Nathaniel Elwick (February 1675 – 1750) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

merchant who served as the President of

Fort St. George Fort St. George (or historically, White Town) is a fortress at the coastal city of Chennai, India. Founded in 1639, it was the first English (later British) fortress in India. The construction of the fort provided the impetus for further ...

from 15 October 1721 to 15 January 1725.

Early life

Nathaniel Elwick was born to John Elwick and Judith Crisp. He was baptized on 13 February 1675 and completed his schooling at Merchant Taylor's School in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Envoy to China

Both of Nathaniel's brothers, Thomas Elwick and John Elwick, were Directors of 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 ...

. Nathaniel was sent to

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in 1713 as an official envoy.

Governor of Madras

Two months from the commencement of Elwick's tenure, his predecessor Francis Hastings died. Hastings' ''dubash'' Mar Kistna was arrested on 8 September 1722 on charges of

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

and non-payment of

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money Loan, borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Co ...

s. He was imprisoned in Fort St. George until 11 December 1722 and released only when he had settled his

s. The privileged

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n community of

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

carried out a flourishing trade with the

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settlement of

Puducherry Puducherry or Pondicherry may refer to: Places in India * Puducherry (union territory), formerly known as Pondicherry ** Puducherry (city), capital of the union territory of Puducherry ** Puducherry district The Puducherry District, also know ...

. However, this trade was forbidden by Elwick and he considered any sort of foreign trade as detrimental to the interests of the

. Cheen Kulich Khan, the

Nizam Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

, defeated the

Nawab of the Carnatic The Carnatic Sultanate ( Persian: ; Tamil: ; Urdu: ) also known as Carnatic State or Arcot State was a kingdom in southern India between about 1690 and 1855, ruled by a Muslim nawab under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad, until thei ...

in June 1724 and proceeded towards

Gingee Gingee, also known as Senji or Jinji and originally called Singapuri, is a panchayat town in Viluppuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Gingee is located between three hills covering a perimeter of 3 km, and lies west of the ...

, causing severe apprehensions among the

authorities in Madras. The same month, the

Afghans Afghans (; ) are the citizens and nationals of Afghanistan, as well as their descendants in the Afghan diaspora. The country is made up of various ethnic groups, of which Pashtuns, Tajiks, Hazaras, and Uzbeks are the largest. The three main lan ...

laid siege to the town of

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, effectively cutting off the supply of Madeira wine to the factory of Madras.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elwick, Nathaniel 1675 births 1750 deaths Presidents of Madras 18th-century British merchants People educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood 1721 in India 1725 in India