William Fraser (acting) | |
|---|---|
| President of Fort St George (Madras) | |
| In office 18 November 1709 –11 July 1711 | |
| Preceded by | Edmund Montague |
| Succeeded by | Edward Harrison |
| Signature |  |
William Fraser was a British merchant and administrator who was the Acting President of Madras from 14 November 1709 to 11 July 1711.
On 13 January 1710,Lewis Melique,a European citizen of Madras presented a petition to Fraser accusing Khoja Safar,a prominent Armenian of St. Thomas Mount of sedition. Melique accused Khoja and other Armenians of St. Thomas Mount of conspiring to break away from Fort St George and establish their own independent factory with St. Thome as port. Khoja Safar on presented before Melique denied the accusations but despite Safar's insistence on his innocence,he was jailed on the condition that he would be released only on the provision of a security of 5,000 pagodas.
There existed a cordial relationship between the British at Fort St George and Zuddie Khan,the Mughal Foujdar of Bengal and Southern India with the frequent exchange of letters and gifts. However,the relationships with Nawab Dawood Khan and his successor Zulfikar Khan weren't so cordial. However,from April 1710,the Nawab under the suspected influence of Yavallappa,Manager of Poonamallee,began to pressurize the Company to hand over the Five Old Villages. Fraser wrote a letter to Zulfikar Khan reminding him that the Five Old Villages had been handed over to the British by the Mughal Emperor Aurangazeb in recognition of the services they had rendered to the Mughals during the siege of Gingee. But this petition was of nio avail as Zulfikar Khan simply sent out a Parwana restating his demands.
In 1698,two powerful Indians,Anantarao and Piccarao borrowed money from one Mr. Holcombe,the Deputy Governor of the English factory at Visakhapatnam and failed to repay him. Holcombe,who had borrowed 44,000 pagodas from Fakrullah Khan,the Nawab of Kalinga,in order to pay the two Indians was embroiled in a perilous situation. When the Nawab demanded his money,he was only able to pay him 37,500 pagodas. Soon,Holcombe died leaving behind a debt of 6,500 pagodas to Fakrullah Khan. Fakrullah Khan held the Company responsible and demanded a payment of the debt from the British factory at Visakhapatnam. Fakrullah Khan was also dissatisfied with the support lent by the Company to the former's rival to the throne Habib Khan.
On 8 August 1710,Fakrullah Khan besieged the Visakhapatnam factory with an army comprising 7,000 foot and 800 horse. By the next evening,the factory was effectively blockaded and supply lines cut. The factors at Madras intervened and proposed peace to Fakrullah Khan. The next year,peace was finally concluded through the mediation of Habib Khan.
On 24 February 1711,the King of Pegu wrote a letter to the Governor of Fort St George requesting the British to send him a clock and expressing his readiness to provide the British with anything they ask,in return.
However,it is not known whether Fraser did in the end send a clock.
Fraser was recalled suddenly on 11 July 1711 and replaced with Edward Harrison.
Major-General Robert Clive,1st Baron Clive,,also known as Clive of India,was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company rule in Bengal. He began as a writer for the East India Company (EIC) in 1744 and established Company rule in Bengal by winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757. In return for supporting the Nawab Mir Jafar as ruler of Bengal,Clive was granted a jagir of £30,000 per year which was the rent the EIC would otherwise pay to the Nawab for their tax-farming concession. When Clive left India he had a fortune of £180,000 which he remitted through the Dutch East India Company.
Bahadur Shah,also known as Muhammad Mu'azzam and Shah Alam,was the eighth Mughal emperor in India,ruled from 1707 until his death in 1712. In his youth,he conspired to overthrow his father Aurangzeb,the sixth Mughal emperor,and ascend to the throne. Shah's plans were intercepted by the emperor,who imprisoned him several times. From 1696 to 1707,he was governor of Akbarabad,Kabul and Lahore. Bahadur Shah was also Aurangzeb's third son.
The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757,under the leadership of Robert Clive,which was possible due to the defection of Mir Jafar,who was Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah's commander in chief. The battle helped the Company seize control of Bengal. Over the next hundred years,they seized control of most of the Indian subcontinent,Myanmar,and Afghanistan.
Murshidabad is a historical city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located on the eastern bank of the Bhagirathi River,a distributary of the Ganges. It forms part of the Murshidabad district.
