Captain Richard Keigwin (died 21 June 1690) was a rebel governor of

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

(now Mumbai) in 1683–84 during the East India Company's charter over Bombay. He was never recognized in this position by the Company. He acted as governor of Bombay with the support of the militia, whose salaries had been cut by the Governor, Joshua Child. He was also supported by the population at large who welcomed the withdrawal of trade monopolies during this period.

In India

Keigwin had served as governor of

St. Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...

before coming to Bombay in 1676. At the time Bombay was under the control of the

English 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 trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South Asia and Southeast A ...

however Keigwin was an independent settler. Shortly after arriving he was put in charge of a military force and gained a seat on the governing council of Bombay. From 1677-1681 he served as the head of company military forces in Bombay, but the Bombay trading operations were under the control of a governor based in

Surat Surat (Gujarati Language, Gujarati: ) is a city in the western Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat. The word Surat directly translates to ''face'' in Urdu, Gujarati language, Gujarati and Hindi. Located on the banks of t ...

with a deputy governor at Bombay. In 1679 Keigwin was involved in winning a significant naval victory against the Mahrattas. During this time the head government authority in Bombay was Henry Oxenden. In 1682 John Child became governor of East India Company Operations based in Surat. He received orders to reduce the cost of operations in Bombay and sent his brother-in-law Charles Ward to serve as his deputy in Bombay. The troops in Bombay did not like having their wages cut so they revolted and declared Keigwin governor. Keigwin then sent a letter to England asking Charles II to take direct control of Bombay again stating that the East India Company had failed. After running Bombay for about a year Sir Thomas Grantham arrived to straighten things out. Grantham worked out a general pardon, allowed Keigwin to retain the salary he had collected while acting as governor and then brought Keigwin back to England with him.

Later life and death

In May 1689 Keigwin was appointed captain of the frigate HMS ''Reserve''; from which he was shortly moved into HMS ''Assistance''. Early in 1690 he was sent to the West Indies under the orders of Commodore

Lawrence Wright Lawrence Wright (born August 2, 1947) is an American writer and journalist, who is a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and fellow at the Center for Law and Security at the New York University School of Law. Wright is best known as ...

. At the attack on

St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

on 21 June, he was landed in command of the marine regiment, and fell at the head of his men as he was leading them on to the assault of

Basseterre Basseterre (; Saint Kitts Creole: ''Basterre'') is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Saint Kitts and Nevis with an estimated population of 14,000 in 2018. Geographically, the Basseterre port is located at , on the south-wester ...

References

Sources

John Keay John Stanley Melville Keay FRGS (born 1941) is a British historian, journalist, radio presenter and lecturer specialising in popular histories of India, the Far East and China, often with a particular focus on their colonisation and explora ...

. ''The Honorable Company: A History of the English East India Company''. New York: Macmillan, 1991. p. 137-139. * Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Keigwin, Richard Year of birth missing 1690 deaths Royal Navy officers British East India Company Army officers English military personnel killed in action English military personnel killed in action in the Nine Years' War Governors of Bombay Governors of Saint Helena British colonial governors and administrators in Africa British colonial governors and administrators in Asia Royal Navy captains