and the price of gunpowder, that was not as yet published, and also an
account of Lord Anson's voyages. He was a mathematician, and had been
appointed chief engineer and captain-general in the East India
Company's service, and he was looking about for commercial clerks who
would serve on a small pay, when Call was recommended to him as a
shrewd lad. John Call was glad of the chance of seeing something of
the world and of escaping from a mother who flouted him, and he
embraced the offer with gladness. Robbins quitted England in 1749, and
arrived with his clerks at Fort William in July, 1750.
Call had been given by Robbins his treatise on explosives to
transcribe for the press, and this interested the young man in the
subject, and he pursued the theme, and made considerable improvements
in rifling barrels. He also introduced one that enabled shells to be
discharged from long guns. When Robbins landed he had with him eight
young clerks, of whom Call was one. Robbins died in July, 1751, and
Call then became the leading engineer.
War broke out among the native princes, backed up upon one side by the
French, on the other by the English, and Call was employed to carry
out the erection of defensive works at Fort S. David. This was an
English settlement near the mouth of the Southern Pennair River, and
was only twelve miles from Pondicherry, the French head-quarters.
Madras, at the mouth of the Triplicane, consisted of the native or
black city and of Fort S. George, which lay on the sea, and was almost
engirdled by the North River that with the Triplicane formed an
island crossed by the main road from Chinglapett and Vandalone.
The French, whilst in possession of Fort S. George, after it had been
taken by Labourdonnais in 1746, had made several improvements and
additions to the slight works they found, which, nevertheless, rendered
the fort little capable of long resistance against the regular
approaches of a European enemy; nor had they given any attention to the
internal area, which did not exceed fifteen acres of ground.
Nevertheless, the English let the place remain in the same state after
its recovery from the French in 1751 till the beginning of the year
1756, when the expectation of another war with that nation, and the
reports of the great preparations making in France against India,
dictated the necessity of rendering it completely defensible; and Call
was employed in the extension and perfecting of the work, that had
received the consideration of Robbins before his decease. Accordingly
all the coolies, labourers, and tank diggers whom the adjacent country
could supply were from this time constantly employed on the
fortifications: their daily number generally amounted to four thousand
men, women, and children. The river channel was diverted, and the old
channel was filled up; very extensive bastions and outworks were
erected; and it was due to this undertaking that Fort S. George was able
to stand successfully against the siege by the Count de Lally in 1759.
In the beginning of the year 1752 Call accompanied Captain (afterwards
Lord) Clive in an expedition against the French, who had possessed
themselves of the province of Arcot, and were plundering up to the
very gates of Madras; and he was with him in his occupation and
subsequent defence of Arcot, during a fifty days' siege. Clive had
marched from Madras with two hundred English soldiers and three
hundred sepoys. He had with him eight English officers, but of these
only two had smelt powder, whilst four, Call among them, were only
commercial clerks forced by Clive's example to draw the sword. The
battle of Coverplank, near Arcot, gained by Captain Clive in the
February of 1752, in which the French lost all their artillery and
were totally dispersed, cleared the province of their influence and
established the English in the garrison of that capital. From Arcot
the victorious army, consisting of about five hundred Europeans and
one thousand natives, marched through the country back to Fort S.
David, when Mr. Call was appointed chief engineer at Madras, and
eventually of all the Coromandel coast.
In 1753 the French under Bussy and Dupleix were full of schemes to
retrieve the honour of their arms, and to obtain the absolute empire
of the Deccan and the south. In that year, the cession of five
important provinces had made them masters of the sea-coast of
Coromandel and Orissa for an uninterrupted line of six hundred miles,
and also furnished the convenient means of receiving reinforcements of
men and military stores from Pondicherry and Mauritius. But neither
the Court of Versailles nor the French India Company at home had
approved the grand projects of Bussy and Dupleix. The Court questioned
the propriety of these wars with the English in a time of peace, and
the Company was impatient at the cost of these wars, and doubted
whether the territorial acquisitions could be maintained profitably to
themselves. The English Company also was impatient at the heavy
outlay, and was willing to leave the French in possession of the
Northern Circars; but Dupleix was not to be restrained. He saw further
into the future than did the merchants of Paris; he perceived that an
unrivalled opportunity was open to him to make all India tributary to
France, and he was determined to seize it. But to do so he must expel
the English. He claimed to be Nabob of the Carnatic, and unless his
authority as such were recognized by the English, he would make no
terms whatever with them. But Dupleix had had his day. His protectors
and admirers were now out of office, and he was recalled to France.
