Sir Elijah Impey (13 June 17321 October 1809) was a British

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

, the first chief justice of 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 ...

, Chief Justice of the

Sadr Diwani Adalat The Ṣadr Dīwānī ʿAdālat ( ur, , bn, সদর দেওয়ানি আদালত ) (English: Sudder Dewanny Adawlut) was the Supreme Court of Revenue in British India established at Calcutta by Warren Hastings in 1772. It was reforme ...

and MP for New Romney.

Life

He was born the youngest son of Elijah Impey and his wife Martha, daughter of James Fraser and was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

with

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 ...

, who was his intimate friend throughout life. He proceeded to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

in 1752, graduating in 1756 as the second Chancellor's classical medallist. Impey was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1756. He was appointed the first chief justice of the new supreme court at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

in March 1774 and knighted later that month. En route to India he learned

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

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 ...

. With his wife

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

(née Reade), from 1777, he hired local artists to paint the various birds, animals and native plants, life-sized where possible, and in natural surrounds. The collection is often known as the '' Impey Album''. In 1775 he presided at the trial of

Maharaja Nandakumar Maharaja Nandakumar (also known as Nuncomar) (1705 – died 5 August 1775), was an Indian tax collector for various regions in what is modern-day West Bengal. Nanda Kumar was born at Bhadrapur, which is now in Birbhum. He was the first Indian to b ...

, who was accused of forging a bond in an attempt to deprive a widow of more than half her inheritance. As a result of the trial he went down in history, because in 1787 he was subjected to

impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

, along with

, for their conduct of the case. He was accused by Macaulay of conspiring with Hastings to commit a judicial murder by having unjustly hanged Nandakumar; but the whole question of the trial of Nandakumar was examined in detail by Sir

James Fitzjames Stephen Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet, KCSI (3 March 1829 – 11 March 1894) was an English lawyer, judge, writer, and philosopher. One of the most famous critics of John Stuart Mill, Stephen achieved prominence as a philosopher, law re ...

, who stated that "no man ever had, or could have, a fairer trial than Nuncomar, and Impey in particular behaved with absolute fairness and as much indulgence as was compatible with his duty." According to Macaulay, Impey later applied English law so aggressively as to "throw a great country into the most dreadful confusion", until in effect bribed by Hastings to desist. In 1790 Impey was returned to Parliament as the member for New Romney constituency and spent the next seven years as an MP before retiring to

Newick Newick is a village, civil parish and electoral ward in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. It is located on the A272 road east of Haywards Heath. The parish church, St. Mary's, dates mainly from the Victorian era, but still has a N ...

Park near Brighton. He died there in 1809 and was buried in the family vault at

St Paul's, Hammersmith St Paul's is a Grade II* listed Anglican church at Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London W6, adjacent to Hammersmith flyover, and only a short walk from Hammersmith tube station. History The original church The church dates back to the ...

, London. With his wife he is commemorated in the church with a wall monument by Peter Rouw. He had married on 18 January 1768 Mary, daughter of

Sir John Reade, 5th Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

, of

Shipton Court Shipton-under-Wychwood is an English village and civil parish in the Evenlode valley about north of Burford, Oxfordshire. The village is one of three named after the ancient forest of Wychwood. The others are Milton-under-Wychwood immediately ...

, Oxfordshire; they had five sons. In 1795 his application for a fellowship of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

was rejected.

Legacy

A portrait of Impey, by

Johan Zoffany Johan Joseph Zoffany (born Johannes Josephus Zaufallij; 13 March 1733 – 11 November 1810) was a German neoclassical painter who was active mainly in England, Italy and India. His works appear in many prominent British collections, includin ...

hangs in

Kolkata High Court 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 build ...

Tilly Kettle Tilly Kettle (1735–1786) was a portrait painter and the first prominent English portrait painter to operate in India. Life He was born in London, the son of a coach painter, in a family that had been members of the Brewers' Company of freem ...

and

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

also painted him.Levey 2005: 49–59 His wife,

Mary Impey Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

, is commemorated in the name of the

Impeyan pheasant The Himalayan monal (''Lophophorus impejanus''), also called Impeyan monal and Impeyan pheasant, is a pheasant native to Himalayan forests and shrublands at elevations of . It is part of the family Phasianidae and is listed as Least Concern on th ...

(''Lophophorus impejanus'').

Sources

References

External links

The story of Nuncomar and the impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey
Cornell University Library Historical Monographs Collection.
Cornell University Library Digital CollectionsExhibition of "Lady Impey’s Indian Bird Paintings"
at the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

, Oxford (until 14 Apr 2013) *"Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey: Knt., First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature, at Fort William, Bengal; with Anecdotes of Warren Hastings, Sir Philip Francis, Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, Esq., and Other Contemporaries; Comp. from Authentic Documents, in Refutation of the Calumnies of the Right Hon. Thomas Babington Macaulay
(Google eBook)
Simpkin, Marshall, and Company, 1846 {{DEFAULTSORT:Impey, Elijah 1732 births 1809 deaths British India judges Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1790–1796 18th-century British judges Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge

Life

Legacy

Further reading

Sources

References

External links