Sir John Hadley D'Oyly, 6th Baronet (January 1754,

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

– 5 January 1818,

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 ...

) was a politician in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

. He primarily inherited debt when his father died when he was ten, but through family connections had a successful career 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 South ...

. Returning to Ipswich a wealthy man, he settled his fathers debts and aligned himself with the

Ipswich Yellow Party The Ipswich Yellow Party was a whig party which played a major role in the politics of Ipswich, Suffolk during the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. However they were opposed by the Ipswich Blue Party, which were generally aligne ...

. He served as the MP for the town for several years in the 1790s. He returned to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1803 where he lived until his death in 1818.

Early life

His father, Hadley D'Oyly, was rector of Wotton and

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northea ...

. His mother was Henrietta Maynard Osborne, daughter of Reverend Henry Osborne, the Vicar of

Thaxted Thaxted is a town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of north-west Essex, England. The town is in the valley of the River Chelmer, not far from its source in the nearby village of Debden, and is 97 metres (318 feet) above sea level (whe ...

, Essex. His father died when John was ten years old, only leaving debt as a legacy. His mother educated him herself until through the influence of Charles Bunbury, John entered the service of the

(EIC) in 1769 as a "writer", i.e. a junior clerical worker.

Career with the East India Company

However John progressed, becoming a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

translator in 1775 for the EIC Army, a mercantile factor in 1776,

Sheriff of Kolkata The Sheriff of Kolkata is an apolitical titular position of authority bestowed for one year on a prominent citizen of Kolkata (Calcutta). The Sheriff has an office and staff in Calcutta High Court but does not have executive powers. Mumbai (Bo ...

for 1779. In this year he married Diana Rochfort, widow of William Cotes of Calcutta and was 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 ...

for

Murshidabad Murshidabad fa, مرشد آباد (, or ) is a historical city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located on the eastern bank of the Bhagirathi River, a distributary of the Ganges. It forms part of the Murshidabad district. Durin ...

, whilst also becoming first a junior merchant (1780) and then a senior merchant (1782) with the EIC. However in 1785 his wife became ill and he took his family back to England with him.

Residency at Murshidabad

D'Oyly took over the residency at Murshidabad following the resignation of

William Byam Martin William Byam Martin (1746–1806) was an English merchant and official of the East India Company. Early life William was the son of Samuel Martin (1694–1776), a slave owner in Antigua. Samuel Martin (Secretary to the Treasury) (1714–1788), ...

in January 1780. He arrived that February with instructions from

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-General ...

, the Governor General of Bengal to encourage

Mubarak Ali Khan Sayyid Mubarak Ali Khan ( bn, মুবারক আলী খান; 1759 – 6 September 1793), better known as Mubarak ud-Daulah (spelled also as: Mubarak ud-Daula), was the Nawab of Bengal and Bihar. He was the son of Mir Jafar and Babbu Be ...

, the Nawab of Bengal to adopt "effectual measures" to curb his spending which was greater than his income.

Career in England

He returned to England in 1785 as a

nabob A nabob is a conspicuously wealthy man deriving his fortune in the east, especially in India during the 18th century with the privately held East India Company. Etymology ''Nabob'' is an Anglo-Indian term that came to English from Urdu, poss ...

with a fortune of over £100,000. He used some of this to settle his father's debts. He was

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

(MP) for

from 1790 to 1796., Whig

Return to India

His wife died on 6 September 1803, and John returned to India filling the post of collector of customs, at Kolkata. In 1807 he was appointed

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

and salt agent for

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 ...

. He died in 1818 and was buried in the

South Park Street Cemetery South Park Street Cemetery is located on Mother Teresa Sarani, Central Kolkata, India. The road used to be called Park Street, and prior to that Burial Ground Road. History The Park Street Cemetery was one of the earliest non-church cemet ...

in Calcutta (today Kolkata),

.''The South Park Street Cemetery, Calcutta'', published by the Association for the Preservation of Historical Cemeteries in India, 5th ed., 2009

Family

He married Diana Rochfort, daughter of William Rochfort (grandson of Robert Rochfort and

Henry Hamilton-Moore, 3rd Earl of Drogheda Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

) and Henrietta Ramsay, on 16 March 1779 in Calcutta, India. *Harriet Rochfort D'Oyly (1777-1833) * Sir Charles D'Oyly, 7th Baronet (18 Sep 1781-21 Sep 1845) *Maynard Eliza D'Oyly (1785-21 Jun 1866). She married firstly Walter Farquhar (d. 1809), son of

Sir Walter Farquhar, 1st Baronet Sir Walter Farquhar, 1st Baronet (October 1738 – 30 March 1819) was a prominent Scottish physician of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, whose clientele included many of the leading figures of the day, including the Prince ...

. After his death she married Rev. Thomas Snow. They had three sons, and three daughters. * Sir John Hadley D'Oyly, 8th Baronet (29 Sep 1794-21 Mar 1869)

Arms

References

*
New monthly magazine, Volume 10. 1818. p186-187
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Doyly, John, 6th Baronet 1754 births 1818 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of England Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for Ipswich British MPs 1790–1796 Sheriffs of Kolkata Whig (British political party) MPs for English constituencies