Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, 4th Baronet, (2 January 1795 – 3 November 1853) was an

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 ...

civil servant and agent of the Governor General of India at the imperial court of the

Mughal Emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Bahadur Shah Zafar Bahadur Shah II, (Abu Zafar Siraj-ud-din Muhammad; 24 October 1775 – 7 November 1862), usually referred to by his poetic title Bahadur Shah ''Zafar'' (; ''Zafar'' ), was the twentieth and last List of emperors of the Mughal Empire, Mughal emp ...

Biography

Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe was born on 2 January 1795 at 49 Portland Place, London, and christened on 27 March 1795 in

St Marylebone Parish Church St Marylebone Parish Church is an Anglican church on the Marylebone Road in London. It was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813–17. The present site is the third used by the parish for its church. The first was further south, near ...

, London. He arrived in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

in 1813 and lived there for forty years. His elder brother,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''* ...

(1785–1846), was Resident to the Mughal Emperor's court, and briefly the provisional Governor General of Bengal (1835–36). He married Felicite Anne Browne on 13 July 1826. In 1830, Metcalfe began to build the " Metcalfe House" on the outskirts of Delhi, taking land belonging to Gurjar villagers. He filled it with his collections of art, books and relics of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

. The Metcalfe House was called ''Matka Kothi'' by the bearers and ''khansamahs'' (chefs) serving Sir Thomas, as they found it difficult to pronounce the name Metcalfe. In 1835, Metcalfe became the agent at Delhi after the murder of William Fraser and ran the "Delhi Territory", the area around the old capital under British control since 1803. He succeeded his brother as Baronet in 1844, and became an important figure in the cultural climate of

. While working in India as the Governor-General's Agent at the Imperial court of the Mughal Emperor, between 1842 and 1844, Metcalfe ordered a series of images of the monuments, ruins, palaces and shrines from Delhi artist named Mazhar Ali Khan, and later an album termed as Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi (also ''Dehlie Book'' or ''Delhi Album'') was compiled by Metcalfe in 1844, containing 89 folios around 130 paintings by Indian artists, and including descriptive text and touching words and was sent to his daughter Emily as she headed from an English schooling to join him in Delhi. The album has now been acquired by the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

. During the rainy season he used to stay at 'Dilkusha' (Delight of the Heart), which was built on the first floor of the tomb of Mohammed Quli Khan, brother of

Adham Khan Adham Khan (1531 – 16 May 1562) was a general of Mughal emperor Akbar. He was the younger son of Maham Anga, and thus, was the foster brother of Akbar. In his fourth regnal year, Akbar married him to Javeda Begum, the daughter of Baqi Khan B ...

, general of

Akbar Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor expa ...

, situated south east of the

Qutb complex The Qutb Minar complex are monuments and buildings from the Delhi Sultanate at Mehrauli in Delhi, India. Construction of the Qutub Minar "victory tower" in the complex, named after the religious figure Sufi Saint Khwaja Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki, w ...

Mehrauli Mehrauli is a neighbourhood in South Delhi, Delhi, India. It represents a constituency in the legislative assembly of Delhi. The area is close to Gurugram and next to Vasant Kunj. History Mehrauli is one of the seven medieval cities that ...

, an area which was also the traditional retreat of the Mughals for the season. While his main house was a colonial bungalow, built in 1844, its library contained over 20,000 books including Napoleon memorabilia. During the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

, the house was sacked by the Gurjar villagers from whom the land was bought to erect the building and the library was destroyed and looted.

Family

His father was Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, 1st Baronet and his mother was Susannah Sophia Selina Debonnaire. His father first went to India in 1767 as a cadet in the

Army, eventually becoming a Director of the

British 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 ...

. He married, firstly, Grace Clarke, daughter of Alexander Clarke, on 7 June 1815, by whom he had one daughter. He married, secondly, to Felicite Anne Browne, on 13 July 1826, by whom he had one son and two daughters. He was succeeded in his title by his eldest son, Sir Theophilus John Metcalfe, 5th Baronet, who was also in the Indian Civil Service.

