meaburn. and her commander Captain
Hicks. She has made a steady passage out of six months, sailing from
London on August 3rd and arriving in Calcutta on January 3rd. On February
14th she cleared out through the Customs for the voyage home, entrusted
with the mails and a detachment of invalids. She was laden with "buffalo
horns, deer horns, indigo, sillt piecegoods and the Honourable Company's
cargo (one of the last cargoes shipped before the Act of 1833 put an end
to the Company's trade). Almost immediately she had to put back leaky,
and Calcutta once again grumbled at Irregular mails : the Postmaster trans-
ferred the packets first to the Zcmnobia, and then to the Andromache which
did not sail till April 6th. The Lord Amheret finally cleared out on May I Ith,
only to be piled high and dry on Kedgeree beach by the great cyclone of
1833. In August the Shipping Intelligence reported here still there but by
September she had been sold for the good of those concerned. Captain
Hicks sent in this official report of the disaster.

Calcutta, May 25th. 1833.

It is with extreme regret 1 have to acquaint you with the loss of the
Hon'ble Co's chartered ship Lord Amherst under my command, the particulars
of which disastrous event are related as follows :

We left this port on the 18th Inst, in charge of Mr. M. Dormand. branch
Pilot in tow of the Enterprise Steamer, a very pleasant party of passenger, on
board, and every prospect of a happy voyage. On the 19th from the defective
state of the Steamer's machinery, we were compelled to cast her off and
make sail down the river. On the 20th it came on to blow with considerable
violence from the N.E. Came lo with best bower about three mites below
Kedgeree, veered to a whole Cable, sent the top-gallant yeards and royal
masts on deck ; bent the sheet cable, and got every thing ready to meet
the weather, which the rapid sinking of the Barometer indicated. At day
light, strong gales and dark squally weather, with heavy rain and much
lightning, struck top-gallant masts. At nine, the gale increasing, the ship
swung lo the flood, or weather tide, with a heavy cross sea, labouring
much, and shipping great quantities of water over all. At 9-30 in a heavy
lee lurch, the Starboard quarter boat was washed away, taking the davits
with her. At 9-40 in a severe gust the gaskets of the main top sail gave
way. and the sail getting loose It blew to ribands, the severe jerks before [
the sail split, carried away most of the weather topmast rigging, and shortly i
after the main topmast went off by the cap, which in its fall sprung the main j

THE WRECK OF THE LORD AMHERST IN 1833.

yard. About ten o'clock from the increasing violence of the huiricone. the
fore topmast and jib-boom went also ; and at 10-30 the mizen mast went
itboard, the Ship at this time riding well with 120 fathoms of Chain out,
the same soundings 10 fathoms and perfectly safe, but the most tremendous
hurricane and fou! sea i ever beheld ; the Barometer 27.60 and sinking,
with much lightning and the sea breaking over both gunwales, when engulphed
between the two seas, which led me to apprehend the Ship foundering
; immense Seas she took on board : which were literally filling the
between decks, the invalids at the time being washed out from below. At
lO-fO the hurricane suddenly chopped round to the S. E. and blew with
increased furry : the Sea terrific making a clear breach over the Ship fore
and aft washing away everything overboard, immense quantity of water
finding its way down the hatchways. Got all the dead lights in. sounded
in ten fathoms, the Ship holding on. At 10-55 with great difficulty, it being
nearly impossible to keep the deck, let go the Starboard anchor, shortly
after the Ship brought her anchors Home, and struck the ground very
heavily abaft, unshipped her rudder, which began sripping up the stern
frame, until it broke off at the shoulder, the horrors of which moment no
pen can describe, the Ship striking the ground very heavily, and from the
undulation of her decks, to all appearance overwhelmed and breaking up.
rolling her beam ends in the sand, and the Sea breaking into her fore and aft.
The foreyard about this time was broke in two by striking the sand. Tlic
Pilot now informed me he imagined the Ship had struck on the Mizen sand,
therefore in order to prevent her lower masts from going through her bottom. I
gave directions to cut the Camyards of the weather rigging, and the fore
and main masts went over board a few feet above the deck, ordered the
wreck of the mast to be kept alongside to save as many lives as possible.
The Ship now lay totally dismasted, and striking with more or less violence,
the Sea breaking over the Cuddy, and nnost of the Cabins full of water,
hove the guns overboard and stove all the water casks to lighten her upper
works. At 11-10 she became perfectly settled, sounded the well, and found
four feel water in the Ship, all hands employed in pumping and clearing
the ^vreck. During the whole of the morning the deep Sea and hand leads
were kept going, and the soundings reported, as well as the Ship holding on,
but impossible to see ten yards from the Ship. I am happy to add with
the blessing of the Almighty that all hands are saved, although many are
severely bruised. Towards evening strong gales, it clearing a little, we
discovered the Ship was stranded high and dry abreast of the Light-house.
Got the stream*anchor on shore and brought the Cable to the Capstern through
the afterporl to keep up a communication should the Ship separate during
the nights tide. Sent three Lascars to the Light House to ascertain what
protection they could afford the Ladies, who. 1 am proud to say, conducted
themselves nobly. Although, eleven in number, including the Children, in
one of the poop cabins, and that half full of water, with the Sea rushing
through it, yet, amid all the terrors of this trying scene, not a cry was heard.
The whole of the country as far as the eye could reach, being one scene
of desolation, and many feet under water, they made up theii minds to

BENGAL: PAST AND PRESENT.

remain by the Ship while there was a chance of her slitl holding together.
At day hght employed ail hands sparring the Ship with her broken spars ;
discovered the Honourable Company's Ship Duke of York stranded six
miles to the southwards of us. with the foremast standing nearly as complete
a wreck as ourselves, other ships on shore to the Northward of us : two on
their beam ends and the Sea breaking over them. These proved to be the
"General Gascoigne," "Robert" and "Egmont"; the sands around us covered
with large quantities of drift, evidently part of a vessel, among which we
picked up part of a chest of a Capt. Mitchell, and the lid of the pilots chest,
with the wheel etc.. the remainder being the upper works of a Ship, we
therefore can only conclude that the Sultan, Capt. Mitchell, outward bound,
has broken up on the Long Island, and all hands perished. The loss of life
on shore has been dreadful, and the dead bodies around the Ship are truly
apalling. The Lord Amherst lies on her starboard bilge, with her anchors in
sight at low water. The hull is completely broken back and being both
hogged and sagged, and her decks set up at least twenty inches on the
starboard side from the bilge upwards. She appears to have gone out in
board particularly from the lower deck to the plank sheer, several of her
butts from the bilge upwards started out. and most of her hanging and lodging
knees on the upper deck broken . The damage on her bottom cannot at
present be ascertained, as she lies buried about five feet in the quick sand ;
her gripe and fore-foot are knocked off and he about 30 yards from the Ship ;
her rudder is unshipped and broken off close to the lower counter, with most
of the pintles gone. All her pumps patent are broken, likewise the Seams
and butts shew the vessel to have worked very much ; indeed she is completely
deformed, and shews every symptom of a break up. Tlie distress on shore
is inconceivable ; whole villages are washed away : thousands are lying
dead in every direction, and so great has been the inundation, that at one
time upwards of 20 feet of the lighthouse was under water. I received several
of the poor Natives men, women and children on board the Lord Amherst,
after the hurricane, and am now supplying hundreds round me with rice and
utater. The whole of the cultivation of the Island of Saugor is destroyed, and
the loss of hfe is estimated at Seven thousand Souls.

(Sd,) JOHN HICKS.

The range of the storm ^vas not great but it was exceptionally violent.
Since the ship broke her foreyard in two after striking, she must have rolled
nearly on to her beam ends each time, that is 40 or 45 each side. The track
of the cyclone is also interesting ; the wind first blew from the NE and then
veered completely to the SE ; the centre was thus originally SE, and it passed
southward of the ship to bear SW, so the centre was travelling from east to
west. The bowers mentioned were two great anchors in the bow, next in
size came the sheet anchors kept handy in case the other parted. The stream
anchor was very small and used for kedging. A whole cable meant the whole
extent of chain, that is 120 fathoms.

The storm was long remembered and fortunately we oossess
an account of it written in 1853 by Mr. Piddington. President of

THE WRECK OF THE LORD AMHERST IN 1833. 137

the Marine Courts to Lord Dalhousie. He was proving that a more
recent gale could have done the damage represented and quote 1833.
when Saugor Island was depopulated with a loss of 3-4000 souls, and Garden
Reach became iminhabitable because the floods left stagnant pools that bred
malaria. At Diamond Harbour too the water poured over the bund while the
salt lakes rose 6 or 7 feet level with the Dum Dum road. Near Fultah one
Mr. Adam Mackenzie, a speculator in sunderbund lemd development, had
built a sort of tower in brick so as to sleep above the malaria of the night ;
here the water rose so rapidly to within a few steps of the top story floor
that all were crowded up there and few ryots could be saved. At Kedgeree
itself the water rose 23 feet and a boat crew from the Egmont was saved
through being driven three quarters of a mile over the jungle. No wonder
the Lord Amherst succumbed.

F. M. SACHSE.

®to-S[une Olonnegances in Qlalcutta.

r J^R. FRANK E. BUSHBY. the writer of the following article >
l- connecled with the famous Calcutta coach building firm of St

9 actively
f Steuart & Co.

from 1899 to 1921 and was senior partner for the last ten years of that period.
According to the East India Hegiaier for 1798. "Robert Stewart coach-maker'"
came out in 1784: but the firm had already been established in 1775. A
coloured print was at one time in the possession of the late Sir Charles Keateven
which bear the following title: "View of a House Manufactory and Bazar
in Calcutta : from an original picture in the possession of James Steuart, Elsq..
Engraved by F, Jukes." Tlie premises represented were in Cossitollah, nov/
known as Bentinck Street (where Messrs. Llewellyn and Co., the undertakers,
succeeded Messrs. Steuart and Co. in occupation). The firm was subsequently
located in Lai Bazar until its removal to 3 Mangoe Lane, where it still carries
on business. It is probable that the original picture was painted by Balthasar
Solvyns, who came to Calcutta in a Dutch ship in 1791. and published in 1795
a series of 250 coloured engravings "illustrative of the manners and customs
of the People of Bengal." William Baillie, in a letter of October 4. 1795. to
Ozias Humphry, writes :

Solvyns. a Flemish artist (from Brussells), who arrived here
about four years ago, has picked up a great deal of money,
1 believe, from Mr. Stewart, the coach-maker, for embroidering
palankeens — I do not mean common ones, but some that he
has made for the country princes. The two first were ordered
by Lord Cornwallis for the Mysore Princes, and were valued
at about Rs. 6 or 7000. The ornamental painting did Solvyns
much credit — in one colour only on a gold ground. You can
conceive nothing superior to the workmanship of these
Palankeens (excepting some more expensive ones made since)
— all the metal with feet etc. overlaid with silver and in some
parts solid silver, the lining velvet with rich silver or gold
embroidery and fringe. Stewart has lately made two for the
King of Tanjore's sons, which it is said wiU cost near
10.000 Rs. each. They are Mahannas with Venetians etc..
Bedding and Pillows of Velvet as the lining.
The mahannah, meeana, or myana. has been described as "a long Palankeen
in which we lay full length with a support for the head and shoulders."
Mr. Bushby has more homely, but no less forgotten, conveyances to recall to
mind. — Editor].

There is little doubt that the palki, which was carried by four coolies,
is the oldest type of closed, or "bund"', gari. They were used principally for
zenana purposes, although they were still on hire in the Calcutta Streets as

BENGAL: PAST ,

BENGAL . PAST AND PRESENT.

decreased from ten — the number in the old palkf Sari, two being at the back,
two at the front, and six at the sides — to four as a rule, of which one was
at the back, one at the front, and one on each side of the back seat. In this
case there would be only two sliding doors, instead of four. The size and
consequently the weight decreased, the usual width for European use being
36 inches and for Indian use 36 or 40 inches.

The office gari or jaun was practically the same as the Brownberry except
that it had no bottom door, and it was necessary to step over the "bottom
side", or framing of the body, into the well. It was lighter in weight and
cheaper to build than the Brownberry, and. as its name implies, was used
almost exclusively by brokers and business men.

The Greenfield was merely a glorified Broivnberry — a cross between
it and the patk' eon — with deeper doors and bhnds in the place of the
panels in the sliding doors. It was expensive to build and that is probably the
reason why it was not more popular. Only two were constructed during my
time with the firm of Steuart and Co., and it was seldom seen on the streets.
It was named after a man who lived about the year 1875 or 1876 at Coolie
Bazar (Hastings). I cannot say who or what he was. but I do not think he was
connected with any of the coach builders. I am inclined to believe that the
Bengal Greenfield must have been inspired partly from Madras, as the Madras
type of bund gari was something similar.

I should estimate that practically seventy per cent, of the vehicles turned
out by Steuart and Co. would be either Brownberrys or office garia. Both
types in later years had double roofs, with an air space in between, for the
sake of coolness. Rubber tyres were not put on any vehicles before 1900.

FRANK E. BUSHBY.

BENGAL- PAST A\D PRESENT.
VOL- XLI.

Brownberry

NARROW
PANELS-

SLIDING
■"-- DOORS

IN OpricE Gari no door at Bottom

AS BELOVV

TONJON

OLD TIME CONVEYANCE IN CALOJT^^

(Eaptatn JVlcxmt&er CSrant

JVhjutant-dttiEral hiring tljE ^isge of

(Ealcutta, 1756.

^HE name of Captain Alexander Grant, who was appointed Adjutant-
General at Calcutta during the critical days of June 1756, has often in
the pasE figured in the pai^cs of Bengal : Past and Present and must he similar
to all who take an Interest in the history of the siege and in the Black Hole
controversy. His identity, however, would not appear to have been known
to Mr. S, C. Hill when he compiled his monumental work {1) ; and it is
proposed to give here a few facts relating to his antecedents, his relationships
in the Company's service, and his subsequent career.

TTie sixth son of Alexander Grant, IV of Sheuglie, in the parish of Urquhart
and Gienmoriston (a cadet of the Corrimony family), by Isabel his second wife,
daughter of John Grant of Gienmoriston. Capl. Alexander Grant was born in
March 1725 (2). In April 1746 he underwent his baptism of fire at CuUoden.
where he was present with a party of Urquhart men on Prince Charlie's behalf.
Fourteen months later {12 June 1747) he was commissioned as second Lieutenant
in Capt. Jonathan Forbes' Independent Company.

Neither family histories nor official records throw any light on his career
from that date until his appearance in Bengal on some date before 1754; but
we gather from Mr. Hill (3) that he, in common with three out of the other
four commanding officers, "had seen service either in Europe or on .tlie
Coromandel Coast.'"

l~here is no need to recapitulate here his services during the siege and
at Plassey the following year, as these have been adequately dealt with by
Mr. Hill.

In September 1758 he resigned his commission and returned home.
Broome (4) states that he was one of the eight captains who tendered their
commissions in one day owing to supercession by Capt. John Gowen (Gowin
or Govin). of the Bombay Establishment ; but his name does not appear as
one of the signatories to the Memorial in question (5),

(1) Bengal m l7S6-t757. 3 voU„ London. 1903. (Indiui Recorda Seiiet).

(2) The Chief, of Grant, by Wm. Frasm. LL.D. (3 vols.. Edin.. IB83). i. 5t7. :v. Grant
ai SheuHlie. Grant of Corrirrtony. by F. J. Grant (Lerwick, privately printed 1894), p. 41,
j.U. Grant of Lochlelter,

(3) op, dt., ii, 26.

(4) Hiitoty of (he flengo/ Army, by Capt. A. Broome. Calculla, 1850 ; p. 206.

(5) Dated CaieuHa. 28 Aug. 1758. h was signed by Archd. Keit, CrainBei Mulr. John
Cudmore. Thos. Rumbold. Robl. Campbell, and Peler Camlairs, who were permitted to retire.
aa well as by live otherg who did not iiomediately resign. {Home Mite. Seriet, 90 II).)

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

From September 1758 to 1765 records are again blank as to his activitiea
at home ; but on 2nd April of the latter yedr be executed hia will at an address
in Bedford Row, London (6). He was probably at that date on the point of
re-embarking for India as it is known that he was in Calcutta in September
1766, from which date down to May 1766 his name occurs Frequently in the
Bengal records as contractor for military supplies and for furnishing bullockft,
etc. He died in October 1768. "when about lo return home" (7). and was
buried in Calcutta on 31st October (8).

He married Miss Margaretha Henrietta Beck, a Dutch lady of the Cape
of Good Hope, whom he mentions in his will.

Amongst his relatives who served in India brief mention may be made
of his younger brother. Colonel Hugh Grant of Moy {1733-1822). tenth son
of Alexander Grant of Sheuglie. who. at the date of his resignation in 1774,
was commanding the 3rd Brigade at Berhampore. He married in Calcutta,
27 December. 1761. Mary Carvalho (9), who survived him until 17 March. 1827.
Having amassed a considerable fortune in India he purchased the Moy estate
on his return to Scotland. Lt.-Col. Alexander Grant (1753-1816). II of
Lochletter, was a nephew, being the only surviving son of Patrick, 1 of
Lochletter. He served in the 16th Bengal Infantry, and married at Calcutta
on 10 January. 1794, Jane, sister of Alexander Hannay, whoae name also is
familiar to readers of this Journal.

Another relative, albeit a distant cousin, was Charles Grant (1746-1823),
the famous Director and Chairman of the East India Company, whose sons.
Charles Grant, first Baron Clenelg, and Sir Robert Grant, Governor of Bombay,
were both born in Bengal.

