Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Marquis of Tweeddale

The Marquis of Tweeddale was Governor of Madras, and also Commander-in-Chief, from 1842 to 1848. He strongly backed Arthur Cotton's plan for a dam across the Godavari at Dowlaishweram, and urged it on the Court of Directors, who sanctioned it in December 1846. Cotton said he owed his success in great measure to Tweeddale's support, and late in life called the Godavari work Tweeddale's 'individual effort'.

The Marquis of Tweeddale was the Governor who said yes to the Godavari anicut (dam). The idea was Arthur Cotton’s, but the Godavari gazetteer and Morris’s manual both say the Governor pressed it on the Court of Directors.12 See East India Company and Arthur Cotton.

Governor of Madras

Maclean’s list of Governors shows Tweeddale in office from 24 September 1842 to 23 February 1848.3 He was also Commander-in-Chief.3

The Godavari anicut

The Godavari district had grown poorer, and its revenue had fallen.4 In 1843 the government sent Sir Henry Montgomery to inquire, and his report is dated 18 March 1844.4 In 1844 he revived an old idea of a dam on the Godavari.1 As a result, Captain Arthur Cotton was ordered in 1845 to report on building an anicut across the river.1

Cotton was in favour, and the gazetteer says “his representations were earnestly backed” by Tweeddale.1 Morris writes that the Governor “so strongly urged the project on the Court of Directors, that the work received their sanction”.2 The Directors sanctioned it in a despatch of 23 December 1846.1 The work began in earnest in April 1847.5 See Dowlaishweram anicut.

Cotton’s friend

Cotton’s daughter, Lady Hope, wrote his life.6 She says he “always felt, and acknowledged gratefully”, that he owed his success “in great measure” to Tweeddale’s “sympathy and powerful support”.6 Tweeddale remained one of his warmest friends.6 It was through the Governor, she says, that Cotton got the money for his Godavari projects, though it was often slow to come.6

Where the sources disagree

  • How much official support the dam had. Morris says the plan was “warmly supported by the Collector of the District, by the Board of Revenue, by the Chief Engineer, and especially by the Marquis of Tweeddale”.7 In a late letter printed by his daughter, Cotton wrote that the Godavari work “was begun entirely by the individual effort of Lord Tweeddale”, “in spite of the whole body of officials at Calcutta and Madras”.8

Footnotes

  1. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 80 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Henry Morris, A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Godavery District (1878), p. 110 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. 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

  4. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 167 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  5. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 126 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Lady Hope, General Sir Arthur Cotton, R.E., K.C.S.I.: His Life and Work (1900), p. 97 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 115 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. Lady Hope, General Sir Arthur Cotton (1900), p. 568, letter of Arthur Cotton (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 (4)
  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. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 80, 167. [Public domain]
  3. Henry Morris, A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Godavery District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Trübner & Co., London, 1878, pp. 110, 115, 126. [Public domain]
  4. Lady Hope (Elizabeth Hope, née Cotton), General Sir Arthur Cotton, R.E., K.C.S.I.: His Life and Work, with some Famine Prevention Studies by William Digby (opens in a new tab), Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1900, pp. 97, 568. [Public domain]

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