James Capper (1743–1825) was a British army officer of 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 South ...

, known as a writer and

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

Life

The younger brother of Francis Capper, he was born 15 December 1743, and educated at Harrow School. He entered the East India Company's service at an early age, and attained the rank of colonel, holding for some time the post of comptroller-general of the army and fortification accounts on 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 ...

. After retiring from military service, Capper settled for some years in South Wales, taking an interest in meteorology and agriculture. He lived at Cathays House. Moving to

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, he died at Ditchingham Lodge, near Bungay, 6 September 1825.

Works

Capper wrote: *''Observations on the Passage to India through Egypt; also to Vienna through Constantinople and Aleppo, and from thence to Bagdad, and across the Great Desert to Bassora, with occasional Remarks on the adjacent Countries, and also Sketches of the different Routes'', London, 1784 and 1785. This work contains some details of the travels of George Matcham. John Taylor used it for his 1795 proposal of an overland mail route to India. *''Memorial to the Hon. Court of Directors of the East India Company'', 1785 (privately printed). *''Observations on the Winds and Monsoons, illustrated with a chart, and accompanied with Notes, Geographical and Meteorological'', London, 1801. Capper proposed in 1801 that

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s were a type of circular storm or

whirlwind A whirlwind is a weather phenomenon in which a vortex of wind (a vertically oriented rotating column of air) forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow (current) gradients. Whirlwinds occur all over the world and i ...

. *''Observations on the Cultivation of Waste Lands, addressed to the gentlemen and farmers of Glamorganshire'', London, 1805. *''Meteorological and Miscellaneous Tracts applicable to Navigation, Gardening, and Farming, with Calendars of Flora for Greece, France, England, and Sweden'', London, 1809,

Family

Capper married Mary Johnson. Their eldest daughter Marianne married Robert Clutterbuck. Another daughter, Louisa (1776–1840), was known as a writer.

Notes

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Capper, James 1743 births 1825 deaths People educated at Harrow School British East India Company Army officers 18th-century British writers 19th-century British writers 19th-century British male writers British meteorologists 18th-century British male writers