Memories of Madras / by Sir Charles Lawson.

  • Sir Charles Lawson
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Memories of Madras / by Sir Charles Lawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    43/398 page 19
    Pitt, then M.P. for Old Sarum, his selection was much dis- approved by some of the stockholders, including Sir Josiah Child, who described him as “a roughling, immoral man.” For his own part Pitt was only too glad to avail himself of I the opportunity to add to such fortune as he had already . acquired as an “ interloper ” in India. He secured a passage to Madras in the Martha, and obtained from the Court per- : mission for his eldest son, Robert, to accompany him, and to “ reside at Fort St. George,” as a “ free Merchant.” As regarded his salary the Court, “ having taken into considera- tion ” that the former Presidents of Fort St. George “ received ; only Two Hundred Pounds per Annum Salary, and One : Hundred Pounds a year Gratuity . . . thought fit to make the same allowance ” to “ Thomas Pitt, Esq., who is elected ! President,” and “ that in his Indenture of Covenants the time of his service is to be for five years, and it is ordered that the sum of One Hundred Pounds be paid to him for fresh Provisions in his voyage.” He then embarked ; and he arrived at Madras on July 6, ; 1698. The following notice of the event was entered in the Consultation Books of the Government on the following day— Thursday, yth July, 1698 :—The Honorable Thomas Pitt, Esq., ;jcoming ashore about nine o’clock this morning, produced his Com- i mission, dated 5th January, 1698, appointing him President for the 5 Right Honorable Company’s affairs on the Coast of Coromandel and (: Orissa, and of the Ginjee and Mahratta countries, and Governor Ijof Fort St. George and Fort St. David, which being read. General iHigginson did resign the Chair, and deliver the keys of the Fort to the said Thomas Pitt, Esq. Pitt held the appointment of Governor of Fort St. George from July 7, 1698, until September 18, 1709, or for the un- : usual period of eleven years. “ The political events, so to : speak, of his long government ”—Sir Henry Yule once re- marked—“ were few, in fact the politics of Anglo-Indian i history were only nascent in his time ” ; and, had ‘ it not 1 been for the romance of the diamond that Pitt bought and I sold, and that is still associated with his name, his adminis- l tration might not have attracted any notice after he left
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