Robert Montgomery Martin (c. 1801 – 6 September 1868), commonly referred to as "Montgomery Martin", was an Anglo-Irish author and civil servant. He served as
Colonial Treasurer of Hong Kong from 1844 to 1845. He was a founding member of the
Statistical Society of London
The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good.
...
(1834), the Colonial Society (1837), and the East India Association (1867).
Biography
Early life
Robert Montgomery Martin was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
, Ireland, into a Protestant family, the son of John Martin and Mary Hawkins; and trained as a doctor.
About 1820 he went out to
Ceylon
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
, under the patronage of
Sir Hardinge Giffard, a friend of his father. Travelling onwards to the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
, where he arrived in June 1823; he joined the expedition of
HMS ''Leven'' and
HMS ''Barracouta'' under
William Fitzwilliam Owen
Vice Admiral William Fitzwilliam Owen (17 September 1774 – 3 November 1857), was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British naval officer and explorer. He is best known for his exploration of the west and east African coasts, discovery of the Sea ...
, bound for
Delagoa Bay
Maputo Bay ( pt, Baía de Maputo), formerly also known as Delagoa Bay from ''Baía da Lagoa'' in Portuguese, is an inlet of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique, between 25° 40' and 26° 20' S, with a length from north to south of over 90&n ...
. Martin was temporarily appointed assistant surgeon, serving also as botanist and naturalist on the south-east coast of Africa,
Madagascar
Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...
, and Indian Ocean islands.
On 10 November 1824 Martin left the expedition at
Mombassa
Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...
, and by way of
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
made his way back to the Cape. Later he set sail for
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
returning to India around the end of 1828. He lived there for a year, before sailing back to England in 1830.
Writer
![EasternIndia-Vol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/EasternIndia-Vol.3-MMartin.png)
Martin became a writer. According to his own account in 1840 he had been studying colonial questions for ten years. He published fifty thousand volumes on India and the colonies. In 1838 he was assigned an office in
Downing Street
Downing Street is a street in Westminster in London that houses the official residences and offices of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Situated off Whitehall, it is long, and a few minutes' walk ...
, and in a year brought out his work on the ''
Statistics of the Colonies of the British Empire'', compiled from official sources, but without official support. In 1840 he founded and for two years edited the ''
Colonial Magazine
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
''.
On 5 December 1837 he presented a petition to the House of Commons for an amended colonial administrative department. In 1839, as a member of the court 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 Southea ...
, he was active in promoting the appointment of the commission which sat in 1840 on the East Indian trade. Martin was a prominent witness.
Official
In January 1844 Martin was appointed treasurer of the newly acquired island of Hong Kong, where he was also a member of the legislative council. He continued to write and was in poor health. In May 1845 he disagreed with the governor about raising revenue from
opium
Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...
and on being refused six months' leave, resigned in July 1845. In his reports he insisted that Hong Kong was as a British colony doomed to failure.
After making unsuccessful efforts to induce the Secretary of State to reinstate him, Martin returned to a literary life, near London. In 1851 he went to
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
on a mission to report on the affairs of two mining companies operating there.
Family
Martin married
Jane Avis Frances Keith in 1826. She eloped with Dr. John Sheridan (1805–1858) and emigrated to South Australia, where they were important colonists. In 1847 the marriage was dissolved by Parliament, and he married Eliza Barron, later as
Eliza Phillips
Eliza Phillips (''née'' Barron; 1823 – 18 August 1916) was an English animal welfare activist and co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. She was the RSPB's vice president and publications editor.
Biography
Early life and ...
known in bird welfare.
Later life
Martin was one of the original members of the
East India Association The East India Association (EIA) was a London-based organisation for matters concerning India. Its members were Indians and retired British officials.
About the Society
The East India Association was founded by Dadabhai Naoroji in 1866. The first ...
, founded in 1866. He died at Wellesley Lodge,
Sutton, Surrey
Sutton is the principal town in the London Borough of Sutton in South London, England. It lies on the lower slopes of the North Downs, and is the administrative headquarters of the Outer London borough. It is south-south west of Charing Cross ...
, on 6 September 1868.
