William Gyfford was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

factor and Agent of Madras from 3 July 1681 to 8 August 1684 and the President of Madras from 26 January 1685 to 25 July 1687.List of Governors of Madras, from ''worldstatesmen.org''
/ref> William Gyfford was associated 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 Southea ...

's factory at Madras right from the time of its inception. He was made a factor of the East India Company in December 1657 and in 1662 became also a member of Council of Fort St George.

Tenure as Agent of Madras

On the removal of

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 ...

on charges of private trade in the year 1681, William Gyfford was made the Agent of Madras. He was more or less a puppet of the authorities in England, most importantly,

Josiah Child Sir Josiah Child, 1st Baronet, , (c. 1630/31 – 22 June 1699) was an English economist, merchant and politician. He was an economist proponent of mercantilism and governor of the East India Company. He led the company in the Anglo-Mughal War. ...

Peace with Lingappa

Gyfford ended hostilities with Lingappa, the Naik of Poonamallee by proposing peace with him. Lingappa seeing his chance demanded a huge amount in return for his friendship and help in curbing private trade and other criminal activities. The Company agreed and paid him 7,000 pagodas. A ''

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 ...

'' was signed by the Naik of Poonamallee on behalf of the Sultan of

Golconda Fort (Telugu: గోల్కొండ, romanized: ''Gōlkōnḍa'') is a historic fortress and ruined city located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. It was originally called Mankal. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparu ...

providing a new cowle for the district of Madraspatnam at the rate of 1,200 pagodas per annum. On 12 November 1683, a messenger from the Sultan of Golconda arrived at the Company's garden house and was greeted by a volley of gunshots. Amidst celebration and excitement the ''firman'' was signed.

Reforms

Under extreme pressure from Josiah Childe, William Gyfford introduced reforms to increase the revenues of the East India Company. The Madras Bank was established on 21 June 1683 with a capital of one hundred thousand pounds sterling. This bank lent money to the citizens of Madras at six percent interest. The Madras Bank, which later became the

Bank of Madras The Bank of Madras was one of the three Presidency Banks of British India, along with the Bank of Bengal and the Bank of Bombay. It was established on 1 July 1843 through the amalgamation of a number of existing regional banks and headquartere ...

in 1843 and eventually merged with the Bank of Bengal and the

Bank of Bombay The Bank of Bombay was the second of the three presidency banks (others being the Bank of Calcutta and the Bank of Madras) of the Raj period. It was established, pursuant to a charter of the British East India Company, on 15 April 1840. The b ...

to form the

Imperial Bank of India The Imperial Bank of India (IBI) was one of the oldest and the largest commercial bank of the Indian subcontinent, and was subsequently transformed into the State Bank of India in 1955. Initially, as per its royal charter, it acted as the cen ...

in 1921 is the oldest European-style banking institution in India Gyfford also introduced a law to curb the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in the Agency of Fort St George. The trade in slaves was made punishable by law and a Court of Admiralty was established to try offenders on 10 July 1684 thereby replacing the Court of Judicature that had been established by

in which the Agent passed judgement over interlopers and slave traders. On 8 August 1684, Madras was elevated to a Presidency and

Elihu Yale Elihu Yale (5 April 1649 – 8 July 1721) was a British-American colonial administrator and philanthropist. Although born in Boston, Massachusetts, he only lived in America as a child, spending the rest of his life in England, Wales and India ...

made its First President.

Tenure as second President of Madras

William Gyfford succeeded Elihu Yale was the second President of Madras on 26 January 1685. Under pressure from Josiah Child and the Board of Directors of the East India Company, he imposed stringent taxes on the inhabitants of the settlement. The house tax which had been in vogue since the times of Streynsham Master was standardized and strictly enforced and defaulters punished.

Rebellion against taxation

In January 1686, a rebellion broke out amongst the disgruntled people of Madras over the stringent taxation. The clerks, weavers and dubashes under the pay of the Company revolted and threatened to boycott their jobs. William Gyfford responded sternly and placed all the entrances to the city under heavy guard. A proclamation was issued and read out to the public. According to this proclamation, the administration threatened to banish all those who refused to pay the taxes. The grain merchants of the city were threatened with confiscation of their goods if they did not sell their grain. The next day (4 January 1686), a compromise was reached by which the inhabitants of Madras submitted and agreed to pay the taxes.

Mutiny of the army

On 4 August 1686 the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

soldiers in the service of the East India Company deputed to serve in the war in Bengal refused to embark on their journey under the suspicion that the factors actually intended to send them to revive an abandoned settlement in

West Sumatra West Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Barat) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. The province has an area of , with a population of 5, ...

which had fallen to a mysterious epidemic. When the authorities tried to force them, a mutiny broke out. The administration responded by arresting the ringleaders and executing them. The rebellion eventually subsided within a few days.

Famine

In 1686, a terrible famine broke out in Madras. Out of an estimated population of 300,000, 35,000 died and over 6,000 families were forced to migrate from the city.''Madras Tercenternary Celebration Committee Commemoration Volume'' by Tercentenary Madras Staff, Madras Tercentenary Celebration Committee, Madras Tercentenary Celebration Committee, Asian Educational Services, 1994, Pp 73-75

Mughal conquest of Golconda

With death of

Shivaji Shivaji Bhonsale I (; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), also referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adils ...

in 1680,

Maratha The Marathi people (Marathi: मराठी लोक) or Marathis are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group who are indigenous to Maharashtra in western India. They natively speak Marathi, an Indo-Aryan language. Maharashtra was formed as a M ...

power in the

Deccan The large Deccan Plateau in South India, southern India is located between the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats, and is loosely defined as the peninsular region between these ranges that is south of the Narmada river. To the north, it is bou ...

began to decline and the

Mughal Emperor The Mughal emperors ( fa, , Pādishāhān) were the supreme heads of state of the Mughal Empire on the Indian subcontinent, mainly corresponding to the modern countries of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. The Mughal rulers styled t ...

Aurangzeb Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...

lead a huge expedition to the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

to recover lost territories. In 1686, Aurangazeb's son

Muazzam Moazzam (from Arabic ar, المعظم, muʿaẓẓam, exalted, label=none) may refer to: *Moazzam Jah Ansari, officer of the Police Service of Pakistan *Moazzam Begg (born 1968), British Pakistani held in Guantanamo Bay detainment camp * Moazzam I ...

launched an invasion of Golconda culminating in the siege and the eventual conquest of the capital in September 1687. The forces of Golconda, however, defended stoutly for over seven months, during which the whole of Golconda was gripped by fear of invasion and carnage. The factors of Madras, who had been faithful allies of Golconda, anticipating an invasion, applied to England for help. They also persuaded the factory at Calcutta, which had a stronger contingent and greater influence, to negotiate with Aurangazeb. However, even before the siege of Golconda came to an end and before Aurangazeb was free to direct his energies towards minor allies of the Sultan of Golconda, Gyfford was recalled and replaced by Elihu Yale as the President of Madras.