V. C. P. HODSON.

(6) For lhi> Infomation I am indebted to Sir Williu

(7) Dr. Ft«e,, op. cLt,

(8) Bengal r Fmt & Ptc«nl, vi. 109. Note 37 on p.
to thic page and have rrference lo him. There can be n
in view of the fact that his will (which was filed in Calcutta in
Patrick Gtanl, of Lochletter.

(9) Beneal : Put and Prettnl. iv. 468. Hei lurname appears

102 should. 1 submit, be tram
1 ahadow o( doubt ta to his identity
[cutta in 1768) mentions his brother

"Cawalho" in the family

^mixt ^ol^iers cf fortune

■- but

THE DESCENDANTS OF GEORGE THOMAS

r of George TTjomas. the Irish soldier of fortune, is well-known ;
his descendants have received little attention, perhaps owing to
their obscurity and the conflict of evidence regarding them.

George Thomas married Maria or Marie, who is sometimes stated to
have been an Indian Christian and sometimes "a young lady of French
extraction, one of the Begam Samru's chief maids of honour, with whom
he received a considerable dowry." This marriage took place, perhaps, in
17% : probably at Sardhana. Thomas himself is said to have been a
Protestant, while Marie was a Roman Catholic, as were all their children.
These children were (I) John Thomas, "a debauched looking fellow," brought
up by the Begam and married to the daughter of Agha Wanus an Armenian
in her service. He died without issue. (2) Jacob Thoi
left one son George Thomas (III), who died ("blind m
a daughter Joanna. She married Alexander Martin. '
of Agra, by whom she had two sons. One of these s
dropped the surname Martin and to have been known
was head clerk to the Deputy Commissioner of Dharmsa
killed (with his Scots wife) in the earthquake at that place

Thomas (II). married and left an only child, a daughter who died fro

the effects of suffering undergone whilst escaping from the mutineers at

Delhi in 1857. (4) Juliana Thomas, married and had an only son Joseph

who died at Agra without issue.

The only legitimate lineal descendants of George Thomas are said to
have been, ultimately, the two sons of Joanna, his great-grand-daughter, wife
of Alexander Martin. It is possible ihat other descendants exist, for
(according to Keene) Thomas "kept a harem" and "left an exceedingly
numerous progeny who found an asylum at Sardhana." Jacob Thomas,
mentioned in more than one account, has been described as the Jourth son
of his father. He is evidently identical with "James" Thomas, (the Latin
facohua would signify either name), as the second son in sometimes known.
Much about him may be found in Grey and Garrett's European Adoenturers
in Norihem India ; after serving the Begam for several years, he entered the
Sikh service in March 1838.

!n her will the Begam Samru left the following legacies to the Thomas
family :

(o) to John Thomas and his wife. Rs, 14,000, with a pension of
Rs. 250:

los, married and

both eyes") leaving
a pensioned clerk"
ons is said to have
as Alexander. He
a, Punjab, and was
in 1905. (3) George

SOME SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE.

at Agra. Another son, Frederick, died at Agra on the 4th October 1822
aged fifteen days. Their eldest son John Edward was born 28lh February
1818 and died at Mhow on the Ut November 1857. aged 39 years and 8
months. Theii only surviving daughter Diana married at Agra on the Itth
January 1839. Mr. John George Aire, writing master of the Agra College.
1 have no record of any issue of Lieutenant Augustine Martin, and the fact
that his tomb was erected by his brother Frederick would tend to show
that Augustine was not survived at least by any adult children.

Another connexion of the Martins ^vilh the English soldiers of fortune
is to be traced from the epitaph at Agra which reads as follows: "Sacred
to the memory of Nancy Macpherson. widow of the late Captain Macpherson
of Scindia's service, who departed this life on August 19. 1854, aged 100

years. This tablet was erected by her ^andson Thomas A. Martin." A

Captain-Lieutenant Macpherson of Scindia's regular army was killed at the
battle against Holkar's troops at Ujjain in July [601 : he may well have been
her husband.

ic}\

LOUIS BRUGEON

Another connexion of the Martin family with the early soldiers of fortune
in India is indicated by the following inscriptions on the tombs at Agra :

(o) Ci git Francois BRUGEON fils de Louis Brugeon et de Io(
Martin decede a Agra !e II Mai MDCCLXXVI.

(b) Ci gtt Pierre BRUGEON natif de Barpour, decede k Ghud (si,
XVme Mars MDCCLXXVII. Sge de V ans et demi.

{c) Ca giaz o corpo di Lius BORGION naguera de Lagore Guigno

de 1792.
It is certain that this Louis Brugeon or Botgion of Bharatpur (Barpour) and
Gohad (Ghud). 17727. who died at Agra in 1792. cannot be identified with
the better-known adventurer Louis Bourguien {alias Bourquoin. Bourquin.
or Bourkin), "cook, pyrotechnist and poltroon," since the latter is known to
have been alive as late as 1803. But the references to Bharatpur and Gohad,
coupled with the dates and his apparent French nationality, make it reason-
ably certain that Louis Brugeon was one of the French company in the
English service who mutinied on Mth February 1764 and marched off under
the command of Rene Madec to join Shuja-ud-daula at Allahabad. After
taking part in the battle of Buxar on 23rd November in the same year, and
in the defence of Chunar. Madec s French force took service first under
the Hohillaa and later under the Jats of Bharatpur from 1768 till March 1773.
when they transferred their allegiance to Shah Alam at Delhi. Having served
the Moghals for a space, the French-lances successively fought for Sindia,
the Rana of Gohad, and Mirza Najaf Khan the Moghal once again in
September 1775. Finally Madec sold his army outright to the Rana of Gohad
for three-and-a-half lakhs of rupees in March 1777. They were not to remain

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

long in his service For, their pay falling into arrears, part seceded and joined
Reinhardt (Samru or Sombre) at Delhi and the rest disbanded themselves.

It is thus cleat that Louis Brugeon or Borgion was one of Madec's foreign
mercenaries, but what his precise status was is not known. Agra was a sort
of base for these adventurers, as is attested by many graves there, including
two of children of Madec himself. Perhaps Brugeon later obtained service
under de Boigne : as he died in June 1792 the following written by an officer
of de Boigne's Second Brigade in the same year may be significant : "We left
the First Brigade with de Boigne at Rohtak on the 22nd of June. De Boigne
was then just recovering from a dreadful dysentery, which has deprived us of
some of our officers . . . Colonel Martine's brother died at Jedgar (? Jhajjhar)
and Lieutenant Stewart at Rohtak, the day prior to our march . . .". Perhaps
Brugeon was one of the officers who succumbed to that epidemic in June 1792.

It may be noted in passing that the Brigade Major of this Second Brigade
was then a Captain Drugeon, a Savoyard ; but since he is known to have lived
till IS24 he must not be identified with Louis Brugeon.

FRANZOO SAHIB" : FRANCOIS COHEN

In the eightieth number of Bengal : Pasl & Present (October- December.
1930). the identity of one Francois Cohen, alias Tranzoo Sahib'", the son of
an Indian woman and "some German adventurer who came to India in the
eighteenth century and was in the Maratha service", is discussed. He is slated
to have followed his father in the service of the same power, and to have
received a pension from the British government in 1806. After this he entered
the service of the Begam Samru at Sardhana. where he spent many years.
On the death of the Begam in January 1836 he sought his fortune under the
British, by whom he was employed as a revenue collector for sixteen years.
In 1857, being then eighty-five years of age. and the owner of several villages
in the Mecrut district, he gave succour to various refugees from the Delhi
mutineers, among them Lieutenant (afterwards Major-General) T, W. Holland
of the 38th Bengal Native Infantry and Ueutenant George Forrest of the
Veteran Establishment with his wife and three daughters. (Forrest, who
started life as a private soldier in [818, was one of the "Devoted Nine" who
blew up the Delhi Magazines, for which he received the Victoria Cross ; and
was the father of Sir George Forrest the historian).

No conclusion as to "Ftanzoo Sahib's" identity was reached by the writer
in Bengal : Past & Present ; but it can be ascertained with some degree of
certainty from a memorial inscription in the Roman Catholic Cathedral at
Sardhana. which commemorates" Major Gottlieb Koine. Native of Poland,
bom Sunday 25th December A. D. 1745. died Sunday, P. M.. II September
1821. who was in the service of Her Highness Begam Sombre for 50 years,
the last 32 of which as Collector of Bhudhana. He lived and died with the
reputation of an honest man and a pious Christian." From an annotation to
this epitaph in Mr. E. A. H. Blunt's Christian Tombs and Monuments in the

SOME SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE.

United Prooincea, we learn that one Francois Koine was a servant of the
Begam's and a pensioner of her heir Dyce-Sombre. that queer semi-lunatic
who became an English member of ParUament and married the daughter of
a peer.

Francoia Koirje can be none other than the Francis Cohen who gave
refuge to the Forrest family and others. There are in existence further con-
temporary accounts of the aid which he tendered to fugitives from Delhi.
Some of these lie buried in Annals of ihe Indian Rebellion, a very catacomb
of a book, entirely devoid of any index and extending to nearly a thousand
closely printed pages, which was issued in monthly parts at Calcutta between
May 1859 and May I860. From this a little more about Franzoo Sahib may
be extracted.

The first narrative is General T. W. Holland's own. as he originally
committed it to paper, soon after the events which he describes. On 25 May
1857. after crossing the river Jumna by boat, he says, "though we passed
several villages, and I was seen and interrogated by several people, still no
one molested me. Whilst resting under a tree at noon, an old man invited
me to his village. He proved to be a Jugga Zemindar of Subhanpur : he
gave me food, and I rested at his place for three hours. I learnt from him
that certain of the fugitives from Delhi had passed a few days before, and
had gone on to a person whom he called "Franzoo Sahib" who he said was
an European Zemindar ; and, proceeding on at sunset. I reached a large
village called Khekra. There the people were also exceedingly kind, and
told me that a large party of English of both sexes had stayed with them
for two days and then gone on to "Franzoo Sahib." Some of them volunteered
to accompany me, and did so. I reached Harchandpur about nine, and there
I found an old man. Mr, Francis Cohen, an Eurasian of German descent.
He received me most kindly and did all he could to make me comfortable
and happy. His two grandsons vied with him in showing kindness : their
names were Messrs. George Cohen Piche and John Cohen Piche. I then
found that the undermentioned had met with like kindness from the Cohen
family ; Lieutenant-Colonel Knyvett, Lieutenant M. Proctor, and Lieutenant
H. Gambier of the 38di IBengal Native] Light Infantry: Captain G, Forrest:
Mrs. and the Misses Forrest : Lieutenant Vibart. 56th : Lieutenant Salkeld.
[Bengal] Engineers : Lieutenant W. Wilson, Artillery ; Mrs. Fraser ; and
Mr. Marshall. For all his kindness to me, Mr. Cohen and his family afterwards
suffered, being obliged subsequently to fly to Meerut after being plundered
of a good deal of property and money. This circumstance and all Mr. Cohen's
good deeds are well knovra to Mr. Fleetwood Williams, Commissioner of
Meerut. After resting a day at Mr. Cohen's, he very kindly lent me a pony
and sent several attendants with me." Soon after, HollarKl reached Meerut
safely.

Holland adds that Francis Cohen had the zemindari of three villages
conferred on him as a reward, whilst his grandson George Cohen Piche was
appointed an assistant salt patrol. As to these two grandsons, the ^vriter in
Bengal : Past & Present tells us that their father was a "descendant of
M. Pesch, a French emigre."

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

The other narratives in AnnaU of the Indian Rebellion add little to General
Holland's detailed account. One of the officers of the 38th Bengal Native
Light Infantry describes how. during his flight, he was taken to Harchandpur
"at the request of an old Zemindar, who had heard of our whereabouts, and
treated us royally. He was a German by birth, an old man of eighty or ninety,
and now native in dress, language etc. — not in heart or religion. He sent us
up clean stuff for clothes, and gave us something like food again." Surgeon
Stanlake Henry Batson of the Delhi garrison likewise tells how. when he
reached Harchandpur on his flight, an "old gentleman". Mr. Francis Cohen,
a zemindar, (originally a tehsiidar in Government employment), "received me
in all kindness and . . . sent me back in his cart" ; and another party of
fugitives gives similar testimony.

There can be no doubt that this son of a German-Pole soldier of forutne
and his grandsons gave ready help to many British officers and their families
at no small personal risk. It can be none other than Francois Cohen whom
Sir Walter Lawrence had in mind in his autobiography {Story of My Life,
1928, p. 100) when he spoke of a "German who had established himself as
headman of a village between Delhi and Meerut. who sheltered and saved
two English women in the Mutiny" ; though even so the old man's services
are under- stated.

C*pT. H. BULLOCK.

(iHmtumcutal ^nsmptums tn ii\t

"PADRE SANTOS- ROMAN CATHOLIC CEMETERY, AGRA (I).

123. Sacred to the memory of AUGUSTINE MARTIN Ueutt. in the
Marhatta Service who departed this life on the 20th of August 1843
aged 55 years and JOANNA his late wife whose remainB were deposited
here about 17 years ago. Tliis monument is erected by his elder brother
Captain Frederick Martin.

124. Sacred to the memory of Miss GEORGIANA THOMAS died on the
isl January 1849 born on the 8th Apri! 1833.

125. Here hes the body of THOMINGA MARTIN who died 20th March
1812 aged 63 years. {Here follows a Persian inscription, which reads)
Bibi DOMINGA (sic) wife of JOHN MARTIN died on 20th March
1812, corresponding to the 6th day of the month of Rabi-ul-awal in
the year 1227 hijri, on Friday, at night, From this world she passed
to the other.

126. Sacred to the memory of JOSEPH MARTIN the son of Lieut. . . .(res(
illegible).

127. Sacred to the memory of FREDRICK the infiuit son of Lieut.
FREDRICK (8<c) MARTIN died on the 4th of October 1882 aged
15 days.

128. In memory of Mr. GEORGE THOMAS who died on the 3rd October
1866 aged 58 years, [The age has been changed from 38 or 68 years).

129. In memoriam JOHN EDWARD MARTIN eldest son of the late Lieut.
Frederic (sic) Martin died at Mhow on 1st Novr. 1857. Born 28th Feb.
1818. aged 39 years. 8 months.

130. LEONORA HINDA MACMAHON the darling child of WM. O'BRIEN
MACMAHON de THOMOND departed this life the 13th Sept. 1881
aged 20 years.

131. Sacred to the memory of Edward BUTTERFIELD who died on the
7th October 1856 aged 42 years and 4 months,

132. Sacred to the memory of Mrs. H. McGRATH widow of the late Lieut.
McGRATH died at Agra 8th April 1874 aged 67 years 4 ms. and 19
days.

(I) For BBsiBtBnce in decipheriOB the vorioUB Persian epitaphs 1 a:
AiBhu All Shah. B.A.. Naib Tahaildar, Agia.

much indebted to Saiyid

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Sacted to the memory of Ucutt. M. McGRATH of the V. & P.
Establishment dietl at Agra 27th May I860 aged 60 years 9 months
and 3 days.

Sacred to the memory
1864 aged 95 years.

of M. L. BIRJON who died on the 12th June

135. . . . IC[ REPOSE LAME DE BIBI JANNE LIJITIME (,
MAZUEL DECEDE A AGRA LE 2 AOUT 1792.

136.

) DE PIERRE

Sacred to the memory of Mrs. CATHERINE SANGISTER who
departed this life on Thursday the 23rd October 1851 aged 70 years.

137. FREDERICK POWELL (nejtl (o no. 136. slllle o/ lultcring oery old).

138. The memory of T. BROOKS died 5th January aged 52 years & 5 ()
months) R. I. P. 1808.

139. Sacred to the memory of FREDERICK BUTTERFIELD who died on
the 26th January 1874 aged 62 years.

140. Sacred to the memory of MARTHA BUTTERFIELD widow of the
late Major Edward Butterfield who departed this life on the 2nd of
May 1857 in her 77th year leaving 2 sons and numerous grandsons to
mourn her irreparable loss.

Ml. Sacred to the memory of EDWARD BUTTERFIELD who died on
the 7th Oct. 1856 aged 42 years and ,4 months.

142. Sacred to the memory of JOHN MARTIN who died on the 12th May
1807 aged 80 years.

143. AQVI lAZ. LAZZARO MESSIAS FALACEO AOS . . . D JVL 1775.

144. ICI REPOSE LE CORPS DE M. LE CAPTN. ET. LANCRENEI
DECEDE LE 28 DECEMBRE 1803 1605) AGE DE 39 59) ANS.
{Incorrecllrj Iranacribed in Blunt).

145. CEYROOSLECORPDEALEX/ ANDRDECANECARDOS'/ PERINGUE
KANDMORT/LANI775AGARA.

146. JEAN DUXAMEL fils de Francois Duxamel mort a Agra dans T.nnee
. . . 1775.

(LcBB completely transcribed in Blunt).

147. CI GIT FRANCOIS BRUCEON FILS DE LOUIS BRUGEON ET DE
lOUANNA MARTIN DECEDE A AGRA LE II MAI MDCCLXXVI.
(Less completely transcribed in Blunt).

148. CA GIAZ O CORPO DI LUIS BORGION MORREO NACUERA DE
LAGORE . . . GUICNO DE 1792.

(7noccura(eIy & less completely transcribed in Blunt).
149 (From the Persian) MARASAWAR KAZAMIL otherwise ANJU

FERINGHI.
150. (from the Persian) the date of death of SHAT BIBI wife of PIRU
SAHIB was the 2l8t day of the month of Rabi-ul-awal in the 17th
year after the coronation of the King Shah Alam. namely 1 190 hijri.

