Henry Miers Elliot

Sir Henry Miers Elliot KCB
Memorial inWinchester Cathedral
Born	(1808-03-01)1 March 1808 Westminster,England
Died	20 December 1853(1853-12-20)(aged 45) Simon's Town,Cape Colony
Nationality	English
Occupation	East India Company civil servant

Sir Henry Miers ElliotKCB(1 March 1808 – 20 December 1853) was an English civil servant and historian who worked with theEast India Companyin India for 26 years. He is most known forThe History of India, as Told by Its Own Historiansbased on his works, published posthumously in eight volumes, between 1867–1877 in London.

Early life and background

Elliot was born on 1 March 1808.He was the third son, one of fifteen children, of John Elliot, ofPimlicoLodge,Westminster,colonel commandant of the Westminster volunteers, and a daughter ofJohn Coakley Lettsom,M.D. He was educated from the age of ten atWinchester College,and destined forNew College, Oxford;but the demand of theEast India Companyfor civilians beyond the numbers regularly trained atHaileyburytempted him to try for an appointment in their service, and he was the first of the 'competition wallahs' to pass an open examination for an immediate post in India. Hisoriental languagesas well as his classics and mathematics proved so good that he was even placed by himself in an honorary class (1826).

Career and family

Elliot was assistant successively to thecollectorofBareilly,the