As soon as war had been declared in Europe, the Government of Louis XV
commenced preparations on a large scale for an expedition to the East,
and the arrival of a great armament was daily expected at Pondicherry.
It was not, however, until 28th April, 1758, that a squadron of twelve
vessels reached the coast. These ships had on board a regiment of
infantry eleven hundred strong, a corps of artillery, and a number of
officers, all under the command of the Count de Lally, a veteran
officer of Irish extraction, who had been all his life in the service
of France. He had been appointed Governor-General of the French
possessions in India. He was a man of great ability and ambition, and
was animated by intense and passionate hatred of England. Had he been
supported from home, he would almost certainly have made France
predominant in the peninsula. No sooner was he landed than he
organized an expedition against Fort S. David, and in June, 1758, he
captured it. He then prepared to take Madras as a preliminary to an
advance on Bengal, and he hoped to drive the English out of Calcutta.
But he was without resources; there was no money to be had at
Pondicherry. At last he raised a small sum, chiefly out of his own
funds, and began the march to Madras; his officers preferring to risk
death before the walls of Madras to certain starvation within the
walls of Pondicherry. Lally reached Madras on the 12th December, 1758,
and at once took possession of the black or native town, commanded by
Fort S. George, and began the siege of that fort with vigour. Call was
within. It was due to him that the defences were in such a condition
that the garrison could look with confidence to withstand a siege. We
hear, indeed, nothing of any active part taken by him during the
progress of the siege, but undoubtedly his knowledge and talent had
much to do with rendering the defence effective. The real command was
with Major Laurence and Mr. Pigot. The total force collected was 1758
Europeans and 2220 sepoys. On the other side Lally had an army of 2700
Europeans and 4000 native troops.
On 14th December the French took possession of the black town, which
was open and defenceless; and there the soldiers, breaking open some
arrack stores, got drunk and mad, and committed great disorders.
Taking advantage of this, a sortie was resolved upon, and six hundred
chosen men, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Draper and Major
Brereton, with two field-pieces, rushed into the streets of the black
town. Unluckily the drummers, who were all little black boys, struck
up the "Grenadiers' March" too soon and gave warning to the French,
who left off their drinking and plundering, and, running to their
arms, drew up at a point where the narrow streets crossed at right
angles. Those who were drunk were joined by those who were sober, till
the whole number far exceeded that of the English detachment. If
Bussy, who was at hand, had made one of the bold and rapid movements
which he had been accustomed to make when acting on his own
responsibility, he might have taken the English in rear. But he was
sulky, and jealous of Lally, and remained inert. When Draper saw that
he must retreat, he found that all his drummer-boys who should sound
the recall had run away. He, however, managed to bring off his troops,
leaving two field-pieces behind, and having lost or killed, wounded
and prisoners, about two hundred men.
The siege dragged on. Most of Lally's heavy artillery was still at
sea, and a corps of sepoys captured and spiked his only 13-inch
mortar, which was coming by land. All his warlike means were as
deficient as those of the garrison were perfect, and dissensions and
ill-will against him increased among his officers.
For six weeks the French were without any pay, and during the last
fifteen days they had no provisions except rice and butter. Then the
ammunition of the besiegers failed. On the 15th February, 1759, he
resolved on raising the siege. He had thrown away his last bomb three
weeks before, and he had blazed away nearly all his gunpowder. Pouring
forth invectives and blaming every one but himself, Lally decamped on
the night of the 17th as secretly and expeditiously as he could.