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES. 151

God took her into his merciful fold. (The date corresponda with
]9th Jan. A.D. 1775).

151. (Pertian chronogram on tomb of Lieut. Frederictt Mariin){2). When
Captain Frederick Martin passed away from this world of dust to the
heavens, the angels proclaimed thai his body went straight to Paradise.
(T/iis chronogram gives the dale (A.D.) 1850).

152. (from the Persian). This tomb is of BIBl JULIANA wife of JOHN
JAMESON who died on the 28th day of July 1647. Tuesday al the age
of 40 years. On lOth August in the same year her son GASTON
died at the age of two.

153. (From the Persian). This is the tomb of ANAYMAN an Armenian,
wife of Captain ANTOINE BOURBON, daughter of MUSA SAHIB,
died 5th January 1855 aged 18 years,

154. (From the Persian). Tlie prayers of this man, ZI20S, a well-wisher,
have gone as far in favour of his rivals, as God's mercy goes with the
Cross. . . He will himself plead with the Almighty that their sins may
be forgiven. . . May God give me the power to regard my enemies
as I regard myself ... so that 1 may forgive them with all my heart
and soul and may repay them with kindness for their wicked deeds,
This man, ZIZOS, passed away in 1771.

PRECINCTS OF NEW ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, AGRA.

155. Sacred to the memory of Cap. SALVADORE SMITH who faithfully
served for 40 years Maharajah Scindiah, by whom he was pensioned.
Born 22 March 1784. died 5th August 1871. Aged 88 years. (Persian
inscription follows).

156. Sacred to the memory of THERESA SMITH the beloved wife of
Captain Salvadore Smith of His Highness the Sindheea of Gwalior's
Service, and daughter of Captain Borbon of the Jeypore Rajah's
service, who after a lingering illness of 5 months and 15 days departed
this hfe al Gwalior at 10 p.m. on Monday the 7th of July A.D. 1851
aged 62 years 6 months and 14 days. Here her remains were re-interred
on the 9lh February 1852. This tablet was erected by her disconsolate
husband as a token of his esteem and affection. (Persian inscription
follows).

157. Sacred to the memory of Miss ANNA DUBIGNON who departed this
life on the I5th Jan. 1876 aged 26 years. . . .

158. Sacred to the memory of Mrs. MARIAN PILOSE widow of the late
Captain J. B. Filose of His Highness Maharajah Scindiah's Service,
bom in 1824, died in 1880. . . .

OLD ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL, AGRA.

159. Sacred to the memory of MARY ANN PLOUGH relict of Captn.
John Plough of Ulwur. Died 3rd May 1873 aged 54 years. R.I.P.

BENGAL .■ PAST AND PRESENT.

160. Sacred to the memoty of MARGARET BENSLEY relict of Capln.
PETER BENSLEY and motlier ot Cenl. JOSEPH BENSLEY of Raia
Ulwur's service. Died I3lh August 1875 aged 65 years. R.I. P.

161. Sacred to die memory of WILLIAM SMITH late a Captain in Scindiah's
Service, Gwalior. who died in Agra on the 6th February 1863 aged
39 years. (Persian inscription foUotVs).

162. Sacred to the memory of Mrs. MARY SMITH wife ot Captain John
Smith late in His Highness Maharaja Aulija Scindia's Service, who
departed this hfe on Sunday at 2 p.m. of the 12th October 1845.
aged 22 years. Agra. {Persian inscriplian /o/fouJs).

163. {Al fieoJ o/ lomfc. nos. 161 * 162) Sacred to the memory of JOHN
SMITH who died on the 1st March 1870 aged 53 years and 10 months.
R.I.P.

164. MAGDALENA FILOZ obiit Agrae die 1 Xbris 17%. (/ncorrocll!/
transcribed in Blunt).

165. (Oner front entrance of old cathetfral). Restaurata et amplifica : ex
munificentia Dm ; Jo : Baptae Pilose Trib : Mil : in exercitu Regis
Maratorum et Cura Rmi : A ; Pezzoni Epi ; iLsbonenaia et Vic :-Aplici :
absoluta An : Dmi : MDCCCXXXV.

166. JOHN BAPTIST REMONNOET who departed this life on the 13th
of January 1841 aged 63 years.

167. Sacred to the memory of MARY AN PUECH wife of GEORGE PUECH
Raes of Merut (sic) who died after a lingering illness of 7 years in the
11th January 1879 aged 34 years. R. I. P. {Persian inscription foliates).

168. AQUl lAZO P. lOSEP DE CASTRO DAS COMPA. TRESLADADO
DE LAHOR ONDE MORREO AOS 15 DEZEM : 1646.

(Compore Blunt. No. 83).
AGRA. MUSULMAN CEMETERY NEAR THE FORT.

169. Sacred to the memory of SITTARAH BEGAM the faithful and
affectionate friend of Lieut. SHAIRP, who rlied on 30th Dec. 1804.
(There is also a Persian inscription which adds no information to the
foregoing).

NAINI TAL. CHURCHYARD OF .ST. JOHNSTN-THE-WILDERNESS.

170. Sacred to the memory of JANE the beloved wife of Dr. J. M.
HONICBERGER who departed this life on the 16th July 1868 aged
51 years. (Honigberger was medical officer to Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
According to Grey and Garrett. European Adcenliirers in Northern India,
p. 239, he was married to a Kashmiri by whom he had two children
who were educated in IVIus.oorie. He died in 1865).

171. Sacred to the memory of FRANCES ELIZABETH wile of J. O'B.
BECKETT aged 46, died March 28th 1882. {Text).

172. HELEN LYDIA BULKLEY aged 22 years. 15th July 1887. {Text).

NOWCONG, BUNDELKHAND, CENTRAL INDIA.

(At Nowgong there are four Christian cemeteries, of which two are
quite modem and have only been taken into use in the last twenty years

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES. 153

or so. Of the other two, the oldest contains six or seven old-fashioned
tombs, of which only one has any epitaph : it is to the memory of : —

173. Two infant children of Major HENRY DRUMMOND. 3rd Bengal Ught
Cavalry, died in 1851 and 1952.

TKe fourth cemetery is larger, but in this also few inscriptions
remain, which range from 1859 to 1900. Of die older ones may be
noted —

174. Gunner IVIICHAEL RYAN. 3rd Bn. Madras Artillery, died 18 May 1859.

175. Colonel G. W. N. HALL. C.B.. Commandant 3rd Bengal Cavalry, died
31 July 1875.

176. Captain GEORGE FRANCIS BLOWER. Bombay Sta« Corps, died
31 May 1876.

These particulars have been furnished by a correspondent at
Nowgong.
NAINI TAL. CHURCHYARD OF ST. JOHN'S-IN-THE-WILDERNESS.

177. ETHEL MAY the beloved daughter of Surgn. Major and
Mrs. CRIBBON died 18th August 1876 aged 3 years and 3 months.

178. Sacred to the loving memory of WILLIAM MALWA the dearly
beloved son of John and Emma DAME, who departed this life at the
Diocesan Boys School Naini Tal on the 19th of October 1890, aged
16 years 6 months 7 days . . .

179. In remembrance of ELIZABETH ABBOTT, the beloved wife of
Surgeon Major J. E. MOFFATT. H.M.s l-14th Regt.. who departed
this life on the 31st of May 1875. aged 45 years.

180. In memory of JOHN HEELINGS LLOYD B. C. S. second son of the
Revd. John Daniel Lloyd. Rector of Qare, Tiverton, Devonshire.
England. Born July 13th 1841. Died July 5th 1873.

181. THOMAS GREG HANSON C. S.. Born December 14th 1840 Died
August 29th 1872 (le»l) Erected by John Hanson. Antrim. Ireland,
who desires to record a parent's gratitude to Sir William and
Lady Muir. their family and friends, for their urrremitting attention and
Christian kindness to an only and beloved son during life's closing
scene, whilst sojourning in a foreign land. {text).

182. Sacred to the memory of W. J. RIVETT-CARNAC. July 9th 1874.

183. Sacred to the memory of KATE EWBANK die dearly beloved wife o(
Lieut. Colonel W. H. S. EARLE B. S. C, who died at Nynee Tall
on the 3rd September 1872 aged 53 years.

184. Sacred to the dear Memory o( my husband PETER HENRY PECK
GILL, Colonel H. M. Staff Corps, born March 25 1825. died October 6.
1873 . . .

185. Sacred to the memory of PERCY FITZGERALD son of Major F. B.
FOOTE 16th Regt. N. 1. and Charlotte Margaretta his wife who died
at Nynee Tal on the 26th April 1871 aged 18 mondu . . .

186. Sacred to the memory of our beloved sister EMILY KEITH ERSKINE
3rd daughter of the late Captain George Keith Erskine 1st Bombay
Lancers. Bom 28th May 1846. Died 8th Dec. 1869. (Text).

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

187. Sacred to the memory of ANNETTE ELIZA eldest child of Captain W.
(?) E. YOUNG Bengal Army aged II year and 3 months. (No year
given).

188. ROBERT CONSTABLE 13th Huasars died at Naini Tal April 6th 1879
aged 29 years.

189. In loving remembrance of COLIN DOUGLAS infant son of Malcolm
and Sarah MACKENZIE of Rajaputtee. Chupra. born April 12th 1889.
died Sept. 25th 1889.

190. In loving memory of LOUISA PHILOMENA WESTERLING died at
Ramnee Park on the Nth May 1890 aged II years and 4 months.
(Tex/). {Ramnee Park '« a bungalow at Naini Tol).

191. RICHARD ALBERT the infant son of RICHARD T. QUINNELL and
his wife ELVINA.

192. In loving memory of CHARLES A. G. CUMINE Captain 2nd Battn.
East Surrey Regt. accidentally killed at Naini Tal when on duty on the
14th August I8S4. aged 33 years.

193. Sacred to the memory of CHARLES EDWARD son of Major-General
W. H. MILLER. C.B.. who died at Naini Tal on 29th April 1878.
aged 44 years. {Text).

194. HUGH CECIL infant son of Lt. Col. and Mrs. McMAHON. died
6 October 1874 aged 28 days.

195. Sacred to the memory of Captain B. S, B. PARLEY, died 4 May 1868
aged 37. Deeply regretted.

196. Here lies EDWARD BRUCE Lieut. Col. Royal Artillery, died 7th June
1879. aged 50.

197. Sacred to the memory of Lieut. J. H. PARKER, I4th Regt.. born
2nd September 1855. died 5th May 1879. Erected by his brother

198. In loving memory of WILLIAM GEORGE DEMPSTER, only son of
Bt. Major A. H, GORDON 65lh Regt. and Kalherine his wife, died
8th June 1877. aged 28 days. {Text).

199. Sacred to the memory of JOHN CRAUFURD MACDONALD third son
of the late Donald Macdonald Captain R. E. and the Lady Ramsay
Macdonald. many years Superintendent of the Tarai, who died at
Naini Tal 6th Sept, 1890. aged 57 years.

200. Sacred to the memory of MARY the dearly beloved wife of Surgeon
J. F. TUOHY I, M.S., who departed this life on 12th April 1890.
aged 32 years. {Text).

201. Surgeon M. GAISFORD died at Kathgodam March 30. 1889. aged
33 years. Erected by his brother officers and friends by whom he was
beloved.

202. Sacred to the memory of JANE EMMA, widow of Captain Michael
Ramsay .SPENCE. B. S. C, and eldest and dearly loved daughter of
Bradford and Mary Leslie, who died at Naini Tal. Ilth June 1886.

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS IN THE UNITED PROVINCES. 155

leaving two orphan children too young to realise their irreparable loss.

203. In loving remembrance of EDWARD GEORGE NEWNHAM. Lt.-
Col. VI, Bengal Cavalry, born 28lh July 1840. died Mth June 1887.
(7-e,().

204. CATHERINE ISABEL, infant daughter of Major HAILES. B. S. C.
bom l.t April 1884. died 24th May 1884.

205. In loving memory of WILLIAM HENRY WARREN. Major H. M.
81>t Regt,. died May 22nd 1882.

206. In affectionate remembrance of GEORGE EDWARD FETTER, born
at Barnstaple, North Devon 6th April 1825. died at Naini Tal. 4th June
1890. (Text).

207. Sacred to the memory of Lieutenant Colonel WILLIAM DAVIS. Bengal
Staff Corps (Text) died 7th October 1873 (Text) aged 47 years.

208. In memory of MARY JANE THERESA the beloved wile of Lt.-
Col. W. DAVIS. B. S. C. died 19th July 1870. (Text).

209. In memory of Lieutenant-Ceneral Sir EDWARD WILLIAM
HUTHWAITE. K. C. B.. Colonel Commandant of the 16th Brigade
Royal (late Bengal) Artillery. Born 23rd June 1793, died at his
residence ■Sherwood". Nynee Tal, East Indies. 5th April 1873. after
a highly distinguished service of 63 years. This tomb is erected in
affectionate remembrance by some of his brother officers. (See
Dictionary of Indian Biography).

210. To the memory of FREDERICK C. J. BROWNLOW. Colonel. Bengal
Cavalry, died 25th May 1878.

211. In memorial CATHERINE MONEY wife of Gilbert Money C. S. Died
August 23. 1877. aged 53 years.

AGRA. CANTONMENT CEMETERY.

212. Sacred to the memory of NANCY MACPHERSON widow of the
late Captain Macpherson late of Scindia's service who departed this
life on the 19th August 1854. Aged 100 years. This tablet is erected
by . . . her afflicted grandson Thomas A. Martin.

213. Sacred to the memory of LOUISA SHEPHERD relict of the late Lieut,
and Adiut. James Shepherd of H. M. the King of Oude's Service who
departed this life on the 22nd Dec. 1846 aged 46 years.

ALLAHABAD. OLD KYDGANJ CEMETERY.

214. (Corrigendum to "Blunt" No. 556: for BROWNING read ROWNING).

215. (Corrigendum to "Blunt" No. 558: for ALORIA read MARIA, and for
BANONGARDT read BAUMGARDT).

CHUNAR. VARIOUS CEMETERIES.

216. (Corrigendum to

2 1 7. (Corrigendum tt

LLEWELLYN).

■Blunt". No. 684: for CUSSON read CUSSONS).
■Blunt^^. No. 698: lor LEWELLYN read

156 BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

216. (Corrigendum to "Blunt ". No. 702 : (or BERKELLY read BERKELEY).

219. (Corrigendum to "Blunt", No. 740: for REDISH read REDDISH).

220. (Corrigendum to "Blunt" No. 71 1 : for W. T. WILSON read W. F.
WILSON).

221. (Corrigendum to "Blunt". No. 714: for DAVE read DANL.).

222. (Corrigendum to "Blunt". No. 717: for MOLLE^EANA read
MOLLINEAUX).

223. (Corrigendum to "Blunt". No. 741 : for AORTU read ARTY.).

Capt. H. bullock.

JV famous Calnttta ^irm.

THE HrSTORY OF THACKER SPiNK AND CO.

p30 little has been written about the old Calcutta business 6rms. In
the present article an attempt is made to narrate the history of one
of the most famous of them — the house of Thacker Spink and Co., which
dates back, as we shall presently see. to the year 1819. The example »o
set will, it is hoped, be followed by others.

We reproduce, on the opposite page, the photograph of a painting of
Government Place North (once known as Wlielar Place), by a Mahomedan
artist who signs himself "Zoynool Abdeen of Karryah." It hangs in the
room at No. 2 Creed Lane. Ludgate Hill, in the city of London, occupied
by Mr. C, F. Hooper, an old and valued member of the Calcutta Historical
Society, who is the present head of the London firm of W, Thacker and Co.
Beginning on the right, we see the two houses, on either side of Wellesley
Place, which have been transformed into the residences of the Private
Secretary and the Military Secretary to the Governor of Bengal. Tlie house
on the extreme right bears two signboards: "Boudet. Hairdresser,
Perfumer,' and "■6/2. Hollway and Co.. French and English Millinery
Warehouse." The house on the other side of Wellesley Place is inscribed:
"6)4, Madame Champenois, French and English Millinery." The low
building which comes next is the office of "W. Thacker and Co.. Army
Agency." Adjoining it is "St. Andrew's Library," at the corner of Fancy
Lane. Beyond it, and bounded on the west by Council House Street, is
a Government office : the words "Office. 1st Fancy Lane" can be deciphered
on a notice-board hung on the wall at the western corner of Fancy Lane.
On the opposite side of the road a glimpse can be caught of Loudon
Building, long since swallowed up by the large block of secretariat offices
in what is now known as "Government Place West." (I). Tlie signboard
here is quite legible: it bears the legend, "E. Leycester, late Henry Peters,
Watchmaker." In the distance is St. John's Church. The left of the picture
is occupied by the wide expanse of Hastings Street (Puthareah Girjah ka
Dukhin Rastah, the street to the south of the Stone Church).

All the names displayed on the signboards are to be found in the
Calcutta Directory for 1842, from which it is possible also to identify the
Government office as the "Secret and Political Department, 6 Government
Place." As Mr. Henry Peters is declared by the Bengal and Agra Guide
for 1841 to be still in business in that year as a watchmaker in Government
Place the year 1842 can safely be assigned to the painting: and, as it so
happens, this was the year in which the firm of W. Thacker and Co,

(I) The Bengal Directory For IS43 ihowi thmt "the C^cutta Holsl (J, Spence and Co.)" was
■hen located in Loudon Building.

