Friday, July 15, 2011

George Oxenden---The First East India company Governor of Bombay AND Gerald Aungier THE SECOND GOVERNOR OF ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY OF BOMBAY CITY


Portrait of Charles IIPortrait of Charles II



Sir George Oxenden (1620–1669) was the first governor of the Bombay Presidency during the early rule of the British East India Companyin India.
He was the third son of Sir James Oxenden of Dene, Kent, knight, and of Margaret, daughter of Thomas Nevinson of Eastry, Kent, and was baptised at Wingham on 6 April 1620. He spent his youth in India, and on 24 November 1661 was knighted at Whitehall Palace. At the time the London East India Company had a new charter from Charles II, but the king's marriage to Catherine of Braganza involved the company because the island of Bombay had, under the marriage treaty, been ceded by Portugal to England, and it lay within the company's territories. The court of directors in March 1661 resolved to restore their trade in the East Indies, and appointed, on 19 March 1662, Sir George Oxenden to the post of president and chief director of all their affairs at Surat,
Fort St. George (Madras)

and all other their factories in the north parts of India, from Ceylon to theRed Sea. A
Oxenden found on his arrival in India that the company's trade was limited to the presidencies of Surat and Fort St. George, and to the factory at Bantam. The king's troops were coming from England to keep down private trade. Sir George Oxenden was instructed to assist them, and to abstain from embroiling the company with foreign powers. The States-General of Holland were contesting the supremacy of the sea in Asia; English troops arrived, but were unable to obtain the immediate cession of Bombay, and Sir George Oxenden was prevented from assisting them by increased complications. France joined Holland in threatening the company's trade, while the Mogul chieftains showed themselves jealous of English predominance. Aurungzebe, the Mogul emperor,

 looked for advantage from the superior naval powers.
Sir Abraham Shipman, the commander of the royal troops, found himself powerless to take or hold Bombay, and therefore proposed to cede it to the company. Meanwhile the government  offered the whole of the trade of that port to the company, in return for the company's aid against the Dutch. Both these offers were under Oxenden's consideration when, in January 1664, Surat was suddenly attacked by a force of Marathas,





photo

INDOSTAN - SURAT




"The Lodge of the English at Suratte-- 1) The Church; 2) The House; 3) The Armory; 4) The Coach-house," from 'Lo Statto presente di tutti i paesi e popoli del mondo...', a translation of the work of *Thomas Salmon*, published in Venice, 1751; CLICK ON THE IMAGE FOR A VERY LARGE 
 consisting of some four thousand horse under the command of Shivaji.
The inhabitants fled, the governor shut himself up in the castle, while Oxenden and the company's servants fortified the English factory. Oxenden and his party defended themselves successly but Shivaji took away an immense booty. Oxenden received the thanks of Aurungzebe, and an extension of the privileges of trade to the English, with an exemption of the payment of customs for one year.
In March 1667, Charles II ceded Bombay


 to the East India Company, and they commissioned Oxenden to take possession of the island of Bombay. In August of that year the court of directors appointed him governor and commander-in-chief of Bombay, with power to nominate a deputy-governor to reside on the island, but he was placed under the control of the president and council of Surat. On 21 September 1667 the island was formally ceded by the royal troops to the new governor. The English officers and privates there were invited to enter the company's service, and thus the first military establishment of the East India Company at Bombay was created. On 14 July 1669 Oxenden died at Surat, and the company erected a monument over Sir George's grave there.
His nephew, Sir Henry Oxenden, 3rd Baronet (d. 1709), who was for a short time deputy-governor of Bombay, was second son of George Oxenden's elder brother Henry, who was knighted on 9 June 1660, was M.P. for Sandwich, and was created a baronet on 8 May 1678. The latter's third son was George Oxenden the civil lawyer.

ENGLISH CEMETERY IN SURAT

THE EARLY EUROPEAN TOMBS AT CITY OF SURAT (GUJARAT,INDIA) DATING FROM SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ARE AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT MONUMENTS AT SURAT.THE EARLIEST AND ONE OF THE MOST ATTRACTIVE TOMBS IN THE CEMENTERY IS THAT OF FRANCIS BRETON PRESIDENT OF THE ENGLISH FACTORY WHO DIED IN A.D.1649, ANOTHER IS AN IMPOSING MAUSOLEUM IN THE CEMETERY OVER THE GRAVES OF CHRISTOPHER AND SIR GEORGEOXENDEN.

TOMB OF CHRISTOPHER OXENDEN:
CHRISTOPHER DIED IN 1659 AND A DOMED STRUCTURE WITH FOUR PINNACLES AT THE CORNERS WAS ERECTED OVER HIS GRAVE AN EPITAPH IN LATIN AND OLD ENGLISH CHARUCTERS WAS PLACED WITH IN IT BY HIS BROTHER AND PRESIDENT OF THE ENGLISH FACTORY GEORGE OXENDEN, WHO DIED LATER IN 1669A.D.
SIR GEORGE WAS ALSO BURIED IN THE SAME MAUSOLEUM AND A CAFTIER AND MOST EXPENSIVE CUPOLA WAS RAISED OVER THE SAME MAUSOLEUM IN THE UPPER COMPART MENT OF THIS BUILDING IS INSERTED A LARGE MARBLE SLAB BEARING AN INSCRIPTION IN LATIN TO
THE MEMORY OF SIR GEORGE.

