Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Lord Macartney

Lord Macartney was Governor of Madras from 1781 to 1785. Soon after he arrived he protested so strongly against a plan to hand the Northern Circars back to the Nizam that it was dropped. Sewell credits him with taking the Dutch posts on the Telugu coast in 1781, and he disapproved of the dealings of Company officers with the zamindar of Nuzvidu. He resigned by letter from Visakhapatnam.

Lord Macartney governed Madras from 1781 to 1785.1 For the Telugu coast his main act was a refusal: he would not let the Northern Circars be handed back to the Nizam.2 In his time the English also took the Dutch trading posts on the coast.3 See East India Company.

Governor of Madras

Maclean’s list of Governors shows Macartney in office from 22 June 1781 to 8 June 1785.1 On 4 June 1785 he sailed for the northern ports and Bengal.1 He resigned the governorship by a letter sent from Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam).1

Keeping the Circars

The Governor-General, Warren Hastings, badly needed men and money for the war.4 He proposed to give the Northern Circars back to the Nizam.42 In return the Nizam would place a body of horsemen at the Governor-General’s disposal.2

Francis’s Visakhapatnam gazetteer says that Macartney “had just arrived” when the plan came up.2 He protested “with such force against the proposal that it was abandoned”.2 The Kistna manual also says that he “strenuously opposed” it, and that it “fell to the ground”.4 So the Circars stayed with the Company.2 See Srikakulam and Rajahmundry.

The Dutch posts

Robert Sewell’s list of antiquities (1882) names three Dutch posts on the Telugu coast taken in Macartney’s time:563

  • Palakollu, an early Dutch settlement, taken from the Dutch in 1781 by “the English under Lord Macartney”3
  • the old Dutch factory at Jagannathapuram, the part of Kakinada (then Cocanada) south of the river, “captured by Lord Macartney in 1781”6
  • Bheemunipatnam (then Bimlipatam), “captured from that power by Lord Macartney”5

The Nuzvidu zamindar

In the years before Macartney came, Company officers at Machilipatnam had lent money to Appa Rao, the zamindar of Nuzvidu.7 One of them, Mr. Hodges, a Member of Council, had bought up the other officers’ claims against him.7 In 1781 Appa Rao’s petition was sent to London, and the Directors ordered a strict inquiry.7

The Kistna manual says that the new Governor “received very unfavourably” Hodges’ dealings with the zamindar.7 But by then it was too late.7 Appa Rao had lost faith in petitions, and in 1783 he gathered an armed force and prepared his fort for defence.7

Where the sources disagree

  • When the Circars were nearly given back. Francis dates the plan to 1781, when Macartney had just arrived.2 The Kistna manual dates it to 1784.4
  • When Palakollu was taken. Sewell gives 1781.3 The Imperial Gazetteer gives 1783.8

Footnotes

  1. C. D. Maclean (ed.), Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1885), p. 269, list of Governors of Fort St. George (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (1907), p. 48 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains, Vol. I (1882), p. 41, s.v. Palakol (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  4. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), pp. 84–85 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (1882), p. 14, s.v. Bimlipatam (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains, Vol. I (1882), p. 24, s.v. Jagannathapuram (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 299 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  8. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 327, s.v. Palakollu (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

East India Company

1759–1858 CE

The English East India Company in the Telugu country, from its first landing on the coast in 1611 to the Crown's take-over in 1858. For a century and a half it traded through factories at Masulipatam, Nizampatnam, Madapollam, Viravasaram, Vizagapatam, Injaram and Bendamurlanka, under farmans of the Golconda kings and the Mughals. Its fort at Madras stood on land granted in 1639 through the Nayaka Damarla Venkatadri. After Forde drove out the French it received the Masulipatam country (1759), the five Northern Circars by the emperor's grant of 1765 and the treaties with the Nizam of 1766 and 1768, Guntur (1788), the Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema (1800) and Nellore with the Carnatic (1801). It governed through Chiefs and Councils, then Collectors. It fixed the coastal zamindars' land revenue permanently in 1802–03, and assessed the Rayalaseema cultivators under Thomas Munro's ryotwari system. It broke the power of the Vizianagaram raja at Padmanabham (1794) and of the poligars. After the Guntur famine of 1832–33 it built the Godavari and Krishna anicuts.

References

Sources (5)
  1. C. D. Maclean (ed.), Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (Appendices) (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1885, pp. 269. [Public domain]
  2. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 48. [Public domain]
  3. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Lawrence Asylum Press), 1883, pp. 84–85, 299. [Public domain]
  4. Robert Sewell, Lists of the Antiquarian Remains in the Presidency of Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1882, pp. 14, 24, 41. [Public domain]
  5. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 327. [Public domain]

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