List of colonial governors and presidents of Madras Presidency

Last updated

This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947.

Contents

English Agents

In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized between the factors of the Masulipatnam (now Machilipatnam) factory (trading post), represented by Francis Day, and the Raja of Chandragiri. In 1640, Andrew Cogan, the chief of the Masulipatnam factory, made his way to Madras in the company of Francis Day and the English and Indian employees of the Masulipatnam factory. The Agency of Madras was established on 1 March 1640 and Cogan was made the first Agent. The official title was 'Governor of Fort St George' and the Governor was usually referred to as Agent. Cogan served in the post for three years and was succeeded by Francis Day. After four agents had served their terms, Madras was upgraded to a Presidency during the time of Aaron Baker. However financial considerations forced the company to revert to an agency soon after Aaron Baker had served his term. The Agency survived until 1684 when Madras was made a Presidency once and for all. Streynsham Master is the best remembered and most renowned of the Agents of Madras.

#Name
(birth–death)
Took officeLeft officeNotes
Agents
1 Andrew Cogan 1 March 16401643
2 Francis Day
(1605–1673)
16431644
3 Thomas Ivie
(1605–1673)
16441648
4 Thomas Greenhill
(1611–1658)
16481652
5 Aaron Baker
(1610–1683)
16521655
6Thomas Greenhill
(1611–1658)
16551658
7Sir Thomas Chambers
(d. 1692)
16581661
8 Sir Edward Winter
(1622–1686)
1661Aug 1665
9 George Foxcroft
(1634–1715)
Aug 166516 Sep 1665
10Sir Edward Winter
(1622–1686)
16 Sep 166522 Aug 1668
11George Foxcroft
(1634–1715)
22 Aug 1668Jan 1670
12 Sir William Langhorne, 1st Baronet
(1631–1715)
Jan 167027 Jan 1678
13 Streynsham Master
(1640–1724)
27 Jan 16783 Jul 1681
14 William Gyfford 3 Jul 16818 Aug 1684

Presidents

Madras was elevated to a presidency in 1684 and remained so until 12 February 1785 when new rules and regulations brought by the Pitt's India Act reformed the administration of the East India Company with the exception of a three-year period of French rule from 1746 to 1749 when Madras was a governorship.

Subsequently, Elihu Yale who took charge on 8 August 1684 was the First President of Madras. Elihu Yale, Thomas Pitt and George Macartney are some of the well-known Presidents of Madras.

NameTook officeLeft office
Elihu Yale (First term) (acting)8 August 168426 January 1685
William Gyfford 26 January 168525 July 1687
Elihu Yale (Second term)25 July 16873 October 1692
Nathaniel Higginson 3 October 16927 July 1698
Thomas Pitt 7 July 169818 September 1709
Gulston Addison 18 September 170917 October 1709
Edmund Montague (acting)17 October 170914 November 1709
William Fraser 14 November 1709 (acting)11 July 1711
Edward Harrison 11 July 17118 January 1717
Joseph Collett 8 January 171718 January 1720
Francis Hastings (acting)18 January 172015 October 1721
Nathaniel Elwick 15 October 172115 January 1725
James Macrae 15 January 172514 May 1730
George Morton Pitt 14 May 173023 January 1735
Richard Benyon (governor) 23 January 173514 January 1744
Nicholas Morse 14 January 174410 September 1746

Governors of the French East India Company

In 1746, Joseph François Dupleix's deputy, Mahé de La Bourdonnais laid siege to Madras and captured the city. For the next three years, Madras remained under French governors, until 1749, when Madras was handed to the British as per the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). The illustrious de la Bordannais served as acting governor for a few months until the appointment of Governor Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil, who served until 1749 when Madras reverted to British rule.

NameTook officeLeft office
Mahé de La Bourdonnais (acting)10 September 17462 October 1746
Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil 2 October 1746August 1749

Presidents of the British East India Company

During the period between 1746 and 1749, when Madras was under French rule, the British ran a provisional government from Fort St. David, near modern-day Porto Novo. In 1752, when Madras had been returned to the British, the then President of Madras, John Saunders, shifted the seat of government from Fort St. David to Madras. The British gained a lot of territory during the mid-18th century, so that by the time the French military power was crushed at the Battle of Wandiwash in 1761, the territory under the Presidency of Madras had increased manyfold. In 1785, the Province of Madras was created and the President became the Governor of Madras.