Ships in Bombay Harbour


Name↓PortraitAssumed officeLeft officeYears in office↓Remarks[a]
1George Oxeden   1ST23 September 166814 July 16691
2Matthew Gray (ACTING)14 July 16697 June 16723Acting
3Gerald Aungier  2ND7 June 167230 June 16775
4Henry Oxenden30 June 167727 October 16814
5John Child27 October 168127 December 16832
6Richard Keigwin[b]27 December 168319 November 16841Acting
7Charles Zinzan19 November 168416851Acting
8John Wyborne16852 May 16872Acting
9John Child2 May 16874 Feb 16903
10Bartholomew Harris4 February 169010 May 16944
11Daniel Annesley10 May 169417 May 1694Acting
12John Gayer17 May 1694November 170410
13Nicholas WaiteNovember 1704September 17084
14William AislabieSeptember 170811 October 17157
15Stephen Strutt11 October 171526 December 1715Acting
16Charles Boone26 December 17159 January 17227
17William Phipps9 January 172210 January 17297
18Robert Cowan10 January 172922 September 17345
19John Horne22 September 17347 April 17395
20Stephen Law7 April 173915 November 17423
21John Geekie15 November 174226 November 1742Acting
22William Wake26 November 174217 November 17508
23Richard Bourchier17 November 1750176010
24John Holkell176028 February 1760Acting
25Charles Crommelin28 February 176027 January 17677
26Thomas Hodges27 January 176723 February 17714
27William Hornby26 February 17711 January 178413
28Rawson Hart Boddam1 January 17849 January 17884
29Andrew Ramsay9 January 17886 September 17881Acting
30William MedowsPict0016WilliamMedows.jpg6 September 178821 January 17902
31Robert AbercrombyRobert Abercrombie.jpg21 January 179026 November 17922
32George Dick26 November 17929 November 17953Acting
33John Griffith9 November 179527 December 1795Acting
34Jonathan Duncan27 December 179511 August 181116
35George Brown11 August 181112 August 18121Acting
36Evan NepeanSirEvanNepean.JPG12 August 18121 November 18197
37Mountstuart ElphinstoneMountstuart-Elphinstone.jpg1 November 18191 November 18278
38John MalcolmJohn Malcom 1769 1833 by Samuel Lane.jpg1 November 18271 December 18303
39Thomas Sidney Beckwith1 December 183015 January 18311Acting
40John Romer17 January 183121 March 1831Acting
41John FitzGibbon2ndEarlOfClare.jpeg21 March 183117 March 18354
42Robert GrantSirRobertGrant.jpg17 March 18359 July 18383
43James Farish11 July 183831 May 18391Acting
44James Rivett Carnac31 May 183927 April 18412
45William Hay MacnaghtenWilliam Hay Macnaghten.jpg27 April 184128 April 1841Acting
46George William Anderson28 April 18419 June 18421Acting
47George ArthurMajor-General Sir George Arthur.jpg9 June 18426 August 18464
48Lestock Robert Reid6 August 184623 January 18471Acting
49George Russell Clerk23 January 18471 May 18481Acting
50Lucius Cary (Lord Falkland)1 May 184826 December 18535
51John Elphinstone (Lord Elphinstone)26 December 185311 May 18607
52George Russell Clerk11 May 186024 April 18622Acting

--------------------------------------------------------------------0-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gerald Aungier (died 1677--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gerald Aungier (died 1677) was the second Governor of Bombay. He was made the president of the Surat factor and the governor of Bombay in 1672





Aungier Clan Coat of Arms
Aungier Clan Coat of Arms



, which posts he held till 1675. He was responsible for the initial growth of the city.






Although the Portuguese king had ceded all the islands of Bombay to the British king Charles II of England, the Portuguese in India refused to hand over the territory. It was not till 1675 that Aungier actually took possession of Colaba and Old Woman's Island, thus completing the transfer of power to the British. His plan of fortifying the main island, from Dongri in the north to the harbour, had to wait until 1715 for completion, when Charles Boone became the governor of the town.


He offered various inducements to skilled workers and traders to set up business in Bombay. His offers were tempting enough to lure many traders and artisans from Gujarat to the newly developing town. As a result Bombay registered its first population boom. Between 1661 and 1675 there was a sixfold increase in population.
In Bombay, Governor Aungier formed a militia of local Bhandari youth to deal with organized street-level gangs that robbed sailors in 1669. Thus, Bhandari Militia was the first police establishment in Mumbai(then Bombay) during British India.




Aungier established the first mint in Bombay



, and ceded land near the Malabar Hill to immigrant Parsi workers and traders for a Tower of Silence.



 It was during his governorship, in 1670, that the first printing press was imported and set up in Bombay.







THE TOMB OF GERALD AUNGIER:
GERALD AUNGIER WAS THE GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY AND HE WAS ALSO PRESIDENT OF THE ENGLISH FACTORY HIS TOMB LIES CLOSED TO THE OXENDENS AND IN 1916, AT THE SUGGESTION OF LORD CURZON A TABLET WAS ERECTED GIVING THE IDENTITY OF THE TOMB.

[Surat-4.jpg]