BENGAL .- PAST ASD PRESENT.

conunenced their tenaAcjr of tbe prenuees in Covemment Place Norib wriiicb
luted until 1916.

In lfM2 the Gnn had already paaaed ila ma.joniy. For it waa on Januaiy
6. 1819. that Mr. WilUam Thacker. who had made four voyages to the East
as auTgeon of an Indiaman. received a license from the East India Company.
which permitted Kim to reside at Fort William in Bensal "to dispose of
Messrs. Black Parbiuy and Co.'s consignment." The license is still in the
possession of the firm. Messrs. Alexander Black, Thomas Kingsbury. Charles
Parbury. and W. H. Allen (subsequently Lord Mayor of London) were at
that time the members of the firm of Black Parbury and Co., bookseilexs
and stationers of Leadenhall Street. William Thackcr, whose wife accom-
panied htm (2) duly proceeded to Calcutta, and established the St. Andrews
Library in a house at the comer of Lai Bazar, immediately to tbe east of
St. Andrews Church, from which it is separated by Old Court House Comer,
the road running round (he block at right angles and emef^ng into Radha
Bazar on the east (3). The site is now occupied by Norton's Buildings. In
one of James Baillie Fraser's views, representing St. Andrews Church and
taken from the comer of Mission Row, the house which is a two-storied
one. can be seen prominently in the foreground on the right of the plate.
The name St. Andrews Library was in use as late as I85S. The firm have
in their possession a bill made out in that year in the name of the Hon.
Gerald C. Talbot, private secretary to Lord Caruiing ; it is headed
"St. Andrew's Library," and there is a vignette of St. Andrew's Qiurch in
the left hand comer.

The address of the Library is given as Lai) Bazar in 1827. and again
in 1833. But fresh quarters had become necessary, it is said, on the authority
of Baboo N'undo Lai Dey, an old assistant of the firm, that the premises
were in bad condition, and that the landlord refused to execute the repairs
which were needed. The Directory of 1636 accordingly contains the entry:
"William Thacker and Co.. St. Andrews' Library, I Old Court House Street."
These premises were at the comer of Waterloo Street and Old Court House
Street, next door to Dykes and Co. the coach -builders, who closed their
business in 1924. They have been engulfed in the Great Eastern Hotel,
of which Sir William Howard Russell gives such a glowing account in his
Diary in India (1860) under the name of the Auckland Hotel, but which the
ticca gharry wallah of a past generation preferred to call "Wilson Hotel"
after iU founder David Wilson.

The library was, we imagine, carried on upon the upper floor of this
building ; for an unexpected use was found for the basement in 1839. In
the early morning of May 31. the Chowringhee Theatre, which had been

(2) Muy Edwards Thacker. the wife
oa Au^il 19. 1625. aged 26 yeaci. Her
lecond wife. Helen Parbury. wai a sUl
firm, who edited ihe Calculla Magazine i

(3) At No. 8 Old Cou.1 Hoi>« Coi
bulinera until 1907 of Meaaii, Sleuut am

oF William Thacker. E<q.. Surseoo, died in Calcutta
BTBve i> in the South Park Cemeteiy. Dr. Thackei's

cr of Geoige Parbury, subsequently ■ partner in the

.nd compiled a "Handbook For India."

tier fbehind Si. Andrew's Church) was the place of

( Co.. the coach-builders.

A FAMOUS CALCUTTA FIRM.

established in 1813 at the corner of what is now Theatre Road, was totally
destroyed by fire. Pending the erection of another theatre, it became
necessary to secure temporary accommodation ; and. says J. H. Stocqueler
in his Memoirs o/ a Joiimalist (1873. p. 115). "a long room beneath a book-
seller's store was engaged." The late Mr. Elliot Walter Madge, in an
article on the Calcutta Stage {Statesman, October 29. 1905) correctly identifiea
the " store" as St. Andrews' Library, but he falls into the error of locating
the building on the opposite side of Waterloo Street, for he writes of the
site as being "now occupied by Messrs. Cuthbertson and Harper." The
first performance at the temporary theatre was given (Mr. Madge tells us)
on August 21, 1839: and the play presented was "The Hunchback" by
Sheridan Knowles. with Mrs. Esther Leach, Calcutta's "star" actress of that
time, as Julia. On March 8. 1841. the new Theatre, the Sans Souci in
Park Street (now St. Xaviers College) opened its doors : and a metrical
prologue to celebrate the occasion was written by John William Kaye, who
was then editor of the Bengal Hurkam.

By 1841 Messrs. W. TTiacker and Co. were also thinking of moving.
TTieir address is given in the Directory of 1841 as No. I Old Court House
Street (5) in ihe following year an advertisement at the end of Parbury's
"Handbook for India" indicates that the business had been transferred to
6 Government Place. Mr. George Parbury. the author of the Handbook,
had been admitted as a partner in "the firm of W. Thacker and Co..
St. Andrew's Library Calcutta" on December 31. 1838. In October 1839
an agency in London was established at No. 34, New Broad Street, E. C;
whence it migrated to 41 Threadneedle Street in 1842 (under the style of
r and Co.) and to 46 Lime Street in 1845.
1 Spink, who was the nephew of Mr, William Thackei

Parbury Thacki
Mr. Wiiliar
out to Calcutta
into partnership
Thacker Spink a

1839 as an assistant in the firm. Mr. Spink was admitted
^n July 1. 1851. In the Directory for 1852. the firm is styled
id Co. for the first time. But the style of the firm was actually
altered to Thacker. Spink & Co. in November 1851. In the same year the
London offices at 87, Newgate Street were taken.

The London agency was now at 87 Newgate Street : and in the year
1852 a lad of fourteen of the name of John Henry Brodribb %vas engaged as
a clerk. He was evidently a believer in punctuality for the attendance-
books, which were stolen at a later period by a dishonest employee, showed
that young Brodribb was invariably the first to arrive of a morning. But
when Mr. Spink offered to send him out to Calcutta, he declined and
announced that he had decided to become an actor. Mr. Henry Irving
accordingly made his first appearance on the stage in 1856. The premises
in Newgate Street were vacated by Messrs. W. Thacker and Co. in 1896.
when they removed to their present place of business at 2 Creed Lane ;
and they are now used by Messrs. Joseph Lyons and Co. as one of their

(5) The following funiliar namea occur in the Directory for 1843 in Old Courl House Sttee
; No. 1. Dykes and Co.: No. 1. D. Wilson and Co.. Auckland Hotel; No. 2, T. E. Thomw)
[ No. 3, Rankcn and Co.: No. 5. Balhgate and Co. J. Cuthbectaon appears st assiKant
Monleilh and Co., Cossilollah (Bentinck Street).

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

restaurants. A tablet on the wall bears the following inscriptions: "Sir
Henry Irving (1838-1905) served his time as a publishers clerk on these
premises, leaving in 1856. " TTiat Irving retained pleasant recollections of
his association with the firm is evidenced by the fact that on October 5.
1866. the day before his first appearance in London at the St. James's
TTieatre, he wrote to Mi. H. R. Blackwetl. the manager, enclosing "for old
remembrance," an order for the performance or for any subsequent one
which he might care to attend (6),

Another employe, with somewhat different claims to fame, was Maurice
Gottheimer. who came out to Calcutta as accountant on a five years engage-
ment. He would appear to have been the brother of the financier, who
under the name of Baron Albert Grant, purchased Leicester Square, which
had become a general dumping ground and presented it in a new dress
to the people of London.

In 1863 we have the first issue of Thacker's Post Office Directory which
has since that date made its appearance every year and has become a
Calcutta classic. The launch was attended by an adverse breeze in the
shape of an action by A. G. Roussac, who regarded the publication as an
infringement of his rights : but the matter was settled. Roussac had brought
out in 1856 a "New Calcutta Directory ' which is stated on the title page
to be compiled by him and published "for the Proprietor" at the Military
Orphan Press : but the series of Directories in the India Office Library
exhibits a gap between 1856 and 1863- There are Bengal Directories for
1854 and 1855, but they do not bear the name of Roussac and are "complied
and sold for the proprietors by Samuel Smith and Co.. 1 Hare Street.' An
earlier venture was the Bengat and Agra Guide, which was published in
1841 and again in 1842 by W. Rushton and Co. of the Ballantyne Press and
Library in Vansittart Row (7). It is not until 1863 that the series, as the
result of Messrs. Thacker. Spink and Co.'s enterprise, becomes continuous.

A strange incident occured after the Mutiny of 1857 : when, by the
way. the manager of the Lucknow branch, Mr. Hill, succeeded in removing
the stock on camels, and Mr. W. Spink was the last of those who escaped
to Calcutta before the siege of the Residency. The firm were acting as
Army agents, and a large quantity of letters accumulated. Tliese were

(6) The lelter i. reproduced in Mi. Austin Brerelon'. Life of Sir Heniy Irving (1906 : Vol. 1.
p. 11), AlthouBli living did not come to Calcutta, he became connected with Bengal thiou^
his maniage in 1869 at St. Mary Lebone Parish Church to the daughtei of Sutgeon-General
Daniel James O'Callaghan (1814-1900). Deputy I nspectoi -General qI HospilaU in Bengal f'om
1868 to 1872 and authoi of The Uril taqter at Meeiut (1881). According to Mi. Breteton
(ibid. Vol. I. p. 98) O'Callaghan waa noted foi his con tiibul ions to the Press and "was on the
staff of (he Chief Calcutta newspapeis."

(7) Rushton and Co. also published the Phniert /ottmcf and specialized In piialed editions
of popular noveU On March 27, 1837. the Cakalta Courier announced the publication by
Mi. W. Ruahton oF a "tepiint" of "that most amusing and witty ptoduction. the 'Poathumou*
Papers of the Pickwick Club'." with s iiontispiece which was "so good a copy of the oiigina!"
ihal the Conner "had some difficulty to believe that the original plate had not been obtained
from England." Piialed copies [allowed in 1838 of novels by Bulwet Lytton and Capt.
Maiiyal and plays by Shaiidan Knowle*. See aiticle in the Stalc*man of February 24, 1928,

A FAMOUS CALCUTTA FIRM.

addressed lo officers of Sepoy regiments which had mutinied, and could
not therefore be delivered. When order had been restored, they were
packed in a case and shipped to Europe : but the P. and O. Steamer was
wrecked on one of the islands in the Red Sea known as the Twelve Apostles.
The case was salved and conveyed to Perim where it seems to have been
overlooked, for it remained there until 1887, It was then delivered lo
Messrs. W. Thacker and Co. in London, and the difficuU task had to be
undertaken of discovering the heirs and next of kin of the officers to whom
the letters were addressed. In many cases remittances were enclosed.

On the morning of September 30, 1871, Mr. John Paxlon Norman, one
of the Judges of the High Court, who was officiating as Chief Justice pending
the arrival of Sir Richard Couch, was mortally wounded by a Muhammadan
fanatic as he was ascending the steps of the northern portico of the Town
Hall, which was then in temporary use for the sittings of the Judges on
the original side during the erection of the present High Court building.
He was placed in a palki and carried into the premises of Messrs. Thacker
Spink and Co. in Government Place North, where he was laid on a table
in the partners' back room (8). and his wounds were examined. Dr. Fayrer
(the Lucknow veteran, who died as recently as 1907) and three other doctors
were speedily in attendance, but the injuiies received were fatal, and
Mr. Norman died shordy after midnight on the same day.
The following letter, which was addressed to Mr.
Mrs. Norman from 12 Russell Street on October 7, 1871.
the firm :

I must not leave Calcutta without saying how deeply I feel the
great kindness and attention which my late husband received on the
last day of his life from you in particular and from several members
of your establishment. As some slight acknowledgment of tlus
obligation, I hope you will do me the favour to accept the photo-
graph of Mr. Norman (as he looked when we came out to India)
which will be sent to you by Mr. Justice Jackson (9).

Norman, who was a sound lawyer and had practised in Ejigland as a
special pleader, was one of the four barrister Judges named in the Letters
Patent constituting the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in 1862,
and was then forty-three. He was President of the Faculty of Law in the
University of Calcutta and enjoyed universal popularity and respect, TTiere
is a monument to his memory in St. Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta ; and a small
portrait of him hangs in the Attorneys' Library at the High Court. His name
survives in Ejiglish legal circles as part-editor of Hurlstone and Norman's
Exchequar Reports.

W, Spink by
preserved by

(a)T>.,

. taUe m>y i

■till

seer

1 in

ihe

premise, in

Eipiar

lade

Ea.1; i

n front

of thr

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entrance in

1 (he libraiy.

h«.

hrt

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=.«!. but f.

lint trai

;e» of blood

' on be

<li.rr

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under (he i

jicen baize.

(9)T1,=

photograph

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pecmUBion

o! M..

Bcngoh

P«,l

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Pretnt in

1908 tVol, II.

P.I

ft 11.

ItM).

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Mr. Waiiam Thacker died i
associate. Mr. George Parbury.
of the firm, left Calcutta in 1876,
of the London house
During his residence i
Association ( 1 83 1 ) an
Bengal Legislative
Mr. Thomas William
his brother. Mr. Willi

Undon on January 2. 1872. and his old
1881. Mr. William Spink, now the head

nd took an active part in the management
until 1882 ; he died on July 25. 1891. at the age of 75.
in Calcutta, he served the office of Master of the Trades
d was also a membei of the Corporation and of the
Council (April— November. 1876). His elder son
Spink, came out to Calcutta in 1882. the year in which
iam Thacker Spink, joined the firm in London. Mr. T.

W. Spink was Master of the Trades Association in 1896 and 1897. was
appointed a Port Commissioner (1899-1901) and was a member of the Bengal
Legislative Council (1898-1900): he died on November 26. 1921. Mr. W. T,
Spink, who died on December 28, 1928 at the age of 72, followed in the
same steps: Master of the Trades Association, 1892. Port Commissioner
1901-1902. Member of the Bengal Legislative Council. 1906-1907. Mr. C. F.
Hooper, the present head of the firm, is the grandson of Mr. William Spink.
He entered the business in 1886 and came out to Calcutta in 1891. In 18%
he resigned, but rejoined in 1903 and became a partner in 1907. He too
served the office of Master of the Calcutta Trades Association (1916). was
a member of the Corporation for twelve years and acted as a Port
Commissioner from 1918 to 1921, There were few more familiar figures in
Calcutta from 1903 to 1927 ; and during the whole of that period he was in
charge of the Calcutta business, with the exception of short intervals in the
cold weather, when the Spink brothers assumed control. TTie present
partners are, Mr. Hooper, Mr. G. H. F. Eatwell (Calcutta), who was Master
of the Calcutta Trade Association in 1928, Mr. J, Chaplin, and Mr. R. S.
Carter. It was during the regime of Mr. W. T. Spink that two notable
events occurred : the publication in 1882 of the first edition of
Dr. Busteed's Echoes from Old Calcutta, and the publication in December
1887 of Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills. .Subsequent editions
of Dr. Busteed's book were printed in 1888, 1897 and 1908. Of the immense
pleasure given to thousands of readers by this wonderful pot pourri it is not
necessary to write : but a word of praise is due to the man who made the
storehouse accessible to the public. Lord Curzon has related that it was
one of the books which beguiled his voyage to India in the winter of 1896
when taking up the Viceroyalty and that it was from its pages that the
idea arose of restoring the Holwell Monument.

TTie adventure connected wth the name of KipHng deserves a para-
graph to itself. The firm of A. H. Wheeler and Co. of Allahabad had
published a series of his short stories under various titles such as. "The
Story of the Gadsbys," "In Black and White." and "Wee Willie Winkie."
These were sold in paper covers at a rupee each at railway bookstalls and
were widely bought (10). Then came "Plain Tales." An original edition
was brought out for India and a second for circulation in Ejigland. Mr.
Hooper was then an assistant in the London house, and the duty devolved

(10) If every purchoaer had kept his
Duld not be bo fantastically high.

, the present prices of these litllc rupee

jee booka I

A FAMOUS CALCUTTA FIRM.

upon him of inducing the wholesale and retail booksellers to "subscribe" (or
copies. He has told the story in the second volumes of Indian Ink (1915.
Thacker Spink and Co.. Calcutta), an excellent magazine, with several
admirable illustrations in colour, which was issued during the War in aid
of the Indian War Fund under the editorship of Mr. Everard Digby (11).

One day (writes Mr. Hooper) a letter arrived from Calcutta with the
news that the firm there was publishing Plain Tales from the HilU, a new
book by a new author. "We shall be giad if you will do your best to sell
this book. We are sending a thousand copies to you. It should prove to
be as popular as Lays oj /nJ"(l2). Now, "Lays of Ind." as Mr. Hooper
puts it, was "our big smoke at the time" ; and the pronouncement excited
much conversation. Shortly afterwards, an advance copy arrived, ' a curious
little book with a design on the cover, purporting to represent the Hills."
The London manager. Mr. Heaton. took it to read, and kept it for several
days. His opinion was not flattering : it seemed that the fital story, "Lispeth,"
displeased him, although Mr. Hooper credits him with imagination, TTien
came the turn of Mr. Hooper. He started reading it while standing in a
queue for the pit at the Savoy Tlieatre, where a matinee performance of
H. M. S. Pinafore was being given. He read it for an hour while he was
waiting, read it (sad to say) during the overture and between the acts, and.
finally, became so absorbed in it. while returning home by the District
Railway, that he was nearly carried past his station.

