British king and queen at Bombay 1911

The Arrival  of  British king and queen at Apollo Bunder{Gate way of india  made for their arrival}at Bombay

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 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,


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,

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.

Name	Portrait	Assumed office	Left office	Years in office	Remarks[a]
1	George Oxeden   1ST		23 September 1668	14 July 1669	1
2	Matthew Gray (ACTING)		14 July 1669	7 June 1672	3	Acting
3	Gerald Aungier  2ND		7 June 1672	30 June 1677	5
4	Henry Oxenden		30 June 1677	27 October 1681	4
5	John Child		27 October 1681	27 December 1683	2
6	Richard Keigwin[b]		27 December 1683	19 November 1684	1	Acting
7	Charles Zinzan		19 November 1684	1685	1	Acting
8	John Wyborne		1685	2 May 1687	2	Acting
9	John Child		2 May 1687	4 Feb 1690	3
10	Bartholomew Harris		4 February 1690	10 May 1694	4
11	Daniel Annesley		10 May 1694	17 May 1694		Acting
12	John Gayer		17 May 1694	November 1704	10
13	Nicholas Waite		November 1704	September 1708	4
14	William Aislabie		September 1708	11 October 1715	7
15	Stephen Strutt		11 October 1715	26 December 1715		Acting
16	Charles Boone		26 December 1715	9 January 1722	7
17	William Phipps		9 January 1722	10 January 1729	7
18	Robert Cowan		10 January 1729	22 September 1734	5
19	John Horne		22 September 1734	7 April 1739	5
20	Stephen Law		7 April 1739	15 November 1742	3
21	John Geekie		15 November 1742	26 November 1742		Acting
22	William Wake		26 November 1742	17 November 1750	8
23	Richard Bourchier		17 November 1750	1760	10
24	John Holkell		1760	28 February 1760		Acting
25	Charles Crommelin		28 February 1760	27 January 1767	7
26	Thomas Hodges		27 January 1767	23 February 1771	4
27	William Hornby		26 February 1771	1 January 1784	13
28	Rawson Hart Boddam		1 January 1784	9 January 1788	4
29	Andrew Ramsay		9 January 1788	6 September 1788	1	Acting
30	William Medows		6 September 1788	21 January 1790	2
31	Robert Abercromby		21 January 1790	26 November 1792	2
32	George Dick		26 November 1792	9 November 1795	3	Acting
33	John Griffith		9 November 1795	27 December 1795		Acting
34	Jonathan Duncan		27 December 1795	11 August 1811	16
35	George Brown		11 August 1811	12 August 1812	1	Acting
36	Evan Nepean		12 August 1812	1 November 1819	7
37	Mountstuart Elphinstone		1 November 1819	1 November 1827	8
38	John Malcolm		1 November 1827	1 December 1830	3
39	Thomas Sidney Beckwith		1 December 1830	15 January 1831	1	Acting
40	John Romer		17 January 1831	21 March 1831		Acting
41	John FitzGibbon		21 March 1831	17 March 1835	4
42	Robert Grant		17 March 1835	9 July 1838	3
43	James Farish		11 July 1838	31 May 1839	1	Acting
44	James Rivett Carnac		31 May 1839	27 April 1841	2
45	William Hay Macnaghten		27 April 1841	28 April 1841		Acting
46	George William Anderson		28 April 1841	9 June 1842	1	Acting
47	George Arthur		9 June 1842	6 August 1846	4
48	Lestock Robert Reid		6 August 1846	23 January 1847	1	Acting
49	George Russell Clerk		23 January 1847	1 May 1848	1	Acting
50	Lucius Cary (Lord Falkland)		1 May 1848	26 December 1853	5
51	John Elphinstone (Lord Elphinstone)		26 December 1853	11 May 1860	7
52	George Russell Clerk		11 May 1860	24 April 1862	2	Acting

--------------------------------------------------------------------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

, 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.