Francis Day (1605–1673) was an administrator associated with the
East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
. He served as a factor of the company's factory at
Masulipatnam
Machilipatnam (), also known as Masulipatnam and Bandar, is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipal corporation and the administrative headquarters of Krishna district. It is also the mandal headquarte ...
from 1632 to 1639. In 1639, he negotiated the purchase of a strip of land south of the Dutch factory at
Pulicat
Pulicat or Pazhaverkadu is a historic seashore town in Chennai Metropolitan Area at Thiruvallur District, of Tamil Nadu state, India. It is about north of Chennai and from Elavur, on the southern periphery of the Pulicat Lake. Pulicat lake i ...
from the Raja of Chandragiri, where the town of
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
was built. He served as the second Agent of Madras from 1643 to 1644. Along with
Andrew Cogan
Andrew Cogan also known as Andrew Coggan (born circa 1600, Greenwich, England; died circa 1660) was the first agent of the English East India Company to rule Madras (a. k. a. Chennai). He was the chief of the Masulipatnam factory wh ...
, he is regarded as the founder of Madras.
Early life
Francis Day was born to William Day of Bray and his wife Helen Wentworth, the daughter of a member of the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
. He is believed to be the grandson of
William Day, who was appointed
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except dur ...
in 1595. Francis completed his education from
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
and joined the services of the East India Company in 1632.
Purchase of Madras
In 1637, Francis Day, then a member of the Masulipatnam Council and Chief of the Armagon Factory, undertook a voyage of exploration down the
Coromandel Coast
The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...
, as far as
Pondicherry
Pondicherry (), now known as Puducherry ( French: Pondichéry ʊdʊˈtʃɛɹi(listen), on-dicherry, is the capital and the most populous city of the Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the sout ...
. At that time, the Coromandel Coast was ruled by the Raja of Chandragiri through a local chief or Nayak, Damarla Venkatappa Nayak, who ruled the coast from Pulicat up to
Santhome
Santhome is a locality in Mylapore in Chennai city (formerly Madras) in India.
History
The word ''Santhome'' or ''San Thome'' is derived from Saint Thomas. The tradition is that he was martyred in AD 72 at St.Thomas Mount in the city, and was ...
. He had his seat at
Wandiwash
Vandavasi, earlier called Wandiwash is a major town and a municipality in the Tiruvannamalai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The town is well known in the Carnatic history for the Battle of Wandiwash. Vandavasi town is also the larges ...
and his brother, Ayyappa Nayak resided at
Poonamallee
Poonamallee is suburb of Chennai, India under the Chennai Metropolitan Area. It was historically called ''Pushpagirimangalam'', later renamed in Tamil as ''Poovirundhavalli'' (), and now colloquially called as ''Poondhamalli''. It is a town in ...
.
It is widely presumed that Ayyappa Nayak was the one who wooed the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
to choose the area comprising the modern-day Georgetown for settlement. Day and his superior, Andrew Cogan, investigated the proposed site and examined trading possibilities. The results were favorable and Day secured a grant offering the
village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
of
Madraspatnam to the English for a period of two years. The
Grant
Grant or Grants may refer to:
Places
*Grant County (disambiguation)
Australia
* Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia
United Kingdom
*Castle Grant
United States
* Grant, Alabama
*Grant, Inyo County, C ...
was dated August 1639, and after obtaining the approval of the Factory at Masulipatnam and the Presidency of Bantam (in Java), the settlement of Madraspatnam was begun.
Day also had other reasons to choose
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
for a factory: the availability of cotton, and at a much cheaper rate, as acknowledged by the prosperous Portuguese settlement of Sao Tôme, the nearness of the Portuguese, upon whom could be counted as neutral spectators if not active supporters in times of war, particularly influenced the English in their choice, the land allocated under the grant to the English in 1639, was a piece of land lying between the river Cooum, almost at the point at which it enters the sea and another river known as Egmore river, also a factor of safety important in those turbulent times.
Day was, however, sorely criticised by captains of
men-of-war
The man-of-war (also man-o'-war, or simply man) was a Royal Navy expression for a powerful warship or frigate from the 16th to the 19th century. Although the term never acquired a specific meaning, it was usually reserved for a ship armed wi ...
, for his choice of the location of the fort, due to immense difficulties in anchoring ships in Madras Roads. This meant that at various important junctures in the
Carnatic Wars
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 1744 and 1763.
The conflicts involved n ...
, the powerful
English fleet was rendered useless, having to weigh anchor and move out to sea at low tide. Merchantmen too found the same flaw, though for different reasons – they would have to wait until high tide to bring goods and passengers ashore or risk wetting them in the ''majula'' boats used as ferries between the fort and Madras Roads.
The chief difficulty, as usual with the English in those days, was lack of money. At last, in February 1640, Day and Cogan accompanied by a few factors and writers, a garrison of about 25 European soldiers and a few other European artificers, besides a Hindu powder-maker by name Naga Battan, proceeded to Madras and started the English factory. They reached Madraspatnam on 20 February; and this date is important because it marks the first actual settlement of the English at the place
Construction of Fort St George
Day and Cogan were jointly responsible for the construction of
Fort St. George (India), Fort St George. The building of the Factory House was taken up on 1 March 1640. Some portion of the structure was presumably completed by
St. George's Day
Saint George's Day is the Calendar of saints, feast day of Saint George, celebrated by Christian churches, countries, and cities of which he is the Patronages of Saint George, patron saint, including Bulgaria, England, Georgia (country), Georgi ...
(23 April) of that year and the name Fort St. George was consequently given to the Fort.
[Muthiah, S. (March, 2004)]
First city of modern India
, ''Seminar 535'', p 14.
The bastions were first built and erection of the curtain walls connecting them proceeded more slowly as funds permitted. The whole Fort took fourteen years to construct and was finished only in 1653. It measured about 100 yards by north to south and by 80 yards east to west. On its northern and southern sides buildings and streets sprang up and constituted what came to be known later as the White Town.
Indian merchants and artificers were attracted to the settlement and encouraged to build houses therein under a promise of exemptions from import taxes for a period of thirty years. It is said that within the first year of the life of the settlement, there arose some seventy to eighty substantial houses to the north and south of the Fort while in the village of Madraspatnam nearly four hundred families of weavers had come to settle permanently.
See also
*
Governors of Madras
This is a list of the governors, agents, and presidents of colonial Madras, initially of the English East India Company, up to the end of British colonial rule in 1947.
English Agents
In 1639, the grant of Madras to the English was finalized be ...
References
External links
History of Madras
{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Francis
1605 births
1673 deaths
History of Chennai
Governors of Madras
British East India Company people