Part Two: India
James Gascoigne Welsh 1775-1861
James Welsh of the Madras regiment was the son of ,a minor landowner from Dumbartonshire. His mother, Primrose Gascoigne, was a from an aristocratic family, the daughter of the 9th Lord Elphinstone, a family closely connected to the East India Company and the Madras Army. Welsh had an impressive service record of 40 years, rising quickly through the ranks after taking part in many of the important conflicts of the era, including the Siege of Pondicherry (1793) under Cornwallis and the Maratha wars under Sir Arthur Wellesley, with whom he was well acquainted.
In January 1795, young Lieutenant Welsh married Sarah Light in Calcutta, shortly after the early death of her father. They went on to have a large family. In 1805, Welsh, now a major was sent from Poona to Palmacottah in the Carnatic, leading his troops south through the Deccan across the daunting Western Ghats, a journey richly described in a later series of books about his military exploits. William Light may have accompanied him on this trek, although Light’s own journals– which could have corroborated this – were lost in the Adelaide fire.
In Palmacottah, Major Welsh successfully suppressed a mutiny without loss of life but was later courtmartialed for disbanding his company without permission. Although subsequently reinstated, he always felt keenly what he regarded as an undeserved stain on his reputation.
In 1818, Lt. Colonel Welsh visited Prince of Wales Island and wrote of how little his children had benefitted from their father’s achievements. It is not known if Sarah accompanied him at this time, although it is a possibility. In 1847, General Welsh returned to Britain where he lived on North Parade, Bath until his death in 1861.
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James Gascoigne Welsh
Image Credit: Thanks to Peter Young!
Major General James Welsh c. 1840 by Zoffany
The Fort at Palmacottah from ‘Military Reminiscences’ by General James Welsh
Richard Wellesley (1760-1842)
Richard Wellesley was an Anglo-Irish noble born in Dangan Castle, Co. Meath, eldest son of the First Earl of Mornington whom he succeeded in 1781. A noted Classical scholar at Oxford, he entered the British Parliament at an early age where he soon became a Lord of the Treasury probably assisted by his close acquaintance with the Prime Minister, William Pitt (the Younger), By 1793, he was appointed to the Board of Control for India where his expertise on Indian affairs made a mark which resulted in his appointment as Governor-General in 1797.
A gulf between British interests and those of the East India Company merchants was already evident. Wellesley’s brief was to take strong action against the various indigenous rebels who were now allied to the French, at war in Europe with Britain. Previous governors were seen to have been halfhearted in their response to rebellions, having launching only piecemeal actions .The Company Directors were loathe to commit the funds required for all out campaigns. In the next six years, Wellesley oversaw two major conflicts: versus Tipu Sultan, the Lion of Mysore, that resulted in a British victory at Seringapatnam (1799) and the death of their fiercest nemesis for which Wellesley became a marquess in the Irish peerage. Then he turned his attention to the warlike Marathas of the Deccan, conducting a series of great battles which were to launch the career of his younger brother, Arthur.
Richard Wellesley was known for his haughty and superior manner and was soundly disliked by most of the East India Company people who thought him profligate with their profits in his war spending. Yet he was regarded as a hero to the army in India. His governorship undisputably impose more centralised control over the Company – no bad thing in that notoriously corrupt and venal organisation– but was obviously unpopular. Yet by the time he returned to Europe in 1805, few doubted his significant contribution. Not only had he reduced the local opposition, but he had also virtually ended any future French ambitions in India.
After a period as Ambassador to Spain during the Napoleonic Wars, appointed by Prime Minister Lord Grenville under whom he had served at the Board of Control, the rest of Wellesley’s career was spent at Westminster. The Marquess then went on to hold the position of Foreign Secretary although he was to spend nine years out of the political limelight due to his fierce opposition to the Corn Laws and his advocaty for Catholic emancipation, two stances that put him at odds with mainstream Tory opinion. In 1821 he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a position he was to hold twice.
In later life he and Arthur, now the duke of Wellington, had a strained relationship; Richard had done much to promote his younger brother’s career , but the Duke failed to reciprocate by granting him a role in his government when he himself became Prime Minister, saying of his own brother ‘One cannot give a Cabinet Post to anyone that wants one!’
Governor-General of India 1803
by Robert Home
Marquess Wellesley, Foreign Secretary c. 1812
by Sir Thomas Lawrence (Royal Collection)