The manager was converted by his assistant's report ; and they went
off to persuade Paternoster Row. But hardly any of the booksellers would
look at it : and sixteen copies only were subscribed. The Press was then
approached : and the Saturday Review gave nearly a column to the book.
The ball now began to roll. TTie libraries demanded to be fed, and the
thousand copies "melted like snow in summer."

Meanwhile, Departrrjental Ditties had been published by the "Lahore
District Department of Public Journalism "in 1 886. Kipling needed funds
for the voyage which he was proposing to make to England by way of
America and Japan, and which he describes in his letters "From Sea to
Sea"; and the copyright of Departmental Ditliea was bought by Thacker
Spink and Co. for £100. It was afterwards sold by them for £2000. a price
satisfactory enough at the time, but far below the present valun. The third
edition of this book, elaborately bound and decorated, was published in
1889. Once again the trade would have nothing to do with it : the "buyer"
at the Army and Navy Stores even went so far as to tell Mr. Hooper "not
to bring rubbish like that here." The public had, however, come to the

(10 It is to be hoped that . net h
Office Library and the Brilish Museum
kindneas of Mr. Hooper, who has lent

(12) "Uys ol Ind. by Aliph Cheen
India Preu in two successive parts, in
and Co. it paeeed th cough seveial edilii
1923 : but by that time ihe poems I
(■fterwaida Colonel) Waller Yeldham.

I been preterved in the imperial Library. The India
ave no copies. I have been obliged to rely upon the

was oriaitially published in Bombay at the 7'imei o/
73 and 1874. In the hands of Messrs. Thacker Spink
13. The latesl, which is the eighth, was published in
d outlived its populaiily. The author was Captain

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

;a(Jing : and after this double experience

told in connexion with Departmental
: introductory stanzas, which commence

conclusion that Kipling was worth i
the trade also made up its mind.

There is one more story to be
Ditties. Every one knows the thre
with the words

I have eaten youi bread and salt,

I have drunk your water and wine.
These verses were written by Kipling at the special request of Mr. W. T.
Spink, to take the place of the original introduction. Mr. Spink was a great
master of detail : and it is a pleasure to own one of the books published
under his supervision. He lavished, in particular, immense labour upon the
fourth edition of the Echoes, which was published in 1908, and spared no
expense over the illustrations. The result was, possibly, not as gratifying to
the publisher as it is to the possessor of the book.

Mention must also be made of the Rev. H. B. Hyde's Parish of Bengal
(1899) and Major V. C. Hodson"s Historical Records of the Viceroy's " '

Guard (1910). Both ihes,
beauty of the type, as i
Miss Kathleen Blechynder
of the same kind: here

volumes are dk
ell as the unifori
s Calcutta Past a

particular the reproduction

:inguished by the clearness and
1 excellence of the illustrations.
,d Present (1905) is another work
illustrations challenge attention,
ars of William Baillie's General

view of Calcutta in 1794. Ail three books are monumenta of the taste and
judgment of Mr. W. T. Spink.

In October 1916 the long tenancy of the premises in Government Place
North came to an end, and the firm removed to its present palatial home at
No. 3 Esplanade East, An interesting history attaches to the house which
originally stood on this site. About the time of the Mutiny it was Mountain's
Hotel, which we find in 1841 at 13 Raneymoody Gulley (British Indian Street).
Later on, it was long known as "No, 1 Calcutta," when in the occupation
of Mr. R. N. Mathewson, The American Consul resided there for a con-
siderable period : and during the concluding years of its life, the Palace
Hotel was housed on the ground floor.

It was by the merest chance that the firm did not remain in its old
habitation. A price for the purchase of the premises had been agreed
with the Government, and the deed of sale was ready for execution,
when a caveat was entered by a third party (Mr. Meyer), on the
ground that there had been no opportunity to bid at public auction. Tlie
objection was successful ; but had the cooeaf been served five minutes later,
the transaction would have been completed. The premises in Government
I'lace North, are now used as the offices of the Registrar of Calcutta and the
headquarters of the Red Cross organisations.

EVAN COTTON,

^[{{e ^nhimi ^ilcbiral ^cruice.

I6I5-I930 : Compiled by Lieut.-
Oice, retired. (W. Thacker & Co.

[Roll of the Indian Medical Serwce .-
Colonel D. G. Crawford, Bengal Medical Se.
Twenty-Eight Shillings net).]

f^^OLONEL CRAWFORD is an old and valued contributor to the columns

of Bengal : Past and Present, and the "Brief History of the Hooghly

of the best works of its kind. In the "History of

" which he brought out in 1915, he has already

gin and development of the Service of which he

Tiber. He now supplies an astonishingly complete

ved, even for the shortest period, in the Company's

s to include thoee who were posted

result is an invaluable work of

District" (1903) is quite

the Indian Medical Servic

given an account of the i

is so distinguished a m

list of every man who s

land medical services, and has gone so fai

or gazetted but did not actually join. The

reference, of which the only counter-part is Major Hodson's "List of Officers
of the Bengal Army from 1758 to 1834." An enormous amount of patient
research has been involved : the index contains 6581 names ! As he points out
in his preface, the old records are full of mis-readings and mis-spellings : Such
as "Jandisith" for "Sandwith". "Tyffe- for "Fyffe", "Mowland" for
"Rowland." But Col. Crawford's labours have not been confined to the

i possil

;ble. i:

I connexion
retirement,
honours and decora-
remarkable achieve-
ily upon it.

1 of entries in official lists. He gives, as fai
with each indvdual, the dates of birth, successive i
and death, the medical school with degree and diplomi
tions. war services and particulars of publications. It i;
ment. and Col. Crawford is to be congratulated most vfi

In dealing with such a mass of details, the avoidance of errors becomes
impossible. However careful the scrutiny of proofs, misprints are bound to
creep in. Col. Crawford informs us that it was not until the second revision
that he discovered that his own name was mis-spelt I and, odd as it may seem,
those lapses which we have detected or which have been pointed out to us.
are obvious. Thus, the capture of the Kent Indiaman off the Sandheads took
place on October 7. 1800, and not in 1850, as printed on page 286. where we
learn that Robert Crozier Sherwood, a young Surgeon who was on his way
out to Bengal, was dangerously wounded in the engagement.

We note also that the date of the birth of Simon Nicolson (p. 55) should
be July 5. 1779. and not 1799. Calcutta has, we fear, forgotten this famous
practitioner, but from 1820 until his death on August 8. 1855. he enjoyed
undisputed pre-eminence in his profession. Emily Eden in 1841 styles him
"the Sir H. Halford of Calcutta, whom every one abuses, and yet they all
send for him. and the other doctors mind every word he says." He lived
in a house at the corner of Kyd Street and Chowiinghee, and the avenue
leading across the Maidan past the Mayo Statue, is said to have been made in

BENGAL ; PAST AND PRESENT.

order to enable him to have direct access to Lord Dalhousie at Government
House. His portrait hangs in the rooms of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Emily Elden also mentions Dr. Mountford Joseph Bramlcy. who died in
Calcutta on January 19, 1837, al the early age of 32 ; he was the first principal
of the Medical College. "There is." she writes "no one Here who can lake
his place" : and. as a matter of fact, the ofHce of principal remained in
abeyance for twenty years.

Another celebrated Calcutta doctor of the same period was Francis Pemble
Strong who held the office of Civil Surgeon of the Twenty Four Pergunnahs
from 1822 to 1857. without taking furlough and. when he did, died almost
immediately in London on May 10. 1858. The Public Library had for several
years no better habitation than the lower rooms of his house in Esplanade
Row East, which stood, appropriately enough, on the site of the present
home of the Imperial Library. In common with a number of others. Strong
"gave up promotion" in order to avoid transfer : and never rose above the
rank of assistant surgeon, William Russell declined promotion to superin-
tending surgeon for the same reason : he retired in 183 1 and received a
baronetcy in the following year for services rendered in the London cholera
epidemic.

William Twining, whose portrait hangs in the Town Hall, was a Peninsular
and Waterloo veteran, who had been present at the entry of the Allies
into Paris. He came to Calcutta in 1823 as surgeon to Sir Edward Paget,
the Commander-in-chief, and joined the Bengal Medical Department a year
later. His practice too was enormous : and yet he was only 45 at the time
of his death in 1835.

A strange story is told in William Tayler's "Thirty Eight Years in India"
(Vol. I. p. 194) of George Nicholas Cheek (1793-1859), another Penunsular
veteran, who was for many years civil surgeon of Burdwan. A list of six
well known TTiugs in the Burdwan district was sent to Taylor when he was
magistrate in 1835 : and five were duly apprehended. The sixth could not be
found. Now, Dr. Cheek had a bearer in charge of his children, who was
a special favourite, gentle in manner and unexceptionable in conduct. This
man obtained leave for one month in each year for the purpose, as he said,
of visiting his aged mother, and invariably returned to his duties with the
utmost punctuality. To the amazement of every one. it was discovered
that he was the missing Thug ! The mohafiz or record keeper of the
Collector 8 office was also found to be a Thug, An equally strange story
attaches to the name of Dean Philip Palmer (1843-1876). who was the last
victim of a fakir's curse and was drowned in the Ganges of Allahabad on
September I, 1876. almost on the exact day of the completion of the seven
years named in the curse. The story was told in detail in The Times
of November 26. 1928. and summarized in Vol. XXXVII of Bengal : Past
and Present at p. 76.

The names of two surgeons. Gabriel Boughton and William Hamilton,
are intimately associated with the early history of the English in Bengal.
As regards Boughton the actual facts, as estabhshed by recent research, aie
these. He had come out to Sural as surgeon of the Hopewell Indiamati

BE^CAL: PAST AND PRESENT.
VOU XLI.

:iitim^i5-K^iffig^i^^^^psK%^'S«a :

c/fuler mis o/tone ..Mies Q/nttrre^

William Hamilton oAwaMTt^

•ruho cefiaHMViis j^e the ^^ecmuvi .
oismJjtwpu oitakt to voocarcoinJM^m^'
toon, for the Vtdit n2 gmrw uOiaLsh
ui (uruia FeRRUKSEER, t^^-/^/vrJert/
KlNti of IndOSTAN oPiiFlTlaj-'

cuw TXHtltotLt douoC ruvU /urn-cAt. -.
ato m^cm^jTwru. as rvdl' in-yrea^MrM^

THE TOMBSTONE

OF
SURGEON WILLIAM HAMILTON.
In St. John's ChuhchvaRo, Calcutt*.

(Reproduced [torn a block knt by Meuii. Thacker. Spink & Gj.)

THE INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE.

and was sent to the Court of Shah Jahan at Agra in 1644 or early in 1645
at the request of Asalal Khan the mir bakshi or paymaster-general of the
Ejnpire ; but the accident to the Princess Jahanara who was burned by her
clothes catching hre and whom he is alleged to have cured, took place a
year earlier and she was treated by Anitulla the most famous hak^m of
the time who was summoned from Lahore for the purpose (see Dow's
Hielory of Hindustan. Vol. III. p. 179). From Agra Boughton went with
Asalat Khan and Barnes, another Englishman, to Balkh in Central Asia :
and a letter written by him from that place was received at Sural on
December ZZ. 1646 (see article by Sir William Foster in the Intiian Antiquary
for May 1912). We next hear of him in 1647, when he was attached to the
Court of Shah Shuja, the Viceroy of Bengal. At the end of 1650 he was
with him at Rajmahal, A copy of Shah Suja'a famous jarman has been
found in the British Museum Library in a volume of documents relating to
the Company's Trade with India between 1663 and 1712. which once belonged
to Horace Hayman Wilson (Foster, English Factories in India, 1655-1660.
pp. 413, 414). It appears to have been granted about the year 1650 to
Boughton personally and gave him liberty to trade duty free. The date
and place of Boughton's death are unknown, but he was still alive in
January I65II652. Of the service rendered by William Hamilton we have
the record on his tombstone which may be seen in the Chamock Mausoleum
in St. John's Churchyard (I) : and for once in a way the epitaph publishes
no more than the bare [ruth. Hamilton originally came out to India as
surgeon of the frigate Sherborne, which anchored off Fort William on
October 10, 1710. Disputes having broken out between the captain. Henry
Cornwall, and the crew, she was sent down to Fort St. George on January 19.
1711, and arrived in Madras roads with only nineteen men and boys on
board out of her full complement of fifty. On March 3. her numbers having
been made up. she sailed with reinforcements for Cuddalore where the
English at Fort St. David were engaged in hostilities with the Raja of Gingee.
While the ship was at Fort St. David, Hamilton made his escape in a country
boat on May 3 : and the account of him in the log book closes with the
word "run. " He was taken into the Company's service at Calcutta as
second surgeon on December 27. 1711. in April 1714 he accompanied John
Surman's mission to the Emperor Farrukhsiyar at Delhi, which was reached,
after the stay of nearly a year at Patna, on July 7, 1715. Here he cured the
Emperor of a fistula : and received a rich reward, including an elephant, two
diamond rings, and "the handles of all his small instruments of solid gold." The
jarman, however, was not signed until April 1717. On July 18 the embassy
left Delhi, after an unsuccessful attempt by Farrukhsiyar to keep Hamilton
with him as his personal surgeon : and arrived at Calcutta on November 20,
But Hamilton did not long survive. He had already made his will on
October 27 at Suragegurra (Surajgarh). a small town on the south bank of
the Ganges, twenty miles west of Monghyr. and died at Calcutta on December
4. A translation of Farrukhsiyar 's farman is given in S. C. Hill's Bengal

(1) Wc are lndeb(«) to Mea>rs, W. Thacker and Co. For [he loan of the block, which w.i
1 for Colonel Crawford'i HMotu of the I.MS. (Vol. I. p. 126).

BENGAL ; PAST AND PRESENT.

in 1756-1757 (Vol. IH. p- 375) : and the diary of the mission was printed by
C. R. Wilson in his Early AnnaU of the English in Bengal (Vol. 11. Part U).

The career of John Zephania Holwell is well kno%vn. Although horn
and baptized in Dublin (September 23. 1711) he was the son of a London
merchant and grandson of John Holwell, Astronomer Royal and noted
mathematician. He was a Guy's man and first went out to Calcutta as
surgeon's mate of the Duke of Cumberland in 1732. After making a voyage
to the Persian Gulf and another from Calcutta to Surat. and a third to Mocha
and jeddah ( 1 735) he was appointed surgeon to the factory at Dacca in 1 736 (2)
but came to Calcutta at the end of that year, when he was elected an
alderman of the Mayor's Court and twice served the office of Mayor. On
April 30, 1750 he resigned in order to proceed to Europe and returned in
July 1752 as a covenanted servant with the rank of Twelfth in Council and
the office of Zemindar. It is interesting to remember that in May 1755 he
asked leave to repair and enclose the great tank (in Dalhousie -Square) and
to prohibit the washing of people and horses in it. At the time of the
capture of Calcutta, he was eighth in Council and 45 years of age — the oldest
of them all, as Edward Eyre, tenth in Council, who perished in the Black
Hole at the age of 26, v*as the youngest. He must have been a man of
iron constitution, for he survived his final retirement in 1760 by thirty-eight
years, and died at Pinner on November 5. 1798 at the age of 87, on

February 25. 1759 his daughter Elizabeth was mf
Playdell. TTiey returned to Europe in 1765, afti
£11,667 as his share of the "presents" given by Nai
upon his accession, but went back to Bengal in
Fanny Burney's friends : and Fanny, ^ho ^vas n
upon her beauty and her poetic gifts, wrote
that "this sweet poetess on the very Sunda<

ried to Charles Stafford

Playdell had received

lb Nazim Najm-ud-daula

1771. She was one of

. never tired of expatiating

n her journal on May 8, 1771

that 1 am writing of, set out

for the East Indies." It was said that her only rival for youthful beauty was
Elizabeth Lindley. the first wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Playdell,
who had originally come to Bengal in 1744 and was much older than his
wife, obtained the office of Master of the Supreme Court in October 1775
and died in Calcutta on May 29. 1779. Another daughter, Sarah, married
William Birch; and they were the grand-parents of General Sir Richard
James Holwell Birch (1803-1875), who was military secretary to the Govern-
ment of India during the Mutiny, and whose nephew Henry Holwell Birch
{[837-1878), was one of the defenders of the Lucknow Residency (3). A third
daughter. Anna, married William Rider on March 31, 1759 : he died on Novem-
ber 28 in the same year from wounds received at the battle of Biderra, and hia

(2) A lomb in Dacca cemetery which bears no inscription, it laid to he that □[ Mrs. Etiza
Holwell. Bui i{ the lady be connected with Holwell. ihe date (1746) ^iven in the P, W D.
»Bi>ler cannot be correct: see Bengal ; Pari arid Preienl, Vol XXXI. p. II.

(3) Colonel Frederick William Birch, the father of Henry Holwell Birch, who WM killed
by mutineers at Sitapur on June 3, IB37, married at LucLnow on July 7. IB25, Jean Walker
the grand daughter of Robert Home, the painlei.

THE INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE.

widow on July 15. 1760 married Martin York, the young ensign who dis-
tinguished himself at Chilpore during the siege of Calcutta (4).

Of Wilham Fullerton. the sole survivor of the Patna massacre of 1763.
n written ; but it is not generally known that aftet leaving
April 1766. he lived on in Scotland until October 22, 1805.
le. the father of the historian, was another of the company's
:ame from Anjengo on the Malabar coast, where his son was
born, to Calcutta and died there on April 19, 1736.

