The East India Company College was from February 1806 to January 31st 1858 the college of the British East India Company (EIC).
The College provided general and vocational education for youths of sixteen to eighteen nominated by EIC Directors to writerships in the EIC overseas civil service. Attendance was generally for four 6-month terms.
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History
Charles Grant was the EIC director who was the driving force to its foundation. It first opened in Hertford Castle, then moved in 1809 to a purpose-built site at Hertford Heath, near Hertford, now used by Haileybury. Its architect, William Wilkins, later went on to design the National Gallery in London, which bears some similarities.
In 1856 an open competitive examination replaced the system of appointment by patronage. In the wake of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government took over the administration of India in January 1858, and the college closed. The buildings of the college were reopened for educational use as Haileybury in 1862.
Administrators
Principals
The College had four principals; the first was Samuel Henley[1]. From 1815, until his death in 1837, the Revd. Joseph Hallett Batten, D.D., of Penzance held the position[2]. Batten was succeeded by Charles Webb Le Bas, who resigned in 1843[3]. The Revd. Henry Melvill, afterwards Canon of St. Paul's, was the final principal 1844 - 1858[4].
Deans
The position of Dean was filled by one of the professors: William Dealtry, MA (1813) Charles Webb Le Bas, MA (1814-38) James Amiraux Jeremie (Professor of Classics) (1838-50) W E Buckley (1850-57)
Registrars
The position of Registrar was filled by one of the professors: William Dealtry (1813) Bewick Bridge (1814-16) Edward Lewton (1816-30) Henry George Keene (1831-34) James Michael (1834-37) Fred Smith (1838-57)
Professors
Languages
- Graves Chamney Haughton (1817-27) FRS previously of Fort William College, Calcutta
- Francis Johnson taught Sanskrit, Bengali and Telugu (1824-55).[5]
- Mirza Muhammed Ibrahim, a Persian, held a permanent appointment as a professor of Arabic and Persian (1826-44)
- Monier Monier-Williams - whose Sanskrit dictionary is still in print - taught Sanskrit, Bengali and Telugu (1844-58).
- Edward Backhouse Eastwick was Professor of Urdu (Hindustani), Hindi and Marathi (1845-57).[6]
Other professors at the College included[7][8]
- Henry George Keene, who served at the Battle of Seringapatam with the first Lord Harris (his uncle), and whose american wife, though she came of a New England family, was related to Lord Cornwallis. His son became a Fellow of the University of Calcutta and a prolific writer.
- Horace Hayman Wilson, Examiner in Sanskrit (1837-57), and
- Major J.W.J.Ouseley, Professor of Persian and Arabic (previously Professor of the Arabic and Persian Languages in the College of Fort-William, Calcutta[9]) (1844-57)
Assistants in the Oriental Department included Maulavi Abdal Aly (1809-12), Maulavi Mirza Khedel (1809-19), The Revd. Robert Anderson (1820-25), and David Shea (1826-36). Moonshy Ghoolam Hyder and Thomas Medland taught oriental writing.
Law
- Edward Christian (1806-18)
- James Mackintosh was Professor of Law and General Politics 1818-24.
- William Empson, [10] was Professor of Law (1824-52).
- John Farley Leith QC (1872-80), later Member of Parliament for Aberdeen
Political Economy
- Thomas Malthus taught from 1805-34. In 1809 he moved into the east side of a house (Hailey House), which he then bought in 1815 and occupied until his death, after which it was taken over by Mr Empson.
- Richard Jones was Professor of History and Political Economy (1834-55).
- The
Rt Hon Sir James Stephen also taught political economy (1855-57)
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
- William Dealtry was Professor of Mathematics 1806-13[11]. He had been Second Wrangler in 1796.
- Bewick Bridge (1767-1833) was Professor of Mathematics 1806-16.
- Charles Webb Le Bas (1813-37)
- Charles Babbage applied unsuccessfully for a job in 1816.
- Herry Walter (1816-30)
- William Sturgeon lectured on science in 1824.
- Frederick Smith (1831-50) of Peterhouse College, Cambridge
- J W L Heaviside (1838-57) previously of Trinity College, and then Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he graduated Second Wrangler and a Smith's Prize winner in 1830, and tutored until he moved to Haileybury.
Classical and General Literature
- Edward Lewton (1806-30)
- Joseph Hallett Batten (1806-15)
- James Amiraux Jeremie (also Dean) (1830-50), elected in 1850 Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge.
- W.E.Buckley (1850-57) previously tutor and fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford and Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford (1844-50), and a member and subsequently vice-president of the Roxburghe Club.
Famous alumni
- Henry Bartle Frere
- John Muir (indologist)
- John Russell Colvin
- Sir William Muir
- Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet
- Ashley Eden
- Richard Paternoster
External links
- Death record of Joseph Batten
- Persian Professor in Britain: Mirza Muhammed Ibrahim at the East India Company's College, 1826-1844 by Michael H. Fisher
- Frederick Charles Danvers, Harriet Martineau, Monier Monier-Williams, Stuart Colvin Bayley, Percy Wigram, Brand Sapte et al. Memorials of old Haileybury College Westminster 1894 Archibald Constable & Co.
References
- ^ ODNB article by G. P. Moriarty, ‘Henley, Samuel (1740–1815)’, rev. John D. Haigh, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2007 [1], accessed 21 Sept 2007.
- ^ Our Public Schools: Their Influence on English History By James George Cotton Minchin, S. Sonnenschein & co., ltd, 1901 [2], accessed 9 Oct 2007.
- ^ Our Public Schools: Their Influence on English History By James George Cotton Minchin, S. Sonnenschein & co., ltd, 1901 p121 [3]
- ^ ODNB article by G. C. Boase, ‘Melvill, Henry (1798–1871)’, rev. H. C. G. Matthew, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [4], accessed 18 Sept 2007
- ^ ODNB article by Cecil Bendall, ‘Johnson, Francis (1795/6–1876)’, rev. Parvin Loloi, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [5], accessed 21 Sept 2007.
- ^ ODNB article by Stanley Lane-Poole, ‘Eastwick, Edward Backhouse (1814–1883)’, rev. Parvin Loloi, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [6], accessed 20 Sept 2007.
- ^ Men and Events of My Time in India by Sir Richard Temple, John Murray, London, 1882 p 18accessed 9 Oct 2007
- ^ F.C. Danvers, M Monier-Williams and others: Memorials of Old Haileybury College, Westminster, Archibald Constable, 1894 , quoted in A Dictionary of Public Administration by Shriram Maheshwari
- ^ The Mulfuzāt Timūry (Autobiographical Memoirs) of the Moghul Emperor Timūr p 16 accessed 9 Oct 2007
- ^ ODNB article by Joanne Shattock, ‘Empson, William (1791–1852)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [7], accessed 20 Sept 2007
- ^ ODNB article by M. C. Curthoys, ‘Dealtry, William (1775–1847)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [8], accessed 20 Sept 2007.
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