Death

In 1853 Metcalfe suffered a digestive disorder which led to his slow death. His doctors believed that the ailment was caused by poison, since the symptoms were similar to those seen in certain "inconvenient" high ranking members of the Mughal royal family such as Mirza Fakhru who was a friend of Metcalfe. Metcalfe's family, and Metcalfe himself, suspected that he was being administered poison on the instructions of Zinat Mahal, the last

Mughal emperor The emperors of the Mughal Empire, who were all members of the Timurid dynasty (House of Babur), ruled the empire from its inception on 21 April 1526 to its dissolution on 21 September 1857. They were supreme monarchs of the Mughal Empire in ...

Bahadur Shah's favorite wife. He was buried in a grave to the east of the Skinner Family's cemetery, at the St. James' Church near Kashmiri Gate,

.The tomb of Sir Thomas Metcalfe in Delhi

. Accessed 2 December 2022.

Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi

Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi, also called the Delhi Book, is an album consisting of 89 folios with approximately 130 paintings by Indian artists. The paintings depict Mughal and pre-Mughal monuments of

, the lives of native Indians as well as other contemporary material. Metcalfe added extensive descriptions to almost all paintings. He had assembled the album to be a gift for his daughters in England, and he sent it to them in 1844. The most important feature of the album is that it shows buildings as they were before the

siege of Delhi The siege of Delhi was a decisive conflict of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The rebellion against the authority of the East India Company was widespread through much of Northern India, but was essentially sparked by the mass uprising by the ...

during the Indian Mutiny. Many of these structures were razed, vandalized or suffered neglect in the years following the Mutiny. File:Different views of the Metcalfe House, Delhi, 1843.jpg, Different views of the Metcalfe House, Delhi, 1843, which now houses the Laser Science and Technology Centre (

DRDO The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, headqu ...

). File:St Jame's Church, Delhi, folio from book by Thomas Metcalfe, 1843.jpg, St. James' Church, Delhi File:A panorama in 12 folds showing the procession of the Emperor Bahadur Shah to celebrate the feast of the 'Id., 1843.jpg, A panorama in 12 folds showing the procession of the Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II to celebrate the feast of the 'Id., 1843. File:Details of Skinner's Tomb, St. James' Church, Delhi.jpg, Details of the tomb of Colonel James Skinner C.B. at St. James' Church, Delhi, and Styles and titles in Persian of Metcalfe as Agent of

Governor-General of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the emperor o ...

(right page) File:Description of assassination of William Fraser, Agent to the Governor-General of India, in a 1843 manuscript.jpg, Description of assassination of William Frazer, Agent to the

, on 22 March 1835, in Delhi. File:Folio from 'Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi’, an album by Thomas Metcalfe, 1843.jpg, Scenes from a Royal procession, and a party of Skinner's Horse regiment.

Architectural legacy

File:One of Metcalfe's "follies", a chhatri, with Jamali Kamali Mosque in the background.jpg, One of Metcalfe's " follies", a '' chhatri'', with Jamali Kamali Mosque in the background,

. File:Another of Metcalf's follies, close to the Qutb Minar parking lot, Mehrauli.jpg, Another of Metcalf's follies, close to the Qutb Minar parking lot, Mehrauli. File:Metcalf's Folly 3.jpg, Metcalf's Folly near Qutab Minar File:Felice Beato (British, born Italy - (Metcalfe House) - Google Art Project.jpg, The Metcalfe Town House in 1858, by

Felice Beato Felice Beato (c. 1832 – 29 January 1909), also known as Felix Beato, was an Italian Briton, Italian–British photographer. He was one of the first people to take photographs in East Asia and one of the first war photography, war photographer ...

File:Dilkusha with Qutb Minar in the background, Mehrauli.jpg, ''Dilkusha'' with Qutb Minar in the background, Mehrauli

References

Sources

Genealogy of Metcalfes

External links

About the Delhi Book

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'The Delhi Book' of Thomas Metcalfe

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metcalfe, Thomas 1795 births 1853 deaths British East India Company people History of Delhi People from Marylebone Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom Younger sons of baronets