NameTook officeLeft office
John Hinde (in Fort St. David)10 September 174614 April 1747
Charles Floyer (in Fort St. David)14 April 174719 September 1750
Thomas Saunders (in Fort St. David up to 5 April 1752)19 September 175014 January 1755
George Pigot (1st time)14 January 175514 November 1763
Robert Palk 14 November 176325 January 1767
Charles Bourchier 25 January 176731 January 1770
Josias Du Pré 31 January 17702 February 1773
Alexander Wynch 2 February 177311 December 1775
George Pigot (2nd time)11 December 177523 August 1776
George Stratton 23 August 177631 August 1777
John Whitehill (first time) (acting)31 August 17778 February 1778
Sir Thomas Rumbold 8 February 17786 April 1780
John Whitehill (second time) (acting)6 April 17808 November 1780
Charles Smith (acting)8 November 178022 June 1781
George Macartney 22 June 178112 February 1785

Governors (of British India)

NameTook officeLeft office
George Macartney 12 February 178514 June 1785
Alexander Davidson (acting)14 June 17856 April 1786
Sir Archibald Campbell 6 April 17867 February 1789
John Holland (acting)7 February 178913 February 1790
Edward J.Holland (acting)13 February 179020 February 1790
William Medows 20 February 17901 August 1792
Sir Charles Oakeley 1 August 17927 September 1794
Robert Hobart, Baron Hobart 7 September 179421 February 1798
George Harris (acting)21 February 179821 August 1798
Edward Clive, 2nd Baron Clive 21 August 179830 August 1803
Lord William Bentinck 30 August 180311 September 1807
William Petrie (acting)11 September 180724 February 1808
Sir George Barlow, 1st Baronet 24 February 180821 May 1813
John Abercromby (acting)21 May 181316 September 1814
Hugh Elliot 16 September 181410 June 1820
Sir Thomas Munro 10 June 182010 July 1827
Henry Sullivan Graeme (acting)10 July 182718 October 1827
Stephen Rumbold Lushington 18 October 182725 October 1832
Sir Frederick Adam 25 October 18324 March 1837
George Edward Russell (acting)4 March 18376 March 1837
John Elphinstone, 13th Lord Elphinstone 6 March 183724 September 1842
George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale 24 September 184223 February 1848
Henry Dickinson (acting)23 February 18487 April 1848
Sir Henry Pottinger 7 April 184824 April 1854
Daniel Eliott (acting)24 April 185428 April 1854
George Harris, 3rd Baron Harris 28 April 185428 March 1859
Sir Charles Trevelyan 28 March 18598 June 1860
William Ambrose Morehead (1st time) (acting)8 June 18605 July 1860
Sir Henry George Ward 5 July 18602 August 1860
William Ambrose Morehead (2nd time) (acting)4 August 186018 February 1861
Sir William Denison (1st time)18 February 186126 November 1863
Edward Maltby (acting)26 November 186318 January 1864
Sir William Denison (2nd time)18 January 186427 March 1866
Francis Napier 27 March 186619 February 1872
Alexander John Arbuthnot (acting)19 February 187215 May 1872
Vere Henry Hobart, Baron Hobart 15 May 187229 April 1875
William Rose Robinson (acting)29 April 187523 November 1875
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos 23 November 187520 December 1880
William Patrick Adam 20 December 188024 May 1881
William Huddleston (acting)24 May 18815 November 1881
Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff 5 November 18818 December 1886
Robert Bourke, 1st Baron Connemara 8 December 18861 December 1890
John Henry Garstin 1 December 189023 January 1891
Beilby Lawley, 3rd Baron Wenlock 23 January 189118 March 1896
Sir Arthur Elibank Havelock 18 March 189628 December 1900
Arthur Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill (1st time)28 December 190030 April 1904
James Thompson (acting)30 April 190413 December 1904
Arthur Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill (2nd time)13 December 190415 February 1906
Sir Gabriel Stokes (acting)15 February 190628 March 1906
Sir Arthur Lawley 28 March 19063 November 1911
Sir Thomas David Gibson-Carmichael 3 November 191130 March 1912
Sir Murray Hammick (acting)30 March 191230 October 1912
John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland 30 October 191229 March 1919
Sir Alexander Cardew 29 March 191910 April 1919
Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Baron Willingdon 10 April 191912 April 1924
Sir Charles Todhunter (acting)12 April 192414 April 1924
George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen 14 April 192429 June 1929
Sir Norman Majoribanks (acting)29 June 192911 November 1929
Sir George Frederick Stanley (1st time)11 November 192916 May 1934
Sir Muhammad Usman Sahib Bahadur (acting)16 May 193416 August 1934
Sir George Frederick Stanley (2nd time)16 August 193415 November 1934
John Erskine, Lord Erskine (1st time)15 November 193418 June 1936
Kurma Venkata Reddy Naidu (acting)18 June 19361 October 1936
John Erskine, Lord Erskine (2nd time)1 October 193612 March 1940
Arthur Hope 12 March 194026 February 1946
Sir Henry Foley Knight (acting)26 February 19465 May 1946
Sir Archibald Nye 5 May 194615 August 1947

References