han Asylum Chapel, 260 Subathoo,..

Christ's Church, Simlah, 261

375

376

377

ib.

ib.

378

ib.

379

ib.

THE

BENGAL OBITUARY.

ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.

THE first stone of this handsome edifice* was laid on Tuesday the 6th day of April, 1784, on the morning of which Mr. Wheler, then acting President, proceeded from the old Court House attended by the chief officers of State and the principal inhabitants of Calcutta, to the ground upon which the sacred edifice was to be erected. The first stone was laid by Mr. Wheler with the usual ceremonies; a Prayer was read on the occasion by the Rev. W. Johnson, Senior Chaplain, and a plate of Copper was inserted in the Stone, bearing the following Inscription :

THE FIRST STONE OF THIS SACRED BUILDING,
RAISED BY THE LIBERAL AND VOLUNTARY
SUBSCRIPTION OF BRITISH SUBJECTS,
AND OTHERS,

WAS LAID UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
THE HONORABLE WARREN HASTINGS, ESQ.

GOVERNOR GENERAL OF INDIA,

ON THE 6TH DAY OF APRIL, 1784;
AND IN THE 13TH YEAR OF HIS GOVERNMENT.

It may be mentioned as an instance of the comparatively high remuneration awarded to European skill sixty years ago, that the English engraver charged 232 Rupees for his work.

Lieut. Agg, of the Engineers, had the entire construction of the building; it was completed by a design furnished by himself. There is some difficulty in ascertaining the exact cost of the church; upwards of a lac and a half of Rupees appear to have been expended upon it up to April 1787, exclusive of the remuneration to the Architect, which was Sa. Rs. 22,793, being 15 per cent. on the amount expended. Nearly the whole of this sum [with the exception of the grant from the Court of Directors of £1,200, and 14,000 Rs. granted by the Government] was raised by voluntary contributions.

On the 24th of June 1787 the church was consecrated and dedicated to St. John, by a special act of consecration sent out by the Primate, the Rev. William Johnson and the Rev. Thomas Blanshard, were chaplains. The Governor General, Earl Cornwallis, attended, with all the principal officers of the State, and during the Anthem a collection was made for the benefit of the Charity School, amounting to Sicca Rupees 3,943-3.

Sir John Zoffany bestowed on the Church that admirable altarpiece painted by him, representing "The Last Supper." It was proposed by the Rev. W. Johnson, and Cudbert Thornhill, Esq. as Sir John Zoffany was about to leave Calcutta, to present him with a Ring of 5,000 Rs. value, in consideration of this signal exertion of his eminent talents. The low state of their funds prevented other members of the Committee from supporting the motion of Messrs. Johnson and Thornhill; but they unanimously agreed in sending Sir John Zoffany an honorable written testimonial of the respect in which they held his great abilities, as an artist. From their handsome and appropriate letter the following is a paragraph "We should do a violence to your delicacy, were we to express, or endeavour to express, in such terms as the occasion calls for, our sense of the favour you have conferred on the settlement by presenting to their place of worship, so capital a painting that it would adorn the first church in Europe, and should excite in the breasts of its spectators those sentiments of virtue and piety so happily pourtrayed in the figures."

North Gallery.

St. John's Church,

Founded and consecrated

under the auspices

of the Most Noble

Marquis Cornwallis,

A. D. 1787.

South Gallery.
St. John's Church,
Enlarged and improved
under the auspices
of the Right Honorable
Lord Minto,

A. D. 1811.

Lord Minto, who was appointed Governor General of India on the 31st of July 1807, died suddenly the 21st of June 1814, at Stevenage, about a month after his return to England from India. He was on

his way to Scotland and had left London in a bad state of health. In the course of his illness he had no presentiment of approaching dissolution, and seemed only anxious to proceed on his journey and reach Minto as early as possible. In his domestic circle no man ever displayed a kinder heart or was ever more affectionately beloved.

The first church erected in Calcutta (also called St. John's), stood at the western extremity of what is now known as Writers' Buildings; it was destroyed at the capture of Calcutta by Suraj-ud-Dowla in 1756, after it had been in use for about 40 years.

B

Lord Minto is the author of a number of beautiful little poems, the romantic seat of his ancestors, and is a production of high merit.

"The Minto Vision," descriptive of

Every man who is proud of contemplating examples of private munificence, will acknowledge with pleasure the feeling and generosity of this illustrious person, who was resolved at his own expense to erect a Cenotaph at Barrackpore to the memory of those brave officers and men who fell gloriously in the conquest of Bourbon, Mauritius and Java.

It was during Lord Minto's administration in India, that St. John's Church was enlarged and improved at the expense of Government.

"Thy name revered through India's distant clime
Shall live triumphant o'er the wrecks of time."

Governor-JOB CHARNOCK.-(The Founder of Calcutta.)