In March, 1760, Call was employed in reducing Karikal, and at the
latter end of the year and in the beginning of 1761 he was employed as
chief engineer under Sir Eyre Coote in the reduction of Pondicherry,
which, after it had been battered furiously during two days,
surrendered at discretion. Then the town and fortifications were
levelled with the ground. A few weeks after the strong hill-fortress
of Gingi surrendered, and the military power of the French in the
Carnatic was brought to an end.
In 1762 Call had the good fortune, when serving under General
Cailland, to effect the reduction of the strong fortress of Vellore,
one hundred miles west of Madras, which has since been the _point
d'appui_ of the English power in the Carnatic.
In July, 1763, Mahomed Usuff Cawn, a native of great military talent,
employed in the service of the English, for usurping the government of
Madura and Tinnevelly, the two southernmost provinces of the
peninsula, had to be dealt with summarily. A considerable force
marched against him, under the command of Colonel Monson, of His
Majesty's 69th Regiment. Call acted as chief engineer under him, till
the heavy rains in October obliged the English army to retire from
before Madura. Eventually that place and Palamata were reduced, and
Mahomed Usuff Cawn was taken and hanged.
At the latter end of 1764 Call went into the Travancore country to
settle with the Rajah for the arrears of tribute due to the Nabob of
Arcot. Having satisfactorily accomplished that business and other
concerns with southern princes, he returned to Madras in January,
1765, and took his seat at the Civil Council, to which he was entitled
by rotation, and he obtained the rank of colonel.
During a great part of the war with Hyder Ali in 1767 and 1768 Call
accompanied the army into the Mysore country, and whilst he was there
the Company advanced him to the third seat in the Council, and he was
strongly recommended by Lord Clive to succeed to the government of
Madras on the first vacancy. But news reached him of the death of his
father, and he made up his mind to return to England. He had
managed to scrape together a very considerable fortune, and he desired
to spend the rest of his days in the enjoyment of it. He embarked on
February 8th, 1770, after a service of nearly twenty years, and he
landed at Plymouth on July 26th.
[Illustration: WHITEFORD. THE RESIDENCE OF SIR JOHN CALL
_From a drawing in the possession of Mrs. de Lacy Lacy_]
He bought Whiteford, in the parish of Stoke Climsland, and greatly
enlarged the house. In 1771 he was appointed Sheriff of Cornwall, and
in March, 1772, he married Philadelphia, third daughter of Wm. Battye,
M.D., a somewhat distinguished physician living in Bloomsbury.
From this period till the autumn of 1782 he lived in retirement at
Whiteford.
Whilst in India, Call had not forgotten his parents and sister at
home, and had sent to his mother priceless Indian shawls, which she,
not knowing their value, cut up and turned into under-petticoats for
herself and daughter and maids. A pipe of Madeira sent to the father
was also as little appreciated. It was distributed among the
farm-labourers during harvest time to economize the cider.
Now that he was in England and wealthy, he resolved on doing something
for his sister. She had married Cadwalader Jones, the vicar of the
parish, and the vicarage was a small, mean building, so Cadwalader
Jones had taken the manor house that was near the church on a long
lease from the Orchards, who were lords of the manor. This house had
been a cell of Hartland Abbey, but at the Restoration had been given
to the Chammonds. That family had died out, and now it had come to the
Orchards, owners of Hartland Abbey. Call rebuilt the house, or, to be
more exact, built on a modern house to the old, and installed
Cadwalader and his sister in the new mansion; he also made for them a
large walled garden. When he did this, he was under the impression
that the property belonged to Cadwalader, and not till he had
completed his building did he learn that Mr. Jones had only a lease of
it. Moreover, Mrs. Jones did not live to enjoy the new house very
long, as she died in 1780, and then Cadwalader married again. In
course of time Cadwalader went to join his ancestors, and thereupon
Mr. Hawkey saw and loved the widow and the mansion, and married her.
Thus it came about that the manor house built for Mrs. Jane Jones
passed into other hands. But thus it happens also that through Miss
Charlotte Hawkey we have some account of Sir John Call.