A book has recently been published, in which various eminent writers have
deavoured to describe the course which the history of the world would

much has be
the service ii
Alexander Oi
surgeons : he

have taken "if certain events had happened otherwise." Whi
would have been the fate of Oliver Goldsmith, if he had succeeded in his
attempt to enter the medical service of the East India Company and had gone
out to Madras as an assistant surgeon. He was promised a post in that capacity
at a factory on the Coromandal coast, where he was to receive JLiOO a yeai
and might expect to make another £1000 a year by practice. Such is the
account given by Sir Leslie Stephen in the Dictionary o} National Biography :
but Colonel Crawford points out that at that period (1758) a surgeon's pay
inly £36 a year : and that the value of any possible pracli

160). However, Goldsmith r

exaggerated (Hist. I. M. S. Vol. II

out. On December 21. 1758. he was examined by the Lond<
Surgeons for a certificate of fitness to serve as surgeon's mate
although he held a degree of M,D., either from Louvain or
he was rejected. Had he gone to Madras, he would have
example of William Linley. Sheridan's brother-in-law. who ca.
Fort Saint George as a writer in 1790 and returned to Europe in If
of Linley 's poems, with his initials attached, are to be found i

College of
in India, and
from Padua,
followed the
:ame out to
)6. Many
the files

of the Madras Courier. Would the Deserted Village be remembered, if it
had been buried in the same tomb?

On pp. xxxix— xliii Col Crawford gives a most interesting account of
the singular career of Sir Robert MacAra, who %vas lulled at Quatre Bras
on June 16, 1815, when in command of the Black Watch. Starting life in
1782 at the age of 23. as an ensign in the 95th Foot, he took to medicine
as a profession on the disbanding of the regiment, and from 1784 to 1803
made six voyages to the east as surgeon in various Indiamen. In the
meantime his name remained on the half-pay list: and in July 1795. while
he was still at sea in the Marquis Welleatey, he was gazetted captain in the
42nd Foot. He served under Sir John Moor in the retreat to Corunna. took
part in the Walcharen expedition, and went through the Peninsular cam-
paigns from the battle of Busaco (1810) to the battle of Toulouse (1814).
Another who combined the functions of surgeon and combatant officer was

(4) Mnjor Hodson is nlmost in cnpoble of error : but he makes a alip when he sayi {Bensal
Armu. Vol. I. p. 143) that Sir Richard Birch's molhei was the daughler of Wilham Rider
and Anna Holwell. She was the daushter oF Jacob Rider. William Hickey's friend (MemoiT*.
iii. 34B. iv. 67). and Fiances Carter : and ihe witnesses to her marriage at Calcutta on February
22. 1789, to Richard Comyna Bitch, were her parentE (Bengal: PoMi and Pretent. Vol. XVI.

P 51).

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Archibold Swinton. who held the rank of siirgeon on tKe Madras establish-
ment while he was an ensign in the Bengal Army. A curious character
was TTiomas Yeld (1767-1829) who entered as an assistant surgeon in 1789.
He was for many years Civil Surgeon and Mint Master at Benares, where he
kept open house and entertained lavishly. Extensive defalcations were
discovered, and he committed suicide on September 16, 1829.

Surgeons have played a prominent part in the administration of other
departments : the Post Office, Telegraphs, Education. Forests, and even
the Criminal Intelligence Department. James Ranken (assistant surgeon 1809)
was Postmaster-General of the N. W. Provinces from 164! to 1845, and
George Paton (A. S. 1835) from 1854 to 1859 ■ Paton was also Director-
General of Post Offices from 1861 to 1864. Elijah George Halhed Impey
(assistant surgeon. Bombay 1840) was Postmaster General of Bombay from
May 16. 1856. until his death in 1868: he was the son of Dr. James Impey.
the Chief Justice's brother and maternal grandfather of Sir William Birdwood.
Sir John Login (assistant surgeon, Bengal 1832) who was guardian to Maha-
rajah Dulip Singh from 1849 to 1658, was the first Postmaster of General of the
Punjab.

The first experiments in electric telegraphy in India were made by
Sir William O'Shaughnessy Brooke (1808.1889) when he was Professor of
Chemistry at the Calcutta Medical College : and he was Director-General
of Telegraphs from 1852 to 1861. In a later generation. Sir Alfred Swaine
Lethbridge (1844-1917) was "general superintendent for the suppression of
Tha^ and Dakaili" from 1892 to 1898.

Thomas Alexander Wise, the founder and first Principal of the Hooghly
College, was likewise a Bengal Surgeon (1827): he doubled the post with
that of civil surgeon from 1836 to 1639, when he ^vas appointed secretary to
the Committee of Education. He was subsequently Principal of the Dacca
College, and died in England in 1889, at the age of 87. His successor at
Hooghly, James Esdaile (A. S. 1831) was another remarkable man: in a
period of eight months he performed seventy three operations, several of
them major ones, on patients whom he had rendered unconscious by
mesmerism. A mesmeric hospital was opened in Mott's Lane in 1846.
but it was finally closed in 1848. EUdaile, however, continued to practise
mesmerism at the Sukeas Street dispensary until he left India in Ifi5l,
preparatory to retirement (5). He died in 1859.

A long list of distinguished names is associated with the Botanical
Gardens at Sibpur—William Roxburgh who was brought up from Madras in
1793 to succeed Colonel Kyd, the founder and first superintendent ; Francis
Buchanan Hamilton, who held the post for a couple of years : Nathaniel
Wailich the third superintendent (1816-1846) ; a Jew of Danish extraction
who originally came out as surgeon to the Danish settlement of Serampore

(5) A thort account of Esdaile's eiperiments by Aasislnnt Surgeon Bailan Chsndrs
Chaudhuri, who took part in them, is given in Mr. Georae Toynbee's SIteich o} Ihe Adminiilra-
»on of lh< HoosMg Dirtriet from 1795 to 1845. See also Cot. Crawford's article on Esdeile :
Bengal : Piat and Pretent, Vol. V, pp. 5245.

THE INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE.

in 1007 : Husii Falconet (Id47-ld33) who discovered lU SinnSk Fomk wiA
Sh Probr Ouitley in )S32 : Sir George King (1671—1896) wd Sit D«v«d Pta^
(1896-1905). Among zoologists. tKe name of ThoitM* CawKiH iwdaat
(AswUnt Surgeon Madras 1835), sutKor of The Birds of India. •Mtfkda (rat.
Francis Day (A. S. Madras 1632) was a prime authority on Indiui bll ; MkI
Patnck Russell (A. S. Madras 1765) and Sir Josepti FayTCi speciaKnd in tWe
thanatopfaidia (poisonous snakes).

The catalogue might be continued almost indefinitely : but spue* focbtdk^
Mention cannot, however, be denied to celebrities in other field*. WmIi mi
Archibald Campbell (A. S. 1S27). SuporintendenI of D«T)eeling (nun )MQ Ift
1662 and virtual founder of that hill-slalion : who died in I8M M tk* iit«
of 79: Graeme Mercer (A. S. 1780), Resident at the Court of Scim&k fravn
1607 to 1610. who survived his retirement by twenty seven years, and dtvdL
undecofated. in Scotland in 1841 : Joseph Hume (A, S. 1799) the "honmmbW
member for Montrose" of MacnuJay's speeches in the House o( *
who made £40.000 out of Army contracts in India and played a |
part in English public life from 1812 to 1855.

Five Bengal Surgeons lost their lives in Elphinstone's dtMStlOM i«tt«*l
from Kabul in IS42. The sixth. William Brydon. reached the foit o( JaUtaUd

on the afternoon of January 13. 1842
force (6) it was his fate, singularly en
in the Lucknow Residency. Hi

March 20. 1873- Wilh eight olh.

he was the sole survivor of the Biili>h

.ixh, fifteen years latei. to be besIeKeit

d the ('. B. (or his services and died

Surgeons, he is mentioned in Btitfadiei

Inglis' despatch ; and four of those survived for over thirty years Sir Josei^
Fayrer. who accompanied King Edward on his tour in India in 1875, died at
Falmouth on May 21, 1907, and Henry Martin Greenhow on November 26.
1912.

Thirty-eight Surgeons on the QenKal establishment were killed in lh«
Mutiny ; and ten others died of wounds or disease. John James hlalls. ihv
Civil Surgeon of Arrah. who was one of the defenders of the "Utile House",
and wrote an account of the siege ("Two Months in Arrah in IS*)?." London,
I860), died at Sea on November 6. I860, on his way to Europe. William
Wotherspoon Ireland, who was returned as killed before Oethi, in the action
at Najafgarh, actually lived for another fifty-two years and died in Scotland
on May 17, 1909. A ball entered his eye and passed below the brain, coming
out near the ear, and it is not surprising that he was reported to be fatally
wounded. The father of General Sir Mowbray Thomson {1832-1917), one of
the four survivors of the Cawnpore tragedy, was a Bengal Surgeon, R. M. M.
Thomson, who was marine surgeon in Calcutta and died there on March 23,
1849 (the year is wrongly given as 1839 on p. 79), Another Bengal Surgeon
James Innes who married the daughter of General Duncan McLeod, the
architect of the Palace at Murshidabad. and died at Secrole in 1846— was the

(6) Mrs. Annie Oiroline Waller, ihe lul
captivity with Lady Sale and nubsequently i
March 1903 at the age of B2, She was ihc wi
Artillery, who was also among the ptisoneri.

survivor oE the ladies who were tsken into
icued hy Sir Richmond Shakespear, died in
>w of Col Robett Wallet o( ihe Bena-I Horse

BENGAL .- PAST AND PRESENT.

father of Lieut. Gen. John James McLcod Innes V.C. C.B. (1830-1907). the
defender of Innes' Post in the Lucknow Residency and historian of the siege
("Lucknow and Oude in the Mutiny,*' London. 1895). Warwick Walter Wells,
who was one of the Surgeons in the Residency Garrison, survived until 1902 ;
and his son W. F. W. Wells, who went through the siege with him, and
became Judicial Commissioner of Oudh. died as recently as November 24,
1926. Another Civilian, Sir John Woodburn (Lieutenant-Governor of Berigal
from 1898 to 1902) was the son of David Woodburn. whose period of service
as a Surgeon in Bengal extended from 1827 to 1856 and who died in Scotland
in 1888 at the age of 83. Sir George Campbell, an earlier Lieutenant-Governor
(1871-1874) was likewise the son of a Bengal surgeon of the same name who
was the elder brother of Lord Chancellor Campbell.

Tlie Bengal Service can boast of the only three centenarians. The record
is held by Henry Benjamin Hinton who died at Adelaide (South Australia)
on May 14, 1916, at the age of 103 ; he entered as an assistant surgeon in
1839 and retired in 1868. with war service which included the battles of
Maharajpur and Punniar (1843-1844) the first and second Sikh campaigns and
the China operations of 1859-1860. Strangely enough, the next is an officer
Thomas Leonard Hinton. who died at St. Leonard's
after just completing his hundredth year ; but he was only
1 1842 to 1845. They were not related and were not even
The third centenarian is John Bowron (1799-1899)
I 1825 to 1850. Col. Crawford, mentions in his
>i officer he has met is Charles Bonnor Chalmers
1 Bengal began in 1840 and ended in 1871. and
of Deputy Inspector -General. The i

of the
on Ju;
in the
acquainted v
who served
preface that
(1818*1889) V
who retired

^h othei

in Bengal frc
with the

about eight years before his death at Brisbane, and it was impossible to believe
from his youthful and well-preserved appearance that he had been horribly
gored, years before, by a wounded wild buffalo, when Civil Assistant Surgeon
at Chaibassa. The honour of providing the last survivor of the Company's
officers rests with Madras : and although Surgeon — Major Alexander Camack
died as recently as March 5, 1930, at the age of % (seventy-four years after
his first appointment as Assistant Surgeon), the fact is duly noted in the
addenda on p. xiii (7). Other veterans are : Bengal : D. H, Small (Assistant
Surgeon 1846) who died in 1914 at the age of 90. and W. F. Mactier (A. S.
1844) who died in 1915 at the age of 93, and whose father, we fancy, was
Anthony Mactier, a well-known character in the Supreme Court from 1799 to
1825: Madras: W. Evans (A. S. 1831) who died in 1908 at the age of 90.
and A. C. Macleod (A. S. 1841) who died in 1914 at the age of 95 : Bombay :
C. J. Sylvester (A. S. 1846) who died in 1915 at the age of 91. The last Mutiny
survivor was P. W. Sutherland (Bengal 1854-1889). who died on June 6, 1925
at the age of 92.

The first Indian to obtain a commission in the I. M. S. was Soorjo Coomar
Chuck er butty who passed second in the competitive examination held in

(7) Major Thoma* Henry Hill, who died in London c
Bi, viBs a membec of (he Subonlinale MeilicBl deparlmer
I IS58. when in kU Hil

Februaiy 19. 1930, in hia e7th
In Bengal : he received hil Erst

THE INDIAN MEDICAL SERVICE. 173

January 1855 ajid was posted to Bengal. He was one of the four Bengali
students from the Calcutta Medical College who went to Elngland with
Dr. H. H. Goodeve in 1645. They were not however the first to take a medical
course in Calcutta. EJeven students went up for the first examination in
January 1839 : and five passed, who were all appointed Sub- Assistant
Surgeons. Their names may be recorded : Uma Charan Sett, Dwarka Nath
Gupta, Raj Kishan Deb, Nobin Chandra Mitra, and Shama Charan Dutt.
Another Indian pioneer was Pandit Madhusudan Gupta, a former teacher of
medicine at the Sanskrit, who performed the first dissection on January 10,
1836.

Col. Crawford inscribes the word Ichabod on his title page : but we
decline to believe that the glory can ever depart from a service which can
boast of so many illustrious names and which has conferred so m€my benefits
upon India.

EVAN COTTON.

% " (§aob (§lb JagB."

/~\N February 24. I7ftl. the following letter from "An C^d Country Captain"
was published in the India Gazette or Calcutta Public AdoertUer:

1 am an old Stager in this Country, having arrived in Calcutta in the
Year 1 736. and cannot without the greatest concern behold the degeneracy
of the present time, which is ridiculously called improvement. TliOBe
were the days when Gentlemen studied Ease instead of Fashion ; when
even the Hon. Members of Council met in Banyan Shirts (1), Long
Drawers (2). and Conjee Caps (3). with a case Bottle of good old Arrack
and a Gouglet (4) of Water placed on the Table, which the Secretary
(a skilful hand) frequently converted into Punch as an Elscellent specific
to counteract the dryness of debate. Their whole study was for the
Company, and rather than leave unsettled a matter of consequence, they
have sat in Council "till 5 o'clock in the afternoon ; and I remember once,
the Members severally sent for their Dinners to their respective Houses.
When lo ! instead of the essence of Ham. larded Turkeys, and a parcel of
modern Kickshaws, the Council table was covered with 7 substantial Legs
of Mutton and so many Suet Dumplings, as weighty and as solid as their
understandings.

TTiose were the good old merry days, when Calcutta was like one
family, when the whole circle of society was confined lo the walls of the old
Fort, and our evening amusements, instead of your stupid Harmonics (6).
^as playing cards and backgammon, chewing be>.tle (7) and smoaking
cherutes (8). Who would have thought that so short a period as forty or
fifty years could make so great a Revolution in our manners I The
recollection of former times affords such a contrast to the present that
I am hurt, whenever I venture into a large company, to see the fashions
so sadly changed. My holiday suit, consisting of a flowered velvet coat

(1) A cuiioui inslance a{ ihe liansFeietice of meaning from the individuiil (bonJvo. Hindu
trader) to the body-earmcnt worn by him. Capt. Thoma. WilUamson in his £a«t India
VaJt Mecum (1810: Vol. I. p. 19) apuka of "an under.hirl commonly called a banian,"

(2) Pyjamas : also known a. "Mogul dtawets."

(3) Con fee -starched : a corruption of a Tamil woid. Charles Weston is wearing a conical
starched cap in the portrait preserved in the ve«try-room at 5l. John's Church,

(4) A vessel with a spoul : PortUKUese Borguhto.

(5) [Hinduitani pSnch : from the Five mgredients of which it was composed ; arrack-sugar,
lime-juice, spice, and water. This is the derivation given by Fryer (1673).

(6) The Harmonic Tavern stood in Lai Bazar, near ihe present Police Court.
"Assemblies" were held here ( "no hookahs lo be admitted upstair. For some account of
the history of the Tavern, see the Editor's Note Book. poat.

(7) Belel is in its origin b Malayali word, and came into use through the Portugueae in
MaUbar.

(8) Like congee, cheroot is an adaptalion of a Tamil word (*hurDltii = ' a roll" of tobacco).

THE "GOOD OLD DAYS/' 175

of the Carpet Pattern, with two rows of broad Gold Lace, a rich Kingcob
waist-coat, and Crimson Velvet Breeches with Gold Garter, is now a butt
to the shafts of Macaroni ridicule. But now I talk of Macaronies, I must
observe that there were no such Animals in this coimtry, even so late
as the year 1760. The importation of two or three at first as curiosities
was well enough ; but now we are annually supplied with nothing else.

Everything is turned topsy turvy. Instead of a hearty shake by the
hand, there is nothing but bowing and scraping, like so many Frenchmen.
You can't imagine how we stared when Cottillions were first introduced,
instead of the good old Elnglish country dances, of **Lumps of Puddings,**
"Buttered Peas,** and **Jack O* the Green.** The new fashioned Minuet
is not less ridiculous than the cottillion. Many are the confusions that
these late imported improvements have made and are still likely to make
with us who are at least 20 years behind the rest of the world ; and it
seems at present without remedy.

