John Hyde (14 January 1738 – 8 July 1796) was a
Puisne Judge
A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use
The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...
on the
Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
from 1774 to his death.
He is the primary author of ''Hyde's Notebooks'', a series of 74 notebooks that are a trove of information for the first years of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, the highest court in Bengal from 1774 to 1862.
The originals of these are kept at the
Victoria Memorial
The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building on the Maidan in Central Kolkata, built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria, Empress of India from 1876 to 1901.
The largest monument to a monarch anywhere ...
in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
. Partial microfilms are held at the
National Library of India
The National Library of India is a library located in Belvedere Estate, Alipore, Kolkata, India. It is India's largest library by volume and public record. The National Library is under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Currently, Dr. ...
, Kolkata. The digitized microfilm is available online.
The originals, which vary slightly from the microfilm, were digitized in 2015 but are not yet released.
Judicial Record
Hyde gained a reputation as a morally upright judge in a time of general corruption in the British
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 ...
. While Chief Justice
Elijah Impey and puisne judge
Sir Robert Chambers both accepted bribes from Governor-General of Bengal
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...
in return for compromising their judicial positions, Hyde refused offers. Hyde was unique among the judges in thinking that all individuals in Bengal, Indians and British alike, deserved the same rights, noting that the Supreme Court's charter called everyone residing in Bengal British subjects: “it seems to me that in this clause his majesty expressly calls all the inhabitants of Bengal, Bahar and Orissa, his subjects, which is a fact that the servants of the Company here are not willing to allow.”
Hyde's Notebooks
Upon joining the bench, Hyde began an ambitious project to record the trials he and his fellow judges presided over. Hyde desired his notebooks to be printed and published for the public interest but this never happened.
Hyde's Notebooks comprise 22,000 pages of handwritten notes in 74 bound volumes written between 1775 and 1798. Of these, 24 were written by Hyde alone, 41 were by Hyde in collaboration with his fellow judges,
Sir Robert Chambers, and
Sir William Jones
Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India. He is particularly known for his proposition of th ...
, and 9 were by Chambers' alone after Hyde's death. They can be divided as follows:
* 14 by Hyde. 1775-1783
* 41 by Hyde, Chambers, and Jones. 1783-1794
* 10 by Hyde. 1794-1796
* 9 by Chambers. 1796-1798
Shorthand
Approximately 40 pages of the notebooks are written in shorthand, which Hyde used to conceal thoughts and record his fellow judges accepting bribes.
Notebooks' history
After Hyde's death the notebooks passed to Chief Justice Sir Robert Chambers who continued writing them till his retirement in 1798. Chambers intended to have the notebooks published but died in 1803 before doing so. The notebooks then passed to Chambers' wife
Frances Wilton Chambers, who gave them to
Sir Charles Harcourt Chambers, the nephew of Robert Chambers and puisne judge at the
Bombay Supreme Court. When Charles Harcourt Chambers died in 1828, the notebooks returned to Frances Wilton Chambers who gave them to
Sir William Russell, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in 1832. The notebooks remained in the Supreme Court's library until the creation of the
High Court of Calcutta
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...
in 1862 when they were transferred to the High Court's Bar Library.
In 1974, the notebooks were transferred from the High Court's Bar Library to the
Victoria Memorial
The Victoria Memorial is a large marble building on the Maidan in Central Kolkata, built between 1906 and 1921. It is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria, Empress of India from 1876 to 1901.
The largest monument to a monarch anywhere ...
. In 1978, the notebooks, with the exception of volumes 1-3 (since they were too brittle) were microfilmed by the National Library of India. Two microfilm copies were made, one of which remains in poor condition at the National Library while the other is in the United States. In 2019, the U.S. microfilm has been digitised and is available freely online.
In 2014 and 2015, the Victoria Memorial in conjunction with
Jadavpur University
Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...
's School of Cultural Texts and Records digitized the notebooks, including the remains of volumes 1-3. However, these digitised images have not yet been released to the public.
Disappeared records
The notebooks (volumes 1-3) from 1775 to 1777, which contained the important
Nanda Kumar trial were mostly destroyed due to unknown reasons at some point in the 18th or 19th century. The records from the first term of 1780 have disappeared, as well as a small volume with a brass clasp which contained Hyde's detailed notes on some particularly controversial trials.
At some point between the creation of the microfilm and Jadavpur University's digitization project, a portion of the paper at the bottom of one of the volumes was trimmed, resulting in the loss content near the bottom of the page.
Historical importance
The notebooks are a valuable primary source of information for life in late 18th century Bengal. They are the only known remaining source for the early proceedings of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William. As such, the Supreme Court rulings, documented in the notebooks, form the beginning of India’s current legal system. Attorneys and Judges in the 19th century used his notebooks to write books of precedent and case law. The notebooks were used as the basis for at least three casebooks.
Personal life
Hyde refused knighthood despite being offered it. He married Mary Seymour, daughter of
Lord Francis Seymour
Lord Francis Seymour (1725 - 16 Feb 1799) was a clergyman of the Church of England and a younger son of Edward Seymour, 8th Duke of Somerset. He was Dean of Wells from 1766 until his death.
Biography
Seymour was the fifth child and fourth son of E ...
, in 1773. After his death, she married the Rev. John Payne of Droxford.
Hyde's youngest daughter Caroline Frances married
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyde, John
1738 births
1796 deaths
British India judges