Colonel
Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations.
In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...
Mark Wilks (1759 – 19 September 1831) was a
Manx soldier, historian and East India Company administrator who worked in southern India principally in the princely state of Mysore. He was the acting Resident at the Wodeyar Court.
Life
He was born at
Kirk Michael
Michael ( gv, Maayl) is one of the six sheadings of the Isle of Man. It is located on the west of the island (part of the traditional ''North Side'' division) and consists of the three historic parishes of Ballaugh, Jurby and Michael.
H ...
vicarage in the
Isle of Man
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, image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg
, image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg
, mapsize =
, map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe
, map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green)
in Europe ...
, the son of Rev. James Wilks and Elisabeth Christian, and came from a lineage of Manx gentry. He was named after his godfather, Bishop
Mark Hiddesley.
He purchased cadetship through
Sir Henry Fletcher, in the court of the Directors of the East India Company in 1781 at the age of 18, joining the Madras Army. He was commissioned an officer in 1782 and like others, he was trained at Fort St. George, he picked up Persian. He translated the Persian poet
Nasir-ud-din's work ''
Aklak-i-Naseri'' into English. Wilks served as a secretary to the Military Board in 1787, accompanying Sir
Barry Close on a diplomatic mission to Mysore. His early education included Greek and Latin classics which and he would later in life promote its study by his nephew
Mark Cubbon Mark Cubbon may refer to:
* Mark Cubbon (army officer), British army officer with the East India Company
* Mark Cubbon (administrator), chief executive of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust See also
* Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban (born ...
. He served as the Town Major at
Fort Saint George around 1788, the capital of Madras Presidency. After a furlough in England Wilks became a private secretary to
Lord Edward Clive. Wilks served alongside
General James Stuart during the storming of
Srirangapatna resulting in the death of
Tipu Sultan
Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He i ...
in May 1799. He was sent to Basra and returned in 1803 to India to be appointed
Resident
Resident may refer to:
People and functions
* Resident minister, a representative of a government in a foreign country
* Resident (medicine), a stage of postgraduate medical training
* Resident (pharmacy), a stage of postgraduate pharmaceuti ...
at
Mysore
Mysore (), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. Mysore city is geographically located between 12° 18′ 26″ north latitude and 76° 38′ 59″ east longitude. It is located at an altitude of ...
.
He wrote several historical works including, ''Report on the Internal Administration of Mysore''. This was a continuation of a report on the survey of the
Kingdom of Mysore undertaken by Lieut. Col.
Colin Mackenzie
Colonel Colin Mackenzie CB (1754–8 May 1821) was Scottish army officer in the British East India Company who later became the first Surveyor General of India. He was a collector of antiquities and an orientalist. He surveyed southern India, ...
. He also wrote the book ''Historical Sketches of the South of India in an attempt to trace the History of Mysoor''. This also relates to the works of Lieut. Col. Colin Mackenzie. Mark Wilks was the uncle of
Mark Cubbon Mark Cubbon may refer to:
* Mark Cubbon (army officer), British army officer with the East India Company
* Mark Cubbon (administrator), chief executive of the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust See also
* Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban (born ...
who was the Commissioner of Mysore and after whom the Cubbon Park in Bangalore is named.
After his return from India, Mark Wilks, with the active help and co-operation of
James Kirkpatrick, 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 ...
(EIC) Resident at
Hyderabad
Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...
, wrote one of the first histories of medieval South India: ''Historical Sketches of the South of India''. This volume examined the rise of the Mysore
Wodeyar
The Wadiyar dynasty (formerly spelt Wodeyer or Odeyer, also referred to as the Wadiyars of Mysore), is a late-medieval/ early-modern South Indian Hindu royal family of former kings of Mysore from the Urs clan originally based in Mysore city. ...
dynasty in the confusion following the fall of
Vijayanagara
Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bell ...
in 1565. Wilks denounced the reign of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan in his historical enquiries and sought to find the causes for the decline of the Vijaynagar Empire.
In 1813 he was appointed Governor for three years of
Saint Helena where the exiled former French Emperor
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
is said to have found Wilks a highly engaging and affable man. Saint Helena was chiefly a center for slave trade and as Governor he did not outlaw it but he is thought to have taken a sympathy for Samuel Ally, a freed slave. Wilks invited
William Roxburgh
William Roxburgh FRSE FRCPE FLS (3/29 June 1751 – 18 February 1815) was a Scottish surgeon and botanist who worked extensively in India, describing species and working on economic botany. He is known as the founding father of Indian botany. ...
to study the possibility of cultivating cinchona. After the British government took temporary control of St Helena from the EIC during Napoleon's time on St Helena, Wilks return to England in 1816 and was elected to the Manx parliament, the
House of Keys
The House of Keys () is the directly elected lower house of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man, the other branch being the Legislative Council.
History
The oldest known reference to the name is in a document of 1417, written in L ...
. In 1826, after the death of his father-in-law, he became
Speaker of the house
The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England.
Usage
The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...
. A portrait of Mark Wilks still hangs in the
Tynwald
Tynwald ( gv, Tinvaal), or more formally, the High Court of Tynwald ( gv, Ard-whaiyl Tinvaal) or Tynwald Court, is the legislature of the Isle of Man. It consists of two chambers, known as the branches of Tynwald: the directly elected House of ...
building in Douglas.
In February 1826, as Colonel Mark Wilks, he was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...
.
He married twice. In 1813 he married his second wife, Dorothy Taubman, daughter of his predecessor as Speaker. He had a son John Barry (named after Barry Close) who died young and a daughter, Laura, who married Gen. Sir John Buchan KCB of
Kelloe House, Berwickshire, where Wilks died on a visit in 1839.
Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet was his great-great nephew. Their papers are held together at the Manx National Heritage Library and Archives.
References
*
External links
''Historical Sketches of the South of India'' (Volume 1)''Historical Sketches of the South of India'' (Volume 2)''Historical Sketches of the South of India'' (Volume 3)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Mark
People of the Kingdom of Mysore
Manx politicians
Governors of Saint Helena
British colonial governors and administrators in Africa
Fellows of the Royal Society
1759 births
1831 deaths