Should it come within your Jurisdiction, your endeavours to save us
poor Indians from being laughed at by the Macaronies will oblige many,
but particularly

Your Humble Servant,

MooRGY Bazar. AN OLD COUNTRY CAPTAIN.

5ur ^tbrarg liable.

The First Englishmen in India : edited by }. Courtenay Locke. (The
Broadway Travellers : London. Routledge : Ten shillings and six pence net).
TN this volume of the Broadway Travellers Mt. Locke has put together the
various letters and narratives relating to the journey to India by way of
Aleppo and Bagdad which was undertaken in 1583 by John Newbery and
four companions : and the text has been transcribed from Purchas and
Hakluyt. included therewith are the "relations" of John Eldred and Ralph
Fitch who were of the party.

Now. the nairative of Kitch was reprinted as long ago as 1921 by Sir
William Foster in his collection of "Early Travels in India:" and it is no
doubt the book to which Mr. Locke in his preface regrets that it is "un-
expectedly impossible " for him to make any acknowledgment. Having said
so much, however, it was surely not necessary for Mr. Locke to write in
the paragraph which immediately precedes, that the elucidation of such
words as "Serrion" and "Selwy" must "await the attention of more fortunate
investigators" because he is himself totally unable to furnish any explanation
of them "although 1 feel they are really quite easy," TTiey are. as a matter
of fact, not easy, unless the investigator happens to be acquainted with the
Talatng language : but the point is that Sir William Foster has long ago
explained them both : "serrion" is the Talaing word saren (pronounced
sarian) and as the text (p. 127) shows, is the name of a large piankeen while
"selwy" (p. 137) is likewise the Talaing word aelay, which denotes bell-metal
or some other alloy.

Then, again, Mr. Locke occupies i
regarding the town of "Serrepore" fro
November 28. 1586 "in a small ship or foi
of the space is taken up with an unnecessary refutation of the absurd identi-
fication," in a certain previous edition of Fitch" of "Serrepore" with Seram-
pore near Calcutta. Mr. Locke has even gone to the trouble of hunting up
another Serampore which lies, he says, on the left bank of the Tetulia
branch of the Ganges, almost directly opposite Gaurnadi. and over twenty
miles north of Barisal. What if it does? At the conclusion of his overgrown
note. Mr. Locke hits upon the correct solution : namely, that "Serrepore"
is Sripur near Rajabari (in the Munshiganj sub-division of the Dacca district),
at the confluence of the Meghna and the Padma. but not to be found on
modern maps, for the sufficient reason that it has been washed away. This
information might have been given in a dozen lines.

"Bacola. ' we observe, is declared by Mr. Locke to be the modern
Barisal. The late Mr. Henry Beveridge, who had a first hand knowledge of
the district, was not so positive. He contents himself with the suggestion
that Fitch is referring to the old capital, Kachua. which is about twenty-five

: than a page with a disquisition

which Fitch sailed from Pegu on

(dhow) : and the greater part

OUR UBRARY TABLE.

miles to the south-east of Barisal. and tliat he was giving to the town the
name then applied to much of the pcesenl district, which survives in the
compound form of par^iana Bakta Chandradwip.

Unless we accept the tradition of the pilgrimage of Sighelmus of Sherborne
to the tomb of St. Thomas near Madras, in the reign of king Alfred, the
honour of being the first Ejiglishman in India must fall to Father Thomas
Stephens (or Stevens) of the society of Jesus. His letters to his father from
Goa, where he was rector of the Jesuits' College, are said to have awakened
the desire of English merchants for direct trade with India. Mr. Locke re-
produces (pp. 19-31) from Hakluyt the text of one of these letters, written in
the year 1579 from Goa, "the principall Cittie of all the East Indies, " in which
Stephens describes the voyage from Lisbon. Sir William Foster puts the
place of his birth in Wiltshire ; Mr, Locke says that he was, like Sighelmus. a
Dorset man. There ia, however, no dispute about the fact that he proceeded
from Winchester to the sister foundation of New Gjllege, Oxford, and
entered the Society of Jesus at Rome in 1575. Four years later he sailed
for Goa and died there in 1619 at the age of seventy. He was the first
European to make a scientific study of Konkanl and wrote a long religious
epic in Marathi which is still recited in the Deccan.

"It was the will of God," writes Fitch on January 25. 15&4, to Leonard
Poore in London, that when he and Newbery Story and Story reached Goa
after many adventures, they found there "two Padres,*" Stephens and a
Fleming. ""Padre Marco, of the order of Saint Paul.' who befriended them.
Another friend was Jan Huyghens van Linschoten, a young Dutchman in
the service of the Archbishop of Goa, who has left an account of their
experiences in his Hineraia. The two Jesuits stood surety for the Englishmen
and they were accordingly set free, after fourteen days' imprisonment.

John Eldred. who did not proceed beyond Basra, and Ralph Fitch were
the only two members of the party who returned to England. Mr. Locke
supplies by way of frontispiece an illustration of the monument erected to
Eldred in the tJiurch at Great Saxham in Suffolk, where he died in 1652.
The travels of Fitch lasted eight years, and he did not land in England until
1591 : the date of his death has not been determined, but he seems to have
been alive in 1606. John Newbery decided to make his way home over
land from Fatehpur Sikri. and appears to have died on the journey. William
Leeds the jeweller entered the service of Akbar. and James Story the painter
became a lay brother in the Jesuit House at Goa ; nothing more is heard of
either of them,

Mr. Locke has modernized the English of his excerpts — a concession to
mental indolence which will not appeal to every one. All will however
agree in praising the illustrations. There are three from Linschoten ; and
also views of Lisbon about 1570, Tripoli about 1610, the island and tovm of
Ormuz, and the pearl fishery at Tuticorin. the last named taken from Jan
Nieuhof's voyages (1653-1662). Tliree maps are provided.

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Press List of Ancient Documents relating to the Governor-General of
Bengal in Council : Series I Revenue Department : Vol. VI : 10 January to
30 Deecemher 1777. Pub.: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot. Rs. 2/8. 4s. 6d.
rpHlS Volume. No, VI. covers the Council proceedings of the year 1777. a
most important year in the Gov em or- Generalship of Warren Hastings for
Monson had died and Hastinge was at last master in his own house ; but
almost met complete defeat in June when Clavering acted on the Directors'
acceptance of Warren Hastings' resignation and tried to seize the Governor-
Generalship. The Press List gives a chear precis of each document in the
manuscript proceedings volumes and the Occasional Consultations, though
one or two of the arguments are obscure, and readers would be grateful
for fuller information early in cases like Kamul-udditi's appeal. The two
most important sets of documents relate to Oavering's violence in June
and the re-settlement of the land ;

On the whole these documents bear out the traditional picture of the
relations between Warren Hastings and the other members of the Supreme
Council. Many of them relate to routine detail but difference of opinion
was possible on any subject and the habit of inserting minutes at the
Council Board intensified disputes ; Francis and Clavering were then apt
to be lavish with accusations of corruption. A typical quarrel started over
a definition of the powers of Aumeens. Hastings was soon writing that a
minute of Clavering needed no reply as "it was the result of his intemperate
spirit" and the General retaliated "that considering the causes of provoca-
tion aiforded by the Governor -General he should not be regarded as more
intemperate than the Governor-General himself." Hastings had suggested
a few days before that the salary of J. Sumner, the Secretary, should be
raised and of course Francis suggested that this was a reward for taking
improper evidence in support oi the Governor-General's opinion on the
aumins. Eventually all disputes were referred home to the Directors and
thus conveniently shelved for a year. After Clavering's death Francis was
far more complaisant, even referring the case of the 24-Pargana zemindars
to Hastings's decision, evidence that they kept to their private agreement.
Bosweli steadily supported the Governor-General. This Press List therefore
sheds no new light on events but some of the minutes of which it gives
a precis are historically famous and others excellently illustrate the period.

F. M. S.

-•ft:.

THE LUSHINCTON MONUMENT IN EAETBOURN"E
PARISH CHURCH.

{From a PhologrBph by the Rev. Wallci BudBcn. MA.)

®Ije (E&ttnr'B ^oie PooL

was published in

of the large and

ime which com-

ington, one of the

TN the article on "The Patna Massacre of 1763. " which -

our last issue (Vol. XLI. pp. 5-29), mention was made
imposing monument in the old Parish Church at Eastbou
memorates the name of Henry Lushin
Benld"'' Lushinator. of victims. There have been references from time to
time in Bengal : Past and Present to this "Echo from
old Calcutta." but hitherto it has not been possible to give an illustration of
the Monument. The courtesy of the Rev, Walter Budgen. author of the
standard work on "Old Eastbourne" has enabled us to supply the deficiency.
In its present position — between the two westernmost windows of the South
nave aisle, the light is so indifferent that it is extremely difficult to secure a
satisfactory photograph. Mr, Budgen has been so good as to lend a negative
which he was fortunate enough to obtain, before the monument was removed
in 1908 from its former situation in the north chancel aisle. The only
difference is that the pedestal of the bust has been inverted.

As originally erected in 1763 by the father of Henry Lushington, who was
Vicar of Eastbourne from 1734 to 1779. it stood in the fourteenth century
Easter Sepulchre within the communion rails : and on the west side of the
recess a mural tablet in memory of Dr. Lushington and his two wives was
affixed. On the opposite side was another tablet bearing the following
inscription :

Reader, if yet the sympathetic tear

Will give you leave to see who's buried here :

Know that the father of this matchless youth

And her, whose pleasing beauties gave him birth,

Adjoining to this deathless tomb have chose

In the same grave their ashes to repose ;

In humble hope that they, by his renown.

To distant ages will be handed do'wn.
This tablet has disappeared : but the lines have happily been preserved
in the Genthman'a Magazine for 1798 {p. 1023). Their appropriateness was
manifest when the monument faced the grave of Lusbingtons father and
mother, who are buried in front of the altar. Dr. Lushington. who is described
on the tombstone as "the father of Henry Lushington of Bengal and of seven
other deservedly beloved children" died on January 13, 1779 "of his age the
69th". and his wife on July 24. 1775. in her 66lh year.

'T'HE inscription on the monument ^vas not quite correctly transcribed when
-*- it was last printed in Bengal : Past and Present (Vol. XXX, pp. 14&-I49).
Tlie Insciiption on ihe ^* reproduce the text therefore, for purposes of

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Sacred to the Memory of HenrY LUSHINGTON | Eldest son of Henry
LusHINGTON, D. D., Vicar of this Parish, And Mary his wife, | whose
singular Merits and as singular sufferings cannot fail of endearing Him
to ye Latest Posterity. | At ye Age of Sixteen in ye Year 1754 He embar-
qued for Bengal in ye Service of ye India Company and by ] attaining
a perfect knowledge of the Persian Language made Himself essentially
useful. It is difficult to | determine whether He excelled more in a civil
or a military capacity. His Activity in Both | recommended Him to the
Notice and Esteem of Lord Clive ; Whom with equal credit to ] Him-
self and Satisfaction to his Patron He served in the different characters
of I Secretary Interpreter and Commissary. In ye Year 1756 by a
melancholy Revolution He was with others | to ye Amount of 146 forced
into a Dungeon at Calcltta. so small ihat 23 only escaped Suffocation.
He was I one of ye Survivors, but reserved for greater Misery, for by a
subsequent Revolution in the Year 1763 He was | with 200 moie taken
Prisoners at Patna, and after a tedious confinement being singled out with
John |rccie : Williaml Ellis and | WiLLIAM Hay. Esqrs. was by the order
of the Nabob CosstM Au.Y Kawn and under ye Direction of One
SoMEROO I an apostate European, deliberately and inhumanly murdered :
But while ye Seapoys were performing their Savage Office [ on ye first
iiientioneu Gentleman, fired with a generous Indignation at the Distress
of his Friend. | He nished upon his Assassins unarmed and seizing one of
their Scimitars Killed Three of them and wounded Two others | till at
length oppressed with Numbers He greatly fell. I His private character was
perfectly consistent with his publick one. The amiable ] sweetness of
his Disposition attracted Men of ye Worthiest Note to him. the Integrity
of his Heart fixed them ever | firm to his Interests. As a Son. he was
One of the most kind and dutiful, as a Brother ye most affectionate. |
His Generosity towards his Family was such as hardly to be Equal'd.
his circumstances and his Age | consider'd, scarce to be exceeded. In
short, He lived and died an Honour to his Name, his Friends, and
his Country. | His Race was short (being only 26 Years of Age when
he died) but truly glorious. | The rising Generation must admire. May
they imitate, so Bright an Example. | His Parents have erected this
monument as a lasting Testimony | of their Affliction and of his Virtues.

T\R. LUSHINGTON was twice married. His first wife was Mary Altham,
daughter of the Rev. Dr. Roger Altham, Archdeacon of Middlesex,

a member possibly of the same family as ' 'James
nelbli wilh'''l'n'5ia'' """ ^^^^'"" °f Calcutta Esq.. the second husband of

Begum Johnson, who died of small pox on November
12. 1748, ten days after his marriage. The second Mrs. Lushington was
Mary Gilbert, daughter of Nicholas Gilbert, one of the Lords of the Manor
of Eastbourne: she was married in 1777 and died in 1811. Her portrait and
that of her husband may be seen in the old Manor House, in Borough Lane
which was built by Dr. Lushington and was bought from the Gilbert family
in 1924 by the Corporation of Eastbourne and is used as a municipal art

THE EDITORS NOTE BOOK.

gallery. TTiere were no children by the second marriage : but of the eight
children by the iirst marriage two sons and a daughter carried on the
sfith India which was begun by their brother "Hemy Lushinglon
of Bengal."' The records of the East India Company show that Dr. Lushington
acquired £500 stock in October 1768 and Stephen, his third son (1744-
1807) £2000 in March 1773. In 1782 Stephen Lushington was elected a
Director of the Company and retained his seat until 1602, serving the office
of Chairman in 1790. 1795 and 1799. He was likewise M. P. for the Cornish
boroughs of Helston and Penryn, and was created a baronet in 1791. The
following curious entry may be found in the Eastbourne parish registers for
the year 1771 :—

A Black from Bengal, in the East Indies, was baptized by the name

of Thomas Henry, his witnesses being his master Stephen Lushington,

Esq., John Boldero, Esq.. of London, and his mistress Hester, ye wife

of ye said Stephen Lushington.

William Lushington {born 1747). the younger brother of Stephen, arrived
in Bengal as a writer on August 26. 1764 and married Paulina French in
Calcutta in 1769. He was Supravisor of Hooghly from 1770 to 1773 and
lived at "Houghly Hall" on the banks of the river. After his retirement he
entered the House of Commons, and an entry in the Farington Diary
tablishes the fact that he was still living in 1811. His sister Charlotte
ied at Calcutta in 1762 to Ralph Leycester, who had come out to
Bengal in 1754. a year before the arrival of her brother Henry, and was
led and sent home by Clive in 1765. Stephen Lushington's third son
Charles, whose mother Hester was the daughter of John Boldero. was in
the Bengal Civil Service from 1800 to 1827. and later on M. P. for Ashburton
and Westminister: he published in 1824 through the Hindostanee Press a
History of Religious and Charitable Institutions in Calcutta, and dedicated it
to John Adam, whose private secretary he was. Thereafter a copious
stream of Lushlnjitons flowed towards India, as our genealogical table will
show. We have traced in all twelve in the Bengal Civil Service, including
the third and fourth baronets, and five in the Madras Civil Service, including
Stephen Rumbold Lushington who served in that Presidency from 1790 to
1807 and was subsequently Governor of Fort St. George from 1827 to 1832.
General Sir James Law Lushington of the Madras Army was his brother ; he
was a Director of the Company from 1827 to 1853 and three times Chairman —
in 1838, 1842. and 1648.

1763.

]yjAJOR HODSON writes : I have received from a correspondent an
extract from the Registers at Somerset House, which settles the vexed
_^^ question of the correct name of Lieut. Richard Parry,

""' = Pflina MaiMcte of ^^ Perry, one of the victims of the Patna Massacre
of 1763 {see Vol. XL, p. 15). The extract is as
follows :
P. C. C. Administrations, Jime 1766. Richard Parry. On the ninth
day Administration of the Goods ... of Richard Parry, formerly of the
II

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

parish of St. Saviour, Southwark, in the county of Surrey but late a
Lieutenant in the Service of the Honourable Bast India Company at
Patna in the East Indies a Batchelor deceased was granted to Stephen
Parry the Uncle and next of Kin of the deceased.

It is clear, therefore, that the

I Parry.

A N informing article on the Invalid Depot at Chunar was published in

the Stateaman of February 26: written, as we have reason to believe.

_,,,,_ by Captain H. Bullock, whose authoritative work on

The Invalids of ChunBr. ■■■ i- '-■ i r- i i .. ■ - i ,

Indian Lavalry Standards was reviewed in our last

issue. The Depot was established in 1791 : and detachments both of
European Invalids and of sepoy pensioners were quartered there and also
at Allahabad. Monghyr, and Buxar. The sepoys are still at Chunar in 1814
but withdrawn not long afterwards on the formation of "Invalid Jaghirdar
Institutions." Hebar. who visited Chunar in 1824 mentions that one of the
European invalids whom he met "had fought with Qive " Tliis was probably
Sergeant John David Williams, who died on June 5. 1825 at the age of 101.
and is hurried in the New Cemetery with two other centenaries — Mrs. Catherine
Mingle (died Nov. 26. 1869. aged 109) and Mrs. Maty McDonald (died May
12, 1885. aged MO). TTie attainment of a ripe old age seemed, indeed, to
be a favourite occupation at Chunar, which Warren Hastings described as
a Paradise, for the Veteran Company in 1848 included two patriarchs of 81.
both born in India, of whom one had attested in 1786 and the other in 1789
Tliere are still military pensioners at Chunar, but the Invalid Establishment
ceased to exist in 1858. It is said that Queen Victoria gave order that the
old soldiers who had been promised full pay during the remainder of their
lives should be allowed to remain at Chunar if they so desired : and in May 1900
there were two names on the roll, those of a sergeant and a corporal, who had
entered the service in 1841. The last survivor of these died in 1903, and
John Company's Invalid Battalion died with him.

