India, the East India Company, Warren Hastings and the first Mahratta war. David and James Anderson of Edinburgh.
£12,000
Printed Books, Maps and Manuscripts
Auction: 11 July 2006 at 12:00 BST
Description
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Footnote
Footnote: A fascinating and important archive for the study the role of Scots in the East India Company, Warren Hastings and the first Mahratta War. David Anderson (1750-1828) and James Anderson (1758-1833) were born in Edinburgh to the lawyer David Anderson, factor to the Earl of Wemyss. David Anderson senior retired to a house on the Wemyss estate at Inveresk as David Anderson of Stonyhill while David junior and James entered the service of the East India Company, David as a writer or clerk, and James as a cadet in the HEIC army. They became assistants to and close friends of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Bengal, for whom David was a major political diplomat and James a Persian interpreter. Anderson was appointed by the Governor General and Council of Bengal as Minister to the Court of Poonah to negotiate peace with the Maharattas. Anderson's mission was critical to the East India Company as although Hyder Ally had been defeated in three actions by Sir Eyre Coote he still possessed the greater part of the Carnatic. There were insufficient funds to pay the army and a French fleet superior to the English one with three thousand troops had landed at Porto Novo. Tippoo Sultan had joined forces with Hyder's army and attacked and defeated the English army in Tanjore under Col. Braithwaite and threatened Trinchinopoly. David Anderson concluded a Treaty of Peace with Madajee Scindia [Madhavrao I Scindia], the ruler of Gwalior state in central India, in 1782. Mahadji took full advantage of the British system of neutrality pursued by the British to establish his supremacy over Northern India. David returned to England with Hastings in 1785, helped Hastings prepare his defence for his impeachment and gave evidence for the defence, being one of the few witnesses who refused to be browbeaten by Edmund Burke, Charles James Fox and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. During the trial David Anderson was implicated in Hasting's corruption but no charges were laid against him.
Like Hastings the Andersons assembled collections of Oriental books and manuscripts, David bequeathing his to the University library and those of James being donated at a later date. After Sir Thomas Munro and John Macpherson, Governor of India, David and James Anderson merit further study as prominent Scots in the service of the East India Co.