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

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

– 5 January 1818,

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

, Bengal, British India) was a politician in

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. 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 that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

. Returning to Ipswich a wealthy man, he settled his fathers debts and aligned himself with the Ipswich Yellow Party. He served as the MP for the town for several years in the 1790s. He returned to

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in 1803 where he lived until his death in 1818.

Early life

His father,

Hadley D'Oyly Hadley may refer to: Places Earth Canada * Hadley Bay, on the north of Victoria Island, Nunavut England * Hadley, London, a former civil parish within Barnet Urban District from 1894 to 1965 * Hadley, Shropshire, part of the new town of ...

, was rector of Wotton and

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

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, 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 pharmaceut ...

for

Murshidabad Murshidabad (), is a town in the Indian States and territories of India, state of West Bengal. This town is the headquarters of Lalbag subdivision of Murshidabad district. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hooghly river, Bhagirathi Riv ...

, 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

Mubarak-ud-daula-nawab-of-murshidabad-1770-93-seated-in-durbar-with-sir-john-hadley-doyly-british-resident

D'Oyly took over the residency at Murshidabad following the resignation of William Byam Martin 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-gener ...

, the Governor General of Bengal to encourage Mubarak Ali Khan, the

Nawab of Bengal The Nawab of Bengal (, ) was the hereditary ruler of Bengal Subah in Mughal India. In the early 18th-century, the Nawab of Bengal was the ''de facto'' independent ruler of the three regions of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa which constitute the mod ...

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 (MP) for

from 1790 to 1796 as a 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. History The practice of having a government official ...

and salt agent for

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

. He died in 1818 and was buried in the South Park Street Cemetery 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 Robert Rochfort (9 December 1652 – 10 October 1727) was a leading Irish lawyer, politician and judge of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He held office as Attorney General for Ireland, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, ...

and Henry Hamilton-Moore, 3rd Earl of Drogheda) 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. 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 British East India Company civil servants Burials in Kolkata Persian–English translators