The East India Company College, or East India College, was an educational establishment situated at Hailey,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

, nineteen miles north of London, founded in 1806 to train "writers" (administrators) for the

Honourable 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 ...

(HEIC). It provided general and vocational education for young gentlemen of sixteen to eighteen years old, who were nominated by the Company's directors to writerships in its overseas civil service. The college's counterpart for the training of officers for the company's

Presidency armies The presidency armies were the armies of the three presidencies of the East India Company's rule in India, later the forces of the British Crown in India, composed primarily of Indian sepoys. The presidency armies were named after the presiden ...

was

Addiscombe Military Seminary The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

. The HEIC was nationalised and the college closed in 1858, becoming a public school with continuing ties to the former college. The college buildings survive and are now occupied by the public school's successor,

Haileybury and Imperial Service College Haileybury is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) near Hertford in England. It is a member of the Rugby Group and, though originally a major boys' public school in the Victorian era, it is now co-educational, enrol ...

, an

independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British En ...

History

Charles Grant Charles or Charlie Grant may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Charles Jameson Grant (), American editorial cartoonist * Charles L. Grant (1942–2006), American novelist * Charles Grant (actor) (born 1957), American actor * Charles Grant (dance ...

, Chairman of the

British 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 South ...

and a

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 o ...

(MP), was closely involved in the foundation of the college. It was first located in

Hertford Castle Hertford Castle was built in Norman times by the River Lea in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England. Most of the internal buildings of the castle have been demolished. The main surviving section is the Tudor gatehouse, which is a Gr ...

but it was evident that a purpose-built seat of learning would be more suitable and in October 1805 the company purchased an estate just outside

Hertford Heath Hertford Heath is a village and civil parish near the county town of Hertford in Hertfordshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 2,672. Geography It is located on a heath above the River Lea valley, on its south side. Almost all ...

for the sum of £5,930 for this objective. The foundation stone of the new buildings were laid on 12 May 1806. The buildings cost the East India Company £92,000 at the time of their erection to the designs of the architect William Wilkins (who later designed the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

). The grounds were landscaped by

Humphry Repton Humphry Repton (21 April 1752 – 24 March 1818) was the last great English landscape designer of the eighteenth century, often regarded as the successor to Capability Brown; he also sowed the seeds of the more intricate and eclectic styles of ...

, his most notable work here being the terraced area to the front of Wilkins' main range and ponds to the west of this. Repton submitted his final account for work undertaken here just eight days before a carriage accident which left him crippled. The new buildings were occupied by students in 1809. The East India Company had been incorporated in 1600 as a commercial entity. For two hundred years its administrators had been recruited, largely by patronage, to oversee commercial transactions in Asia. By 1800 they had become the ''de facto'' government for millions of people in those areas, but without much training for the role. The college was intended to address these shortcomings. In fifty years it trained over two thousand so-called "writers" to administer the Indian subcontinent. The curriculum was wide, detailed, and targeted to the career responsibilities. It included political economy, history, mathematics, natural philosophy, classics, law and humanity and philology. Languages included

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Hindustani),

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

, Marathi,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

and Persian. Among the tutors were some of the finest minds of the day, many from Oxford and Cambridge, with lavish annual salaries as much as £500. The college was customarily referred to as "Haileybury" in contemporary accounts, debates in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

and the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

and by the administrators of the East India Company and the Colonial Civil Service. From 1839 the College had a journal known as the ''Haileybury Observer''. The East India Company itself was seen as too powerful. There was pressure for meritocracy to replace recruitment by patronage. Graduates of universities in Great Britain should have the chance to serve in India, without needing to pass through the college. In 1855, Parliament passed an act "to relieve the East India Company from the obligation to maintain the College at Haileybury".

King's College, London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King G ...

, hosted the first open competitive examinations for appointment to the

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million p ...

Closure and later use of buildings

In the aftermath of the

Indian Mutiny The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against the rule of the British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the British Crown. The rebellion began on 10 May 1857 in the for ...

of 1857, and in anticipation of the winding-up of the affairs of the East India Company itself, the college was closed in January 1858. This left the puzzle of what to do with the imposing buildings. For a brief period, they became a military depot for troops destined for India, and during this interregnum the college's Master,

Henry Melvill Rev. Henry Melvill (14 September 1798 – 9 February 1871) was a British priest in the Church of England, and principal of the East India Company College from 1844 to 1858. He afterwards served as Canon of St Paul's Cathedral. Early years Melv ...