Works
''The History of the British Colonies'' was completed in 1831; he obtained an introduction to the king, and on showing his book, received the king's permission to dedicate it to him. It did not appear till 1834, in five volumes:
* Vol I: Possessions in Asia
* Vol II: Possessions in the West Indies
* Vol III: Possessions in North America
* Vol IV: Possessions in Africa and Austral-Asia
* Vol V: Possessions in Europe
In 1837, Martin expanded the work, and published the new edition as ''The British Colonial Library'', in ten volumes:
* Vol I: History, Statistics, and Geography of Upper and Lower Canada
* Vol II: History of Austral-Asia: comprising New South Wales, Van Diemen's Island, Swan River, South Australia, &c.
* Vol III: History of Southern Africa: comprising the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Seychelles, &c.
* Vol IV: History of the West Indies: comprising Jamaica, Honduras, Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Isles.
* Vol V: History of the West Indies: comprising British Guiana, Barbadoes, St. Vincent's, St. Lucia, Dominica, Montserrat, Antigua, St. Christopher's, &c. &c.
* Vol VI: History of Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, the Sable Islands, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, the Bermudas, Newfoundland, &c. &c.
* Vol VII: History of the British Possessions in the Mediterranean: comprising Gibraltar, Malta, Gozo, and the Ionian Islands.
* Vol VIII: History of the Possessions of the Honorable East India Company. Vol I.
* Vol IX: History of the Possessions of the Honorable East India Company. Vol II.
* Vol X: History of the British Possessions in the Indian & Atlantic Oceans; comprising Ceylon, Penang, Malacca, Sincapore, the Falkland Islands, St. Helena, Ascension, Sierra Leone, the Gambia, Cape Coast Castle, &c. &c.
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
Richard Colley Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, (20 June 1760 – 26 September 1842) was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator. He was styled as Viscount Wellesley until 1781, when he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of M ...
entrusted Martin with the preparation of his papers for publication, as ''The Marquis of Wellesley's Indian Despatches'', 5 vols. 1836, and ''The Marquis of Wellesley's Spanish Despatches'', 1840. For some months in 1833–4 he was engaged on the ''Taxation of the British Empire'', working mainly in the library of the House of Commons. He next turned to the records of
East India House
East India House was the London headquarters of the East India Company, from which much of British India was governed until the British government took control of the Company's possessions in India in 1858. It was located in Leadenhall Street ...
, and brought out his ''History of the Antiquities of Eastern India'' (3 vols.) in 1838.
![Martin Madurai 1860](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Martin_Madurai_1860.jpg)
Other works were:
* ''Political, Commercial, and Financial Condition of the Anglo-Eastern Empire'', 1832.
* ''British Relations with the Chinese Empire'', 1832.
* ''Analysis of the Parliamentary Evidence on the China Trade'', 1832.
* ''Ireland as it was, is, and ought to be'', 1833.
* ''Past and Present State of the Tea Trade'', 1832.
* ''East and West India Sugar Duties'', 1833.
* ''Poor Laws for Ireland, a Measure of Justice for England'', 1833.
* ''Analysis of Parliamentary Evidence on the Handloom Weavers'', 1834–5.
* ''Analysis of the Bible'' (later translated into Chinese), 1836.
* ''The Colonial Policy of the British Empire'', pt. i. Government, 1837.
* ''
The Statistics of the British Colonies'', 1839.
* ''The Monetary System of British India'', 1841.
* ''Ireland before and after the Union'', 1844; 2nd edit. in 1848.
* ''Steam Navigation with Australia'', 1847.
* ''China, Political, Commercial, and Social'', 2 vols. 1847.
* ''Free Trade in Sugar'', 1848.
* ''The Hudson's Bay Territories and Vancouver's Island'', 1849.
* ''The Indian Empire'' (illustrated), 5 vols. 1857.
* ''The Rise and Progress of the Indian Mutiny'', 1859.
* ''Sovereigns of the Coorg'' (pamphlet), 1867.
References
;Attribution
External links
Engravings from Martin's The Indian Empire
Further reading
* King, Frank H. H. (1979). ''Survey Our Empire! Robert Montgomery Martin (1801?–1868), a Bio-bibliography''.
*
Endacott, G. B. (2005)
962
Year 962 ( CMLXII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Byzantine Empire
* December – Arab–Byzantine wars – Sack of Aleppo: A Byzantine e ...
''A Biographical Sketch-book of Early Hong Kong''.
Hong Kong University Press
Hong Kong University Press is the university press of the University of Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong (HKU) (Chinese: 香港大學) is a public research university in Hong Kong. Founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine ...
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Robert Montgomery
1801 births
1868 deaths
Financial Secretaries of Hong Kong
People from County Tyrone