Sir Richard Jenkins (18 February 1785 – 30 December 1853) was member of parliament for

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

from 1830 to 1832 and from 1837 to 1841. He was also Chairman 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 ...

in 1839.

Personal life

Richard Jenkins was born at

Cruckton Cruckton is a small village in Shropshire, England (). Cruckton is situated approximately five miles from Shrewsbury town centre, off the B4386 road to Montgomery, Powys. The postcode begins SY5. It is within the civil parish of Pontesbury and ...

, near Shrewsbury, the eldest son of Richard Jenkins of Bicton Hall, Shropshire. He married Elizabeth Helen, daughter of Hugh Spottiswoode, of the Honourable East India Company Civil Service, in 1824 and was the father of Colonel Richard Jenkins of the 1st Bengal Cavalry, two other sons and two daughters.

Career

Jenkins was at the

Battle of Seetabuldee Sitabuldi Fort, site of the Battle of Sitabuldi in 1817, is located atop a hillock in central Nagpur, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The fort was built by the British after they won this area. Mudhoji II Senasaheb Subha was allowed to co ...

and also the capture of Nagpur. He served in the Bombay Civil Service from 1800 to 1828 and was the British Resident at Nagpur from 1807 to 1827. He was an East India Company Director from 1832 to 1853.

Honours

Sir Richard was invested as a Knight Grand Cross of the

Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I of Great Britain, George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior British Armed Forces, military officers or senior Civil Service ...

(GCB) in 1838, and awarded the Third Mahratta War medal. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

and, in 1841, a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

, for which his candidature citation read that he was a deserving applicant for his "''Eminence as a Political Character in India; for his acquaintance with Oriental Literature; for his variable reports to the Government of India; & for his administration of the affairs of Berar''"

Death

Jenkins died at Gothic Cottage,

Blackheath, London Blackheath is an area in Southeast London, straddling the border of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Lewisham. Historically within the county of Kent, it is located northeast of Lewisham, south of Greenwich, London, G ...

, in 1853 aged 68 and was buried in Shropshire at Bicton.

References

1785 births 1853 deaths Directors of the British East India Company Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Fellows of the Royal Society British military personnel of the Third Anglo-Maratha War Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1831–1832 UK MPs 1837–1841 19th-century British businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-1780s-stub