East India Company College

The East India Company College, or East India College, was an educational establishment founded in 1806 to train "writers" (administrators) for the Honourable East India Company (HEIC). It provided general and vocational education for young gentlemen of sixteen to eighteen years old, who were nominated by the Company's directors to writerships in its overseas civil service.

The College's counterpart for the training of officers for the Company's Presidency armies was Addiscombe Military Seminary, Surrey.

History

Haileybury College today.

Charles Grant, Chairman of the British East India Company and Member of Parliament, was closely involved in the foundation of the college. Opening in February 1806, it was initially located in Hertford Castle, before moving in 1809 to purpose-built premises at nearby Hertford Heath. The architect of the buildings was William Wilkins, who also designed the National Gallery in London.

In 1856 an open competitive examination replaced the system of appointment to the Indian Civil Service by patronage. In January 1858, in the wake of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government took over the administration of India and the College closed. The buildings were reopened in 1862 as a public school, Haileybury, and in 1942 its re-incarnation merged with the Imperial Service College to become Haileybury and Imperial Service College.

Administrators

Principals

The College had four principals:

• 1806–1815: Samuel Henley^[1]
• 1815–1837: Joseph Batten^[2]
• 1837–1843: Charles Webb Le Bas^[2]
• 1844–1858: Henry Melvill, afterwards Canon of St. Paul's^[3]

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).^[4]
• 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).^[5]
• 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) (1844–57)^[6][7][8]

Law

• Edward Christian (1806–18)
• James Mackintosh was Professor of Law and General Politics 1818-24.
• William Empson,^[9] 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.^[10] 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.
• Henry 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.

Other

• 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.^[6][7]
• Horace Hayman Wilson, Examiner in Sanskrit (1837–57)

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.^[6][7]

Notable alumni

• Sir Edward Colebrooke, 4th Baronet^[11]
• John Russell Colvin
• Ashley Eden
• Henry Bartle Frere
• John Peter Grant
• Sir John Lawrence
• Charles Merivale
• Monier Monier-Williams
• John Muir (indologist)
• Sir William Muir
• Richard Paternoster
• Charles Pelham Villiers
• Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet
• Charles Trevelyan
• Charles John Wingfield

References

1. 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 , accessed 21 September 2007.
2. Our Public Schools: Their Influence on English History By James George Cotton Minchin, S. Sonnenschein & co., ltd, 1901 , accessed 9 Oct 2007.
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 , accessed 18 September 2007
4. ODNB article by Cecil Bendall, ‘Johnson, Francis (1795/6–1876)’, rev. Parvin Loloi, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 21 Sept 2007.
5. ODNB article by Stanley Lane-Poole, ‘Eastwick, Edward Backhouse (1814–1883)’, rev. Parvin Loloi, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 20 Sept 2007.
6. Sir Richard Temple (1882). Men and Events of My Time in India. London: John Murray. p. 18. Retrieved 9 Oct 2007.
7. F.C. Danvers, M Monier-Williams; et al. (1894). Memorials of Old Haileybury College. Westminster: Archibald Constable. Quoted in A Dictionary of Public Administration by Shriram Maheshwari.
8. The Mulfuzāt Timūry (Autobiographical Memoirs) of the Moghul Emperor Timūr p 16 accessed 9 Oct 2007
9. ODNB article by Joanne Shattock, ‘Empson, William (1791–1852)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 20 Sept 2007
10. ODNB article by M. C. Curthoys, ‘Dealtry, William (1775–1847)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 , accessed 20 Sept 2007.
11. Binns, Sheila (2014). Sir Edward Colebrooke of Abington and Ottershaw, Baronet and Member of Parliament: The Four Lives of an Extraordinary Victorian. Guildford, Surrey: Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd. p. 16. ISBN 978 17814 86948.

Further reading

• Farrington (ed.), Anthony (1976). The Records of the East India College, Haileybury, & other institutions. London: H.M.S.O.

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.
•  "Haileybury College". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
•  "Haileybury College". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.