Lord Shelburne, when Prime Minister, being desirous of investigating
some of the existing abuses and reforming some of the public
departments, fixed on Call and engaged him along with Mr. Arthur
Holdsworth, of Dartmouth, to inquire into the state and management of
Crown lands, woods, and forests, which had long been neglected; Call
had seen this with regard to the Duchy property at his doors, and had
drawn attention to it. In November, 1782, they made their first
report; but a change of Ministry taking place soon after, their
proceedings were interrupted till the Duke of Portland, then First
Lord of the Treasury, authorized them to continue their investigation.
Before they had gone far another change took place in the Ministry,
and Pitt became Prime Minister. These frequent interruptions
interfered with the progress of the investigation, and to obviate
that, in 1785-6 Sir Charles Middleton, Call, and Holdsworth were
appointed permanent Parliamentary Commissioners.
Call became a banker, a manufacturer of plate-glass, and a
copper-smelter. He designed and saw to the execution of the Bodmin gaol
in 1779. He was elected M. P. for Callington in 1784, and retained his
seat till 1801. On July 28th, 1791, he was created a baronet, and
granted as his arms, _gules_, _three trumpets fessewise in pale, or_; as
crest, a _demi-lion ramp. holding between the paws a trumpet erect, or_.
By his wife he had six children. In 1785 he purchased the famous house
of Field-Marshal Wade, in Old Burlington Street. He became totally blind
in 1795, and died of apoplexy at his residence in town on March 1st,
1801, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son, William Pratt Call,
who died in 1851, leaving a son, William Berkeley Call, the third
baronet, who died in 1864, and with the son of this latter, Sir William
George Montague Call, the fourth baronet, the title became extinct. It
will be noticed that the two last affected aristocratic Christian names,
Berkeley and Montague. Whiteford was sold to the Duchy of Cornwall, and
all the noble trees in the park were cut down and turned into money, and
the mansion converted into an office for the Duchy. Davies Gilbert, in
his _Parochial History of Cornwall_, tells a couple of anecdotes of Sir
John, but they are too pointless to merit repetition.
Call was one of those admirable, self-made men who have been
empire-makers in the East, and, better than that, have been makers of
the English name as synonymous with all that is powerful and true and
just. He well deserved the title accorded to him. He was a man of whom
Cornwall may be proud, and it needed no trumpets in his arms and
fictions about the origin of his family to make the name honourable.
As Dr. Johnson said, "There are some families like potatoes, whose
only good parts are underground."
The authorities for the life of Sir John Call are Playfair's _British
Family Antiquity_, 1809; Clement R. Markham's _Memoir on the Indian
Surveys_, 1878; H. G. Nicholl's _Forest of Dean_; and _Neota_, by
Charlotte Hawkey, 1871.
The grant of the baronetcy to Sir John Call, dated 1795, is now in the
Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, at Truro.
JOHN KNILL
In August, 1853, appeared the following account in the _Gentleman's
Magazine_:--
"An eccentric old gentleman of the name Knill, a private secretary some
fifty or sixty years ago to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, becoming
afterwards collector of the port of S. Ives, built a three-sided pyramid
of granite on the top of a high hill, near the town of S. Ives. The
pyramid is represented as a pocket edition of an Egyptian one, and in it
this gentleman caused a chamber to be built, with a stone coffin, giving
out his intention to be buried there, and leaving a charge on an estate
to the corporation of S. Ives for the maintenance and repair, etc., of
the pyramid. He, however, died in London; and by his latest will, so far
from perpetuating the ostentatious idea, desired that his body should be
given up to the surgeons for dissection, a penance, it is supposed, for
past follies, after which the remains were buried in London. The
pyramid, however, still stands as a landmark. On one side, in raised
letters in granite, appear the words 'Hic jacet nil.' It was understood
that the 'K' and another 'l' would be added when the projector should be
placed within; and on the other side, 'Ex nihilo nil fit,' to be filled
up in like manner, Knill. The mausoleum obtained then, and still bears
the name of Knill's Folly."