The Veterans of Vellore.

■yELLORE, the scene of the celebrated outbreak in 1806, which led to the
removal to Calcutta of the family of Tipu Sultan, was the corresponding
depot for the European pensioners of the Company a
Madras regiments. General Sir William Butler who
visited the place in 1863 when stationed as a subaltern at Fort Saint George
and declares that "not even in the cindery plains of the Carnatic is there to
be found a spot of more intense heat," (Autobiography, 1911. p. 57) came
across men whose service dated back to earlier year even than 1806. Among
them was a survivor of the battle of the Nile (August 1. 1796). "who had
been a boy on board a ship in Nelson's fleet at that famous fight and had
afterwards served the Company for many years." Colonel Robert Sale, the
father of "Fighting Bob" Sale, the defender of Jalalabad, died at Vellore in
1799 ; he was in command of the garrison.

THE EDITOR'S NOTE BOOK.

A NOTHER interesting contribution from Captai

in the Slateaman of March M, gave a descriptio

The old Scnn

I Bullock, which appeared
1 of the old cantonments
round Benares. There were Six of these — Beta bar,
Murwaddy (Marwadih). Secrole (Sakraul). Pandeypore
(Pandepur). Rajghat, and Sultanpore. Betabar, the
oldest, is on the estreme southern border of the present Benares district, on
the left bank of the Ganges, and about ten miles from the city which is on
the opposite bank. It was from here that a regiment of cavalry galloped in
and fought their way through the city in 1799 to the rescue of Samuel Davis,
the judge, after the murder of Cherry the Resident by Wazir Ali. Murwaddy
is about two miles west of the city, and although it was in use as a camping
ground as early as 1770. it does not appear that a force was ever permanently
quartered there, Secrole was established about ISOO ; it is in this quarter
that the major part of the official population now live. Here we find St. Mary's
Cantonment Church built in 1817 and consecrated in 1824, and the "Drummers'
Chapet." which was the place of worship of the Eurasian and Indian Christian
musicians, of the sepoy battalions, and which is a unique feature of the
cantonment. At Pandeypore, a small "island" of military land lying north
of Secrole and across the famous Ranch Kosi road, there were barracks for
a whole regiment of British dragoons : but these were not occupied for any
considerable period. The site is now given over to a large lunatic asylum.
The fifth cantonment is Rajghat Fort, on the left bank of the Ganges, close
to the Dufferin Bridge : it was built in July 1857 as a measure of precaution
and contains a small soldiers' cemetery and a mosque. Sultanpur which must
be distinguished from Sultanpur in Oudh. lies on the road to Chunar.

"V*AjOR HODSON has presented to the British Museum Library a small
volume printed at Calcutta in I 797 by Joseph Cooper at the Telegraph
Press and is entitled 'A collection of Poems written in
A Sub-Item P«;t. ^^ ^^^ [^^.^^ ^.^j_ Miscellaneous Remarks, in Real

Life: by J. H." The initials stand for Major General Sir John Horsford.
K. C, B., a distinguished officer of the Bengal Army, who died unmarried
at Cawnpore on April 20, 1817. at the age of 66. His career was of a remark-
able character. From Merchant Taylors' School he went to St. John's College
Oxford : but after three years at the University enlisted in the Artillery of the
East India Company undei the name of John Rover and sailed for India in
the Duke of Grafton on April I. 1772. (This was ifie Indiaman which had
brought out Warren Hastings and the Imhoffs in 1769). His identity was dis-
covered by Colonel Tliomas Deane Pearse (who acted as Hastings' Second in
the famous duel with Francis) and he received a cadetship in the Bengal
Artillery under his real name in 1778. In 1793 he was sent to Madras for
the siege of Pondicherry. having previously served through the third Mysore
war, and at a later date commanded the artillery under Lake at Aligarh, Delhi,
Agra. Laswari, Dig, and Bhurtpore. His last campaign was the siege and
capture of Hathras ; and his death took place a few days after the reduction
of that fort which was then the stronghold of Daya Ram. a rebellious zemindar.
We gather from the first two poems. "The Departure" and "The Arrival,"

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

that he returned to Bengal, from leave in England, on the Fiizwilliam in 1790 ;
but that was the last occasion until his death that he was absent From his
military duties. In 1808 he was appointed Commandant of the Bengal Artillery,
a post which had been filled by his patron. Colonel Pearse.

A MONG the poems are an "Ode lo Benares. " a lengthy effusion on Dum
Dum addressed to Captain Henry Grace (I757'i&20), the compiler in

1792 of the first Code of Bengal Army Regulations, and
^^■Ob«,v«.ion. i„ Real ^^ account of the wreck of the HalaeweH Indiaman

(which took place on the Dorset coast in January 1786).
These are followed by a series of "Observations in Real Life" in prose, which
are staled to have been written in London. On page 89 he says that "of all
suicides I consider the duellist the blackest — ' a remarkable expression on the
part of a military officer when we remeniber the prevalence of duelling at
the time. The book is dedicated to the officers of the Indian Army : and
there is a list of 163 subscribers, including "the King of Delhi," Maior-General
Claude Martin (4 copies) and "Mr. James Paul, merchant." On the title page
is the name of R. B. Wilkins with a note that the book was "The gift of
J. Murray. October 1826." Robert Bateman Wilklns (1788-1862) was also
a Bengal officer. He was invalided as a captain in 1824. after twenty years'
service, and commanded the European Invalids at Chunar from 1826 to 1830.
In the following year (1831) he retired with the rank of major and died in
England in 1862.

J^VERYONE knov
mention of it i:

Lord Clive's Fund.

■s the origin of Lord Clive's Fund. We set the fust
1 the Fort William Consultations of April 14, 1766, where
it is reported that a legacy of five lakhs of rupees has
been left to Lord Clive by Mir Jafar. and that
Lord Clive has presented it to the Company for the foundation of a fund (or
invalid officers and soldiers of the Company's army. TTie format agreement
is dated April 6, 1770 and recites that the sum of five lakhs of sicca rupees,
valued at i:62.833-6s.-8d.. which has been bequeathed by the Nawab Mir Jafar
to Lord Clive and paid into the Company's treasury at Calcutta, is to be set
aside to provide pensions for the officers non-commissioned officers, and men
of the Company's army, who might be invalided by reason of age, wounds,
or disease, and also for their widows. To this sum was added a further three
lakhs, or £37,000. presented by Nawab Saif-ud-Daula and paid into the
Company's treasury in 1767. TTiese sums were to carry interest at eight per
cent per ann«m. and the Company were to be perpetual trustees. The capital
was to remain in the hands of the Company in London, who were to pay
annually £8043-l3s.-4t/. as interest, for use as pensions, with effect from
September 29. 1 769. The rates of pensions were settled as follows :
Commissioned and Warrant Officers, half pay : non-commissioned officers and
soldiers, the rates of Chelsea pensioners ; widows, one-fourth of the husband's
pay. Up to September 29. 1769, interest amounting to £24,126, had accrued
on the capital of eight lakhs, and this was added to the capital of the fund.

THE EDITOR'S NOTE BOOK.

"POR the later history and final extinction of the Fund, we are indebted to
Col. D. G. Crawford's H/s(ory of the Indian Medical Service. It was
^ stipulated in the original agreement that if the Company

The End of ihe Sloty. 111 , - , ■ i-. (

should cease to maintain a military or marine forr-

or ships, the five lakhs bequeathed by Mir Jafar should revert to Lord Qi
or his heirs. The Company's fleet of Indiamen ceased to exist after April 22,
1834, when the Company was deprived of its commercial monopoly : and i
IS59 another statute decreed the abolition of the military and naval forces c
the Company. On July 12, I860, therefore the legal representatives c
Lord Qive filed a bill for the return of the five lakhs with the addition c
five-eighths of the interest of £24. 126. The bill was dismissed on December (
1861 ; but on May 21, 1863. this decision was reversed by the Mouse of Lord*
and an ofder made for the repayment of the five lakhs to the heirs of Lord
Clive. Tlie Secretary of State thereupon sanctioned the grant of equivalei
pensions to all persons who would have been entitled to benefit undi
Lord Clive's Fund. The Fund, however, existed only in name. As early as
1808. the income had been found inadequate to pay the pensions ; in 1836
it was stated by the Court of Directors that the whole capital had long since
been exhausted : and a return made to the House oF Lords in 1859 showed
that the annual charge had risen from £63.776 in 1831 to £80,520 in 1855.

TOHN HYDE, the Judge of the Supreme Court stands in need of no

introduction to the readers oF these notes : but there was another John

T u M J Hyde in Calcutta at the time. and. as he was also

connected with the Supreme Court, a few details

regarding his career may not come amiss and may serve to obviate confusion

between the two. A certain John Hyde received a commission as ensign in

the Bengal Infantry on December 22, 1783. and resigned on November 7. 1785.

On the same day he was appointed Master and Accountant General of the

Supreme Court in succession to William Chamber. On March I, 1792 Francis

Macnaghten was appointed Master and Hyde succeeded Chambers as Keeper

of the Records, and also as Prothonotary on October 22, 1793. He held the

latter office until March 19. 1799. Particulars of his subsequent career are

wanting. The Judge died in Calcutta on July 8, 1796.

T5EFERENCE is made elsewhere to the mistaken tradition, adopted by the
Rev. James Long, that the house at the comer of Waterloo Street and
General ClaverinB'a Government Place East (opposite the Great Eastern

House in Calcutta. Hotel) Was the residence of General Clavering. In

1890 this house was a single-storeyed bungalow, and behind it was an old
house, in which Mr. Arthur St. John Carruthers, a well-known attorney
(admitted in 1848, died in Calcutta in 1895) had his office, and where the
members of the firm of Cuthbertson and Harper whose business premises were
then in the bunglow, also resided. The houses were pulled down in 1902
to make way for Ezra Mansions. It is extremely unlikely that General
Qavering's house was here. The building which was bought in January 1761
for "the commanding officer of our troops in Bengali" has been identified as

BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

I Mission Row : and it i
on August 30, 1777.

! there that Qavering. who held that ofiice,

"pHE house at the .
which has been

Sco<t Thomson's Corner

Elast.

of Government Place East and Esplanade
I likewise abso^rbed by Ezra Mansions, was known to a
past generation as Scott Thomson's Corner, from the
fact that Messrs, R. Scott Tliomson and Co,, the
chemists, carried on business there for many years. It is mentioned in an
existing title deed of February I. 1788, as having been leased on that Date by
Richaid Johnson to Thomas Henry Davies. the successor in 1786 of Sir John
Day as Advocate -General. As Davies married Ann Baillie at St. John's Church
on April 3. 1788, the purpose for which he required the house is evident.
He died in Calcutta on January 21. 1792. In 184M843 Messrs. Scott Thomson
and Co, were located at 3 Council fiouse Street.

■R EADERS of this journal '
of Tank Square."

Squi

indoo CoUeBe,

mber the view of "The North Blast coiner
which was reproduced as a frontispiece to
Vol. XXXIX. The artist. Lieut. Bentley Buxton of the
Bengal Engineers held the office of assistant to the
superintendent of public buildings in the Lower Provinces from 1823 until his
death at Singapore on February 26, 1829 : and it appears from a reference in
Dr. Firminger's History of Freemasonry tn Bengal (1906 : p. 168) that he
planned the building in "Patuldangah Square." which took the place of the
old Hindoo College in Bow Bazar. His name is inscribed on the foundation
stone which was laid with masonic honours on February 25, 1824, by John
Pascal Larkins. Provincial Grand Master of Bengal,

'T^HE Sixteenth Duke of Somerset, who died on May 5, at the age of seventy,
owed his succession to the peerage to the discovery of an entry in the
bufiai register of the old Mission Church at Calcutta.
C.lcu«a Peeiaae j^^ ^^^^ turned on the marriage of the Duke's Greal-
Grondfather Colonel Francis Seymour. Son of Lord
Francis Seymour. Dean of Wells, to Leonora Hudson, the widow of a certain
John f-fudson, whom he was said to have rescued one night from two assailants
in Lincolns Inn Fields. It was established that the marriage took place on
September 3. 1787; but was Leonora Hudson a widow at the time? John
Hudson shipped as an ordinary seaman on the Martship, an Indiaman of
755 tons, which left Gravesend on December 24. 1785, under the command of
Captain Charles Gregorie. and arrived at Diamond Harbour on June 9. 1 786.
There is a distinct entry in the log that John Hudson died on September 27,
1786 and was buried in Calcutta on that day: and this is corroborated by the
Register of burials at the Mission Church, Moreover, there is the ledger book
of the East India Company to prove that Hudson's wages were paid up to
September 1786, and his will was not only proved in London after the return
of the Manship in May 1787. but his widow and executrix received in the
following June the balance due to his Estate. The objection was. however.

THE EDITOR'S NOTE BOOK.

made by the rival claimant that John Hudson had raerely pretended to die in
Calcutta in order to conceal his desertion from the Manship, and that he
returned to London and died there in 1791. The Committee of Privileges
rejected this contention, and allowed the claim of the late Duke in 1823,
two years after the death of the previous holder of the title.

Scdiey.

Original of Jos

fpHE following note was published in these columns in 1927 (Vol. XXXIV
p. 144): "who was the original of Jos Sedley. the famous Collector of
Boggleywollah. " There is a statement by Mr. Henry
Beveridge on record — we believe it may be found in
one of the earlier volumes of the Calcutta ReuieW —
that he was informed by Mr. Shawe the Judge of Sylhet, who was Thackeray's
brother-in-law that the character was an over-coloured picture of George Trant
Shakespear. a cousin of the novelist who was Magistrate of Midnapore from
1839 to 1843 and look furlough to turope in the latter year. He had not left
India since his arrival in Bengal in 1829 and did not return for he died at
Geneva on October 24. 1844.

'TIHE paragraph was based upon a letter written by Mr. Beveridge on June 24.
1925, in reply to enquiries upon the subject: but it would seem, from
a reference, which has come to our notice, that
Mr. Beveridge's memory was at fault. The latest
allusion by him to the original of Jos Sedley occurs in a review of "The
Ritchies in India" which he contributed to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic
Society in 1921 (p. 620). it so happens that William Ritche in a letter from
Calcutta of January 19, 1843, describes George Shakespear as "a fat, shy,
eccentric, but most witty and entertaining old fellow" — a picture which un-
doubtedly contains in it some of the attributes of Jos Sedley. But Mr. Beveridge
in reviewing the book, makes no mention of George Shakespear ; and the
quotation which follows will show that the individual which he then had in
mind as the prototype of the Collector of Boggleywollah was Thackeray's
brother-in-law :—

There were other connexions of Thackeray the novelist, besides those
mentioned in the book, who were resident in Sylhet and its neighbour-
hood. Among them was Gethin Shawe who was judge of Sylhet.
Some people used to say that he ^as the original of Jos Sedley, but
he was a better man. He was not a great judge and he was sarcastic
about new tangled laws, but was kind-hearted. And now in my old
age I feel compunction because in my ignorant and hotheadeed days, I
was rather a thorn in his side. 1 will remember how he startled me
one morning by saying that "the newspapers arc full to-day of my
poor brother-in-law." I did not at first recollect that he was Thackeray's
brother-in-law.

Merrick Arthur Gethin Shawe was a writer of 1834 and retired in 1865
as judge of Sylhet. Thackeray married his sister in Paris on August 20, 1836.

188 BENGAL : PAST AND PRESENT.

Their father. Colonel Merrick of H. M. 76th Regiment, had been military
secretary to Lord Wellesley in India.

E discussed in this place in 1927 (Vol. XXXI V. p. 145) the reasons

which can be adduced for the supposition that the character of

_ , ... Colonel Newcome was based by Thackeray upon a

Colonel Newcome. !•.• r \ • . r \ km » it ^ -ii

combmation of his step father. Major Henry Larmichael

Smyth, and his elder brother Major-General Charles Montanban Carmichael :

and we pointed out how closely the career of the latter resembled that of

Colonel Newcome. But how came Colonel Newcome to end his days as a

Brother of the Charterhouse? The answer is supplied by a letter from

Mr. Edward Fraser of Charterhouse, which was printed in The Times ' of

March 26. According to Mr. Fraser, the last five chapters and the best known

part of the story centre around quite a different person — Captain Thomas

Hughes Light, an old Peninsular officer who was a Brother of the Charterhouse.

His room at Charterhouse is now marked by a tablet on its outside
wall, recording his name and that Thackeray visited him, for the express
purpose of obtaining * 'local colour** for the closing scene in The
Newcomes ... It was quite by chance that Thackeray thought of
Colonel Newcome ending his days at Charterhouse : after which, getting
an introduction to Captain Light, he visited the old officer and had tea
with him, during which the chapel bell began to ring for even song.

Captain Light lived on in the Charterhouse for eight years after Thackeray's
visit, and died in August 1863, four months before him.

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