Mr. Charnock was the first Englishman who made a conspicuous figure in the political theatre of India. He was the founder of the British Settlement of Calcutta; and may be said to have laid the first stone of the mighty fabric of our Indian Empire.

When peace was established between the great Emperor Aurungzebe and the English Company, Job Charnock, the Company's Chief at Hooghly, twice removed the factory, and in the year 1689-90, finally formed an English Settlement at Calcutta, which ere one century terminated, became a mighty city-the magazine of trade-the arbitress of kingdoms-and the seat of empire.

Mr. Orme says,

"Mr. Charnock was a man of courage, without military experience; but impatient to take revenge on a Government, from which he had personally received the most ignominious treatment, having been imprisoned and scourged by the nabob."

The sense of such an indignity was, doubtless, deeply rooted in the mind of Charnock, and, perhaps, was one of the reasons for the severe usage of the natives, ascribed to him by Captain Hamilton.

Before, or about the year 1678-79, Mr. Charnock, smitten with the charms of a young and beautiful Hindu, who decked with her most pompous ornaments, and arrayed in her fairest drapery, was at the point of sacrificing an innocent life, of (perhaps) fifteen summers on the altar of Paganism, directed his guards to seize the half-unwilling victim; the obedient guards rescued her from an untimely death, and Charnock softly conducted her to his house. They lived together many years. She bore to him several children, and dying shortly after the foundation of his new city, was entered at the Mausoleum, which to this day stands entire, and is the oldest piece of masonry in Calcutta.

If we are to credit Captain Hamilton (who had the story from existing authorities) his sorrow for the loss of this lady was unbounded, and the public method be took of avowing his love, was carried to an unusual though innocent excess. So long as he lived, he, on the anniversary day of her death, sacrificed a Fowl in her Mausoleum. We now, through the vale of time, cannot trace his reasons for this extraordinary ceremony. We refer the reader to the Epitaphs for further information respecting Charnock's

family and connections in India.

From an oral tradition still prevalent among the natives at Barrackpore (now an established Military Cantonment, fourteen miles distant from Calcutta)* we learn that Mr. Charnock built a bungalow there, and a flourishing Bazar arose under his patronage, before the settlement of Calcutta had been determined on. Barrackpore is at this day best known to the natives by the old name of Chanock, and Captain Hamilton, misled by their method of pronunciation, invariably writes the name without the letter r. Governor Job Charnock died on the 10th of January, 1692; and if the dead knew any of the living, and could behold with mortal feelings this sublunary world, with what sensation would the Father of Calcutta glow to look down this day upon his city?

The following is the Inscription taken from his monument situated on the north of the church.

D. O. M.

Jobus Charnock, Armiger
Anglus et nup. in hoc.

regno. Bengalensi. dignissim' Anglorum
Agens Mortalitatis suæ exuvias

sub hoc marmore deposuit, ut
in spe beatæ resurrectionis ad

Christi judicis adventum obdormirent.

Qui postquam in solo non

suo peregrinatus esset diu, reversus est domum suæ æter nitatis decimo die 10th Januarii 1692. Pariter Jacet

MARIA, Tobi Primogenita, Carole Eyre Anglorum hicci Præfecti. Conjux charissima.

Quæ Obiit 19 die Februarii A. D. 1696-97.

Before the commencement of the year 1802, the Tombs in the Cemetery of Calcutta had fallen into a state of irreparable decay, and to prevent any dangerous accident, which the tottering ruins threatened to such as approached them, it was deemed necessary to pull down most of them and clear the Burial Ground which had long been out of use, only leaving those tombs of which the Inscriptions were legible, and the Sepulchre of the Charnock Family. The stones and marble tablets were carefully cleared from the rubbish and laid at the base of Job Charnock's Monument, where they are still to be seen in excellent preservation, the Inscriptions are in raised letters, and are as fresh as when first cut.

Here lies interred the body of
Captain Henry Burton,

late Commander of the Ship Loyal Captain, from
Fort St. George, who departed this life

on the 25th of December, Anno Domini 1693, Aged 42 Years 5 Months and 16 Days.

Here lies interred the body of

Elizabeth Mabbe,

wife of Capt. John Mabbe, Mariner, who departed this life

the 19th of May 1699,

in the 23rd year of her Age.

The English Cantonment at Barrackpore was formed in the year 1775, and the first bungalow was built there in the month of February, about 150 yards from where the flag-staff now stands.

Gilbert Sheldon, who succeeded Juxon as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1663, was remarkable for his devoted attachment to Charles 1st and for the munificent support which he afforded to the advancement of learning in the University of Oxford. His elder brother was Ralph Sheldon the representative of the family, which is of ancient descent in Staffordshire.

Here lyeth interr'd the body of

Capt. Christopher Cradock,

who departed this life the 30th of July 1714,

In the 33rd year of his age.

A plain slab in the Charnock mausoleum bears the following Inscription to the memory of Dr. Hamilton, to whose professional talents our nation was so deeply indebted in the beginning of our eventful career in India.