This account, full of inaccuracies, called forth a letter to the
editor from a relative of John Knill, at Penrose, by Helston, dated
October, 1853, which appeared in the November issue of the same
magazine. He stated that John Knill was educated for the law, but did
not adopt it as a profession. He preferred to accept the office of
collector of customs at S. Ives. After a while he was sent as
Inspector-General of Customs to the West Indies, whence he returned to
his duties at S. Ives, after having discharged his office of
inspectorship. In 1777 the Earl of Buckinghamshire, who was recorder
of S. Ives, invited Mr. Knill to accompany him to Ireland as his
private secretary, when he, the earl, had been made lord-lieutenant.
The offer was accepted.
In 1782, thirty years before his death, he erected the mausoleum,
partly actuated by a philanthropic motive as affording a landmark to
ships approaching the port, and partly by a wish to find employment
for men at a time of considerable distress, having also a desire to be
buried there, if the ground could be consecrated. This intention was
afterwards abandoned.
Mr. Knill resided for some years previous to his death in Gray's Inn,
and was a bencher of that society. He died there in 1811, and was
buried in the vaults of S. Andrew's, Holborn. On one side of the
monument is the word "Resurgam." On the second side, "I know that my
Redeemer liveth," and on the third is no inscription at all, and the
silly puns given by the informant of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ had no
existence save in the imagination of the correspondent.
The same writer adds: "Though he had a wide circle of acquaintances
and he was highly esteemed by all who knew him, he resisted every
invitation to dine in private society, and for many years past
dined at Dolly's Coffee House, Paternoster Row, walking through the
chief avenues of the town in the course of the day, in order to meet
his friends and to preserve his health by moderate exercise."
[Illustration: JOHN KNILL
_After a picture by Opie in the possession of Captain Rogers of
Penrose_]
We are able to supplement this scanty record from a memoir of him by Mr.
John Jope Rogers, of Penrose, published in 1871 by Cunnack, of Helston.
John Knill was born at Callington on January 1st, 1733. His mother was
a Pike of Plympton, and her mother was an Edgcumbe of Edgcumbe, it is
stated in the memoir, but no entry of any such marriage is in the
pedigree of the Edgcumbes in Vivian's _Heralds' Visitations of Devon_.
Mr. Knill was very desirous to trace a descent from the family of
Knill of Knill, in Hereford, but entirely failed to do so.
John Knill's mother, one of the seven daughters of Mr. Pike, married
secondly Mr. Jope, and it is thus that the portrait of the subject of
this memoir came into the possession of Mr. John Jope Rogers, of
Penrose, author of the memoir.
John Knill, according to Davies Gilbert, "served his clerkship as an
attorney in Penzance, and from thence removed to the office of a London
attorney, where, having distinguished himself by application and
intelligence, he was recommended to the Earl of Buckinghamshire, who, at
that time, held the political interests of S. Ives, to be his local
agent." In the year 1762 he was appointed collector of customs at S.
Ives, in Cornwall, and held it during twenty years, at the end of which
time he wrote to Mr. William Praed, March 30th, 1782: "I purpose to be
in London in May, in order to resign my office of collector, which I
shall finally quit at the end of next midsummer quarter."
In November, 1767, he was chosen mayor of S. Ives, and lived in a
red-brick house facing the beach, in Fore Street. Although mayor and
collector of customs, it was strongly believed that he was in league
with smugglers and wreckers.
One day, during the latter half of the eighteenth century, a strange
vessel ran on the rocks on the Hayle side of Carrick Gladden, and the
crew escaped to land and disappeared. The ship, now a derelict, had
apparently no owner, and next day a number of people boarded her, and
found her full of chinaware and other smuggled goods. The ship's
papers could not be found; they had been carried off when the crew
deserted her, and it was strongly supposed that they were destroyed,
as implicating Knill and Praed, of Trevetho. The customs officer,
Roger Wearne, went on board and stuffed his clothes full of china;
having a pair of trousers on with a very ample and baggy seat, he
thought he could not do better than stow away some of the choicest
pieces of porcelain there. But as he was getting down the side of the
ship into the boat, very leisurely, so as not to injure his spoils, a
comrade, getting impatient, struck him on the posteriors with the
blade of his oar, shouting to him, "Look out sharp, Wearne!" and was
startled at the cracking noise that ensued, and the howl of Wearne
when the broken splinters of china entered his flesh.