A SYMBOL OF BRITISH DOMINANCE, NAGPUR, 1817
George Sotheby, Assistant Resident, Nagpur
Sitaburdi Fort, Nagpur, India
Elsewhere in these stories I have looked at the Maratha Wars, which essentially finished when Wellesley and Lake defeated their Maratha opponents in 1805. The victories did not mean that everything remained peaceful however, as George Sotheby, Assistant Resident to Richard Jenkins, was to discover in 1817.
One of the main Maratha chieftains of Wellesley's day was Raghuji Bhosale of Nagpur, who retained his position despite his defeat, although he did have to accept the presence of a British East India Company Resident, a Resident whose job was to ensure that everything went smoothly for the trade of the Company. In Nagpur this generally consisted of a peaceful life in the Sitabuldi residency until March, 1816, when Raghuji Bhosale died. His son and heir, Parsoji, has been described as "handicapped physically and mentally", and so two major factions vied for his regency. One was led by Parsoji's mother, the other by Raghuji's nephew, Mudhoji. The latter solicited British support, agreeing in return to allow a greater number of British troops to be stationed in the city. Mudhoji's faction were successful and when Parsoji died or was murdered in February, 1817, Mudhoji assumed the throne. Then, however, he got above himself.
The Maratha chieftains clearly had not accepted their subjugation to the company. They still possessed enormous wealth and privileges, but they hankered for control and power, and in their name an increasing number of marauding bands known as pindaris were harassing Central India, hardly conducive to the uninterrupted trade the Company preferred, especially when they took their raids into British territory. In 1817 Peshwa Haji Rao rose against the East India Company, and among the princes who came out with him was Mudhoji of Nagpur. Apparently Jenkins and Sotheby had pleaded with him not to, presumably reminding him of the support they had given him, but their diplomacy was in vain.
The British, occupying the Residency and one of the two hills above it, had a force of 1500 troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Hopetoun Scott. The Maratha force consisted of an estimated 18,000, including a large number of Arab Mercenaries, although they were mostly armed only with swords and matchlock muskets. The British sent for reinforcements, but they would have to hold out, and that proved difficult.
Despite their position on top of the hillock (only thirty metres above the surrounding countryside) the British forces were driven off and back to the hurriedly-fortified Residency. It was during this period of the conflict that George Sotheby was killed, a further example in these stories of a civilian forced by circumstance into adopting a soldier's role. Born at Bevois Mount, Southampton, his father, William Sotheby, was a published, albeit minor, poet, and an associate of Scott and Byron, Coleridge and Wordsworth, and most renowned as a translator of Roman and Greek writers.