, and Registrar, the Reverend James William Lucas Heaviside, continued to live in their residences on the site and oversaw the maintenance of the buildings. In 1861, the estate was sold at public auction, when it was bought by the

British Land Company The British Land Company plc is one of the largest property development and investment companies in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust when REITs were introduced in the UK in January 2007. It is headquartered in ...

for £15,000. A Hertford publisher, Stephen Austin, who had been the official printer to the East India Company’s College and had thus become one of the leading printers of books in various Oriental languages, led a campaign to ensure the buildings were returned to some sort of academic purpose, and in 1862 the site reopened as the public school

Haileybury College Haileybury may refer to: Australia * Haileybury (Melbourne), a school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia **Haileybury Rendall School, an offshoot in Berrimah, North Territory, Australia China * Haileybury International School, an international ...

. This was formally constituted by a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, b ...

dated 30 August 1864. During the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

, the difference between the two periods of education on the site was referred to as "Old Haileybury" and "New Haileybury". In its early years, the new Haileybury College retained close links to those involved in colonial administration, and in 1942 it merged with the struggling

Imperial Service College The Imperial Service College (ISC) was an English independent school based in Windsor, originally known as St. Mark's School when it was founded in 1845. In 1906, St Mark’s School absorbed boys from the former United Services College, which ha ...

to become

Administrators

Principals

The college had four principals: *1806–1815:

Samuel Henley Samuel Henley D.D. (1740 – 1815) was an English clergyman, school teacher and college principal, antiquarian, and man of letters. Life Born in England, he began his career when he was recruited as a professor of moral philosophy for the Colle ...

*1815–1837: Joseph Batten *1837–1843:

Charles Webb Le Bas Charles Webb Le Bas (26 April 1779 – 25 January 1861 in Brighton) was an English clergyman, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and principal of the East India Company College. Life Le Bas was of a Huguenot family: his grandfather had fled to ...

*1844–1858:

, afterwards Canon of St. Paul's

Deans

The position of dean was filled by one of the professors: *1813:

William Dealtry William Dealtry (1775–1847) was an English clergyman of evangelical views, who became archdeacon of Surrey and a Fellow of the Royal Society. Life He was the younger son of an old Yorkshire family, from whom he inherited at his father's death a ...

, MA *1814–1838:

, MA *1838–1850:

James Amiraux Jeremie James Amiraux Jérémie (12 April 1802, Saint Peter Port, Guernsey – 11 June 1872, Lincoln, England) was Professor of Classical Literature at The East India Company College 1830–50, Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge ...

(Professor of Classics) *1850–1857: W. E. Buckley

Registrars

The position of registrar was filled by one of the professors: *1813:

*1814–1816:

Bewick Bridge Bewick Bridge (1767, Linton, Cambridgeshire – 15 May 1833, Cherry Hinton) was an English vicar and mathematical author. In 1786, he was admitted as a sizar to study mathematics Peterhouse, Cambridge University, where he graduated as senior wrang ...

*1816–1830: Edward Lewton *1831–1834:

Henry George Keene Henry George Keene (30 September 1781–29 January 1864) was an English employee of the East India Company, as soldier, civil servant, and orientalist. He was known as a Persian scholar, and also was a churchman and academic. Life Born on 30 Sep ...

*1834–1837: James Michael *1838–1857: Fred Smith

Professors

Languages

Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charle ...

taught Sanskrit and Bengali (1806–18). *Charles Stewart taught Hindustani (Urdu) and Persian (1806–). * Graves Chamney Haughton (1817–27) FRS previously of

Fort William College Fort William College (also known as the College of Fort William) was an academy of oriental studies and a centre of learning, founded on 18 August 1800 by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India, located within the Fort William co ...

, Calcutta, taught Hindustani, Persian, Arabic, Bengali and Sanskrit. * Francis Johnson taught Sanskrit, Bengali and Telugu (1824–55). *

Mirza Muhammed Ibrahim Mirza Muhammed Ibrahim or Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim ( fa, میرزا محمد ابراهیم; 1800 – July, 1857) was an educator who traveled from his native Persia (now Iran) to Britain in 1826. There, he took up a permanent appointment to te ...