Kolkata is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal and is located in eastern India on the east bank of the River Bhagirathi-Hooghly (Ganga). The city was a colonial city developed by the East India Company and then by the British Empire. Kolkata was the capital of the British Indian empire until 1911,when the capital was relocated to Delhi. Kolkata grew rapidly in the 19th century to become the second city of the British Indian Empire. This was accompanied by the development of a culture that fused Indian philosophies with Arabian tradition.
The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region,a dependency of Hyderabad State,India. Three Carnatic Wars were fought between 1746 and 1763.
Gingee,also known as Senji or Jinji and originally called Singapuri,is a panchayat town in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Gingee is located between three hills covering a perimeter of 3
The CarnaticSultanate was a kingdom in South India between about 1690 and 1855,and was under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad,until their demise. They initially had their capital at Arcot in the present-day Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Their rule is an important period in the history of the Carnatic and Coromandel Coast regions,in which the Mughal Empire gave way to the rising influence of the Maratha Empire,and later the emergence of the British Raj.
Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah,or Muhammed Ali,Wallajah,was the Nawab of Arcot in India and an ally of the British East India Company.
Zulfiqar Khan or Nusrat Jung born as Muhammad Ismail in 1657 was the first Nawab of the Tamil Carnatic State. He was the son of Asad Khan,a Wazir of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and his wife Mehr-un-Nisa Begum??. He was married to the daughter of Bengal governor Shaista Khan. He was the wazir of the emperor Jahandar Shah.
Daud Khan Panni or simply as Daud Khan was a Mughal commander,Nawab of the Carnatic and later Nawab of Kurnool. He was an ethnic Pashtun from the Panni tribe and was from Bijapur,Karnataka.
Sa'adatullah Khan I or Sa'adatullah Khan was Nawab of Carnatic (r.1710–1732) and founder of Nawayath dynasty.
Joseph Collett (1673–1725) was a British administrator in the service of the British East India Company. He served as the deputy-governor of Bencoolen from 1712 to 1717 and as governor of the Madras Presidency from 1717 to 1720. He re-built Hertford Castle in England and stood for election to the British Parliament.
Nathaniel Higginson was an English politician and a scion of the Higginson family of Salem,Massachusetts who served as the first Mayor of Madras,and later as the President of the colony from 3 October 1692 to 7 July 1698.
Edward Harrison was a naval officer and official of the East India Company and British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1717 to 1726. He served as the President of Madras from 11 July 1711 to 8 January 1717.
Coja Petrus Uscan was an Armenian-Indian merchant and leader of the Armenian community of Madras who was known for his immense wealth and unflinching devotion and loyalty to the British during the French occupation of Madras.
The Maratha invasions of Bengal (1741-1751),also known as the Maratha expeditions in Bengal,refers to the frequent invasions by the Maratha forces in the Bengal Subah,after their successful campaign in the Carnatic region at the Battle of Trichinopoly. The leader of the expedition was Maratha Maharaja Raghoji Bhonsle of Nagpur. The Marathas invaded Bengal five times from August 1741 to May 1751 which caused widespread economic losses in the Bengal Subah.
The siege of Trichinopoly was part of an extended series of conflicts between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire for control of the Carnatic region. On 29 August 1743,after a six-month siege,Murari Rao surrendered,giving Nizam ul Mulk (Nizam) the suzerainty of Trichinopoly. By the end of 1743,the Nizam had regained full control of Deccan. This stopped the Maratha interference in the region and ended their hegemony over the Carnatic. The Nizam resolved the internal conflicts among the regional hereditary nobles (Nawabs) for the seat of governor (Subedar) of Arcot State,and monitored the activities of the British East India company and French East India Company by limiting their access to ports and trading.
The Bengal Subah,also referred to as Mughal Bengal,was the largest subdivision of the Mughal Empire encompassing much of the Bengal region,which includes modern Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal,between the 16th and 18th centuries. The state was established following the dissolution of the Bengal Sultanate,a major trading nation in the world,when the region was absorbed into one of the gunpowder empires. Bengal was the wealthiest region in the Indian subcontinent,due to their thriving merchants,Seth's,Bankers and traders and its proto-industrial economy showed signs of driving an Industrial revolution.
Arcot Gate is part of the fortification of Arcot,a town which is located on the banks of Palar river in Ranipet district,Tamil Nadu,India. The gate was part of a fort built by Mughal governor,Daud Khan Panni,in the first half of the 18th century. It was the site of a memorable defense made by Robert Clive during the Siege of Arcot.