Sir Richard Jenkins (18 February 1785 – 30 December 1853) 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 of ...

for

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

from 1830 to 1832 and from 1837 to 1841. He was also Chairman 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 ...

in 1839.

Personal life

Richard Jenkins was born at

Cruckton Cruckton is a small village in Shropshire, England (). Cruckton is situated approximately five miles from Shrewsbury town centre, off the B4386 road to Montgomery, Powys. The postcode begins SY5. It is within the civil parish of Pontesbury and t ...

, near Shrewsbury, the eldest son of Richard Jenkins of Bicton Hall, Shropshire. He married Elizabeth Helen, daughter of Hugh Spottiswoode, of the Honourable East India Company Civil Service, and was the father of Colonel Richard Jenkins of the 1st Bengal Cavalry.

Career

Jenkins was at the Battle of Seetabuldee and also the capture of Nagpur. He served in the

Bombay Civil Service The Civil Services refer to the career government civil servants who are the permanent executive branch of the Republic of India. Elected cabinet ministers determine policy, and civil servants carry it out. Central Civil Servants are employ ...

from 1800 to 1828 and was the British Resident at Nagpur from 1807 to 1827. He was an East India Company Director from 1832 to 1853.

Honours

Sir Richard was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved Bathing#Medieval ...

(GCB) in 1838, and awarded the Third Mahratta War medal. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...

and, in 1841, a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

, for which his candidature citation read that he was a deserving applicant for his "''Eminence as a Political Character in India; for his acquaintance with Oriental Literature; for his variable reports to the Government of India; & for his administration of the affairs of Berar''"

References

1785 births 1853 deaths Directors of the British East India Company British Indian history Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Fellows of the Royal Society British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Maratha War Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1837–1841 19th-century British businesspeople {{England-UK-MP-stub