, a Persian, held a permanent appointment as a professor of Arabic and Persian (1826–44) *

Monier Monier-Williams Sir Monier Monier-Williams (; né Williams; 12 November 1819 – 11 April 1899) was a British scholar who was the second Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford University, England. He studied, documented and taught Asian languages, especially ...

taught Sanskrit, Bengali and Telugu (1844–58). *

Edward Backhouse Eastwick Edward Backhouse Eastwick CB (181416 July 1883, Ventnor, Isle of Wight) was an English orientalist, diplomat and Conservative Member of Parliament. He wrote and edited a number of books on South Asian countries. These included a Sindhi vocabulary ...

was Professor of Hindustani, Hindi and Marathi (1845–57). *Major J. W. J.Ouseley, Professor of Persian and Arabic (previously Professor of the Arabic and Persian Languages in the College of Fort-William, Calcutta) (1844–57)

Law

Edward Christian Edward Christian (3 March 1758 – 29 March 1823) was an English judge and law professor. He was the older brother of Fletcher Christian, leader of the mutiny on the ''Bounty''. Life Edward Christian was one of the three sons of Charles Ch ...

(1806–18) * James Mackintosh was Professor of Law and General Politics 1818–24. *

William Empson Sir William Empson (27 September 1906 – 15 April 1984) was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works, a practice fundamental to New Criticism. His best-known work is his first ...

, was Professor of Law (1824–52). *

John Farley Leith John Farley Leith, QC (5 May 1808 – 4 April 1887) was a British lawyer and Liberal politician. Life He was the eldest son of James Urquhart Murray Leith, of Barrach, Aberdeenshire, killed in 1814 at the Battle of Orthez with the 68th Regim ...

QC (1872–80), later Member of Parliament for

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

Political Economy

Thomas Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

taught from 1805–34. * Richard Jones was Professor of History and Political Economy (1834–55). *The Rt Hon Sir James Stephen also taught political economy (1855–57)

Mathematics and Natural Philosophy

was Professor of Mathematics 1806–13. He had been

Second Wrangler At the University of Cambridge in England, a "Wrangler" is a student who gains first-class honours in the final year of the university's degree in mathematics. The highest-scoring student is the Senior Wrangler, the second highest is the Se ...

in 1796. *

(1767–1833) was Professor of

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

1806–16. *Charles Webb Le Bas (1813–37) *

Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...

applied unsuccessfully for a job in 1816. * Henry Walter (1816–30) *

William Sturgeon William Sturgeon (22 May 1783 – 4 December 1850) was an English physicist and inventor who made the first electromagnets, and invented the first practical British electric motor. Early life Sturgeon was born on 22 May 1783 in Whittington, ...

lectured on

science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...

in 1824. *Frederick Smith (1831–50) of

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

*J. W. L. Heaviside (1838–57) previously of Trinity College, and then Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he graduated Second Wrangler and a

Smith's Prize The Smith's Prize was the name of each of two prizes awarded annually to two research students in mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1769. Following the reorganization in 1998, they are now awarded under the n ...

winner in 1830, and tutored until he moved to Haileybury.

Classical and General Literature

*Edward Lewton (1806–30) *Joseph Hallett Batten (1806–15) *

(also Dean) (1830–50), elected in 1850 Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. * W. E. Buckley (1850–57) previously tutor and fellow at

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the m ...

and Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford (1844–50), and a member and subsequently vice-president of the

Roxburghe Club The Roxburghe Club is a bibliophilic and publishing society based in the United Kingdom. Origins The spur to the Club's foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the Duke of Roxburghe (who had died in 1804), which took place over 46 da ...

Other

, who served at the

Battle of Seringapatam A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and for ...

with the first

Lord Harris Colonel George Robert Canning Harris, 4th Baron Harris, (3 February 1851 – 24 March 1932), generally known as Lord Harris, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay. He was also an English amateur cricketer, mainly active f ...

(his uncle), and whose American wife, though she came of a

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

family, was related to

Lord Cornwallis Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...

