Walter Clavell (16394August 1677) was an English administrator employed by 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 ...

as Chief of the factories in the Bay of Bengal.

Career

In 1667, at the age of 28, he was sent out by the Court of Directors of the

Fort St. George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress in the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

to assist in reinstating the imprisoned Governor,

George Foxcroft George Foxcroft (c. 1634−26 February 1715) was the ninth administrator of the colony of Madras in British India for two terms starting from August 1665 to 16 September 1665 and 22 August 1668 to January 1670. During the rule of his predecesso ...

. However, partly due to illness on his way overland from

Surat Surat is a city in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The word Surat literally means ''face'' in Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of the river Tapti near its confluence with the Arabian Sea, it used to be a large seaport. It is now ...

, Clavell did not reach his destination until January 1669 when he found that the dispute between Foxcroft and Sir Edward Winter had already been resolved. He petitioned to go to the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

where he was appointed second in command, and, when Shem Bridges left for England, became acting 'Chief of the factories in the Bay of Bengal' a post in which he was confirmed by orders from the EIC in December 1672. In June 1672, Clavell procured a ''parwana'' (

firman A firman ( fa, , translit=farmân; ), at the constitutional level, was a royal mandate or decree issued by a sovereign in an Islamic state. During various periods they were collected and applied as traditional bodies of law. The word firman com ...

) from

Shaista Khan Mirza Abu Talib (22 November 1600 – 1694), better known as Shaista Khan, was a general and the subahdar of Mughal Bengal. A maternal uncle to the emperor Aurangzeb, he acted as a key figure during his reign. Shaista Khan initially governed ...

, the

Mughal Mughal or Moghul may refer to: Related to the Mughal Empire * Mughal Empire of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries * Mughal dynasty * Mughal emperors * Mughal people, a social group of Central and South Asia * Mughal architecture * Mug ...

governor of Bengal, which did little to stop the oppression of British trade by Khan and Malik Quasim, the Governor of Hooghly. From 1672 to 1676 Clavell quarrelled with Joseph Hall, factor at

Cossimbazar Cossimbazar is a sub-urban area of Berhampore City in the Berhampore CD block in the Berhampore subdivision in Murshidabad district in the Indian state of West Bengal."Cossimbazar" in ''Imperial Gazetteer of India'', Oxford, Clarendon Press, ...

, who he accused of trading on his own account against the EIC's interests amongst a host of other charges. Counter charges were made against Clavell including expropriation of property and the construction of "a Pallace" at

Balasore Balasore or Baleswara is a city in the state of Odisha, about north of the state capital Bhubaneswar and from Kolkata, in eastern India. It is the largest town of northern Odisha and the administrative headquarters of Balasore district. It i ...

. Major William Puckle of the EIC was sent to investigate and concluded that Clavell was guilty of "overrateing the Companys Goods 40 per Cent. great private Tradeing, &c and keeping the Generall Books himself contrary to the Companys Order." In 1676 Clavell returned to Hooghly with

Streynsham Master Sir Streynsham Master (28 October 1640 – 28 April 1724) was an English colonial administrator who was one of the 17th-century pioneers of the English East India Company. He served as the Agent of Madras from 27 January 1678 to 3 July 1681, a ...

, recently appointed superintendent of the factories and at the latter's request wrote an ''Accompt of the Trade of Hughly and Ballasore''. On 4August 1677, Clavell died of fever with his wife and infant child following the next day.

Personal life

Clavell first married Prudence Lance, by whom he had one son, William, 1673-1680. She was the "affianced wife" of Walter Clavell and travelled out to India at the Hon. East India's expense. She died after her son was born. She died in 1673 in West Bengal, She was a "kinswoman" of Sir Matthew Holworthy, a wealthy City of London merchant. He left £1,000 to Harvard College. See: Wikipedia/Holworthy Hall/p His second wife, Martha Woodroffe, 1650-1677 was the sister of the wife of Sir Edward Littleton by whom he had two sons. His second son, also Walter, was baptized in Cossimbazar on 29September 1678. In 1681 Walter junior and his brother Edward left India for England aboard the

East Indiaman East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...

''President''. Edward became

High Sheriff of Dorset The High Sheriff of Dorset is an ancient high sheriff title which has been in existence for over one thousand years. Until 1567 the Sheriff of Somerset was also the Sheriff of Dorset. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Government ...

in 1702. Walter was elected FRS, 30 Nov 1704

References

;Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clavell, Walter 1639 births 1677 deaths British East India Company people British governors of Bengal