Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Lord Hobart (Robert Hobart)

Robert Hobart, Lord Hobart, was Governor of Madras from 1794 to 1798. He came just after the fight at Padmanabham, and his government settled the Vizianagaram country that followed it. He renewed the promise of protection to the young Raja Narayana Raju, rewarded the Jeypore chief with a permanent grant, and in April 1796 gave written promises restoring the hill zamindars to the lands the Vizianagaram family had taken from them. Collectors replaced the old Chief and Council at Visakhapatnam in his first months.

Robert Hobart, Lord Hobart, reached Madras just after the battle of Padmanabham. His government had to settle the Vizianagaram country after the Raja’s death there.1 It did so by breaking up the great estate, and giving the hill chiefs their lands back.2 Madras later had a second Lord Hobart, who governed from 1872 to 1875.3 See East India Company.

Governor of Madras

Maclean’s list of Governors shows Hobart in office from 7 September 1794 to 20 February 1798.4 W. K. Firminger, who edited the Fifth Report, adds a note on him.3 He names him as the fourth Earl of Buckinghamshire, after whom Hobart Town is named.3 When he was appointed to Madras he had been named to succeed Sir John Shore as Governor-General.3 But in 1798 he was recalled, after a difference with Shore.3

The young Raja

The Raja Vijayarama Raju was killed at Padmanabham in July 1794.5 His eight-year-old son, Narayana Raju, was taken into the hills by his guardians.6 Governor Oakeley had promised the boy protection if he came back.7 Hobart sent a new kaul (written promise) in the same terms, under his own seal and signature.1

The boy escaped from the zamindars who were holding him.1 On 21 September he received the Governor’s kaul.1 See Charles Oakeley and Padmanabham.

Collectors in place of the Chief

Near the end of 1794 the Madras Government abolished the Provincial Council at Visakhapatnam.1 It divided the Vizianagaram country among Collectors, with assistants under them.1 Francis’s list dates the first appointments, of John Snow, Nathaniel Webb and Michael Keating, to 20 November 1794.8 See Visakhapatnam.

The hill zamindars restored

The chief of Jeypore had kept out of the rising.1 Carmichael says Lord Hobart was quick to reward him.1 A sanad (grant) gave Ramachandra Deo and his heirs their lands in perpetuity.12

Other hill chiefs surrendered one by one.2 In April 1796, Carmichael writes, Lord Hobart “granted kauls to all the Hill Zamindars”.2 These restored them, during good behaviour, to the lands the Vizianagaram family had taken from them.2

Narayana Raju was given a kaul for three years.2 His estate was much smaller, and its peshkash (tribute) was six lakhs.2 The hill chiefs together paid three and three-quarter lakhs.2 See Vizianagaram.

Footnotes

  1. D. F. Carmichael, A Manual of the District of Vizagapatam (1869), p. 223 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. Carmichael, Vizagapatam (1869), p. 224 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. W. K. Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee … on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. I (1917), p. 169, editor’s notes (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  4. 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)). ↩

  5. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (1907), p. 53 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  6. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 54 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 55 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 180, list of the Chiefs in Council and Collectors of Vizagapatam (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. Walter Kelly Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company, dated 28th July 1812, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), R. Cambray and Co., Calcutta, 1917, pp. 169. [Public domain]
  3. D. F. Carmichael, A Manual of the District of Vizagapatam in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Asylum Press), 1869, pp. 223–224. [Public domain]
  4. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 55, 180. [Public domain]

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