. His

son A son is a male offspring; a boy or a man in relation to his parents. The female counterpart is a daughter. From a biological perspective, a son constitutes a first degree relative. Social issues In pre-industrial societies and some curren ...

became a Fellow of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every yea ...

and a prolific writer. Quoted in ''A Dictionary of Public Administration'' by Shriram Maheshwari. * Horace Hayman Wilson, Examiner in Sanskrit (1837–57) Assistants in the Oriental Department included Maulavi Abdal Aly (1809–12), Maulavi Mirza Khedel (1809–19), The Revd. Robert Anderson (1820–25), and David Shea (1826–36). Moonshy Ghoolam Hyder and Thomas Medland taught oriental writing.

Notable alumni

* Sir Edward Colebrooke, 4th Baronet *

John Russell Colvin John Russell Colvin (29 May 1807 – 9 September 1857) was a British administrator of the East India Company, and Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces from 1853 until his death from cholera during the Indian Rebellion of 1 ...

Ashley Eden Sir Ashley Eden (13 November 1831 – 8 July 1887) was an official and diplomat in British India. Background and education Eden was born at Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire, the third son of Robert Eden, 3rd Baron Auckland, Bishop of Bath ...

Henry Bartle Frere Sir Henry Bartle Edward Frere, 1st Baronet, (29 March 1815 – 29 May 1884) was a Welsh British colonial administrator. He had a successful career in India, rising to become Governor of Bombay (1862–1867). However, as High Commissioner for ...

John Peter Grant Sir John Peter Grant, GCMG, KCB, (28 November 1807 – 6 January 1893), was a British colonial administrator who served as Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal (1859–1862) and as Governor of Jamaica. Life John Peter Grant was born in London on 28 ...

Sir John Lawrence John Laird Mair Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence, (4 March 1811 – 27 June 1879), known as Sir John Lawrence, Bt., between 1858 and 1869, was an English-born Ulsterman who became a prominent British Imperial statesman who served as Viceroy ...

James Thomason James Thomason (3 May 1804 – 17 September 1853) was a British administrator of the East India Company and Lieutenant-Governor of the North-Western Provinces between 1843 and 1853. Early life The son of Thomas Truebody Thomason, a British cleri ...

Charles Merivale Charles Merivale (8 March 1808 – 27 December 1893) was an English historian and churchman, for many years dean of Ely Cathedral. He was one of the main instigators of the inaugural Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race which took place at Henle ...

John Muir (indologist) John Muir CIE FRSE DCL LLD (5 February 1810 – 7 March 1882) was a British Sanskrit scholar, Indologist and judge in India. Biography Muir was born in Glasgow, the son of William Muir (1783–1820), a merchant of Kilmarnock and magistra ...

Sir William Muir Sir William Muir (27 April 1819 – 11 July 1905) was a Scottish Orientalist, and colonial administrator, Principal of the University of Edinburgh and Lieutenant Governor of the North-West Provinces of British India. Life He was born at Gl ...

Richard Paternoster Richard Paternoster (14 October 1802 – 21 July 1892) was an English civil servant in the East India Company, a barrister and the founder of the Alleged Lunatics' Friend Society, an organisation that exposed abuses in lunatic asylums and campaign ...

* Charles Pelham Villiers * Sir Richard Temple, 1st Baronet * Charles Trevelyan *

Charles John Wingfield Sir Charles John Wingfield (16 April 1820 – 27 January 1892) was a British civil servant and politician. He had a distinguished career with the Bengal Civil Service, was later elected as the first Member of Parliament for the United Kingdom ...

Allan Octavian Hume Allan Octavian Hume, CB ICS (4 June 1829 – 31 July 1912) was a British civil servant, political reformer, ornithologist and botanist who worked in British India. He was the founder of the Indian National Congress. A notable ornithologist, Hum ...

References

External links

Death record of Joseph Batten

Persian Professor in Britain: Mirza Muhammed Ibrahim at the East India Company's College, 1826–1844 by Michael H. Fisher
* * {{Cite Americana, wstitle=Haileybury College, year=1920 , short=x 1806 establishments in England Defunct schools in Hertfordshire British East India Company History of Hertfordshire Properties of the East India Company Educational institutions established in 1806 Educational institutions disestablished in 1858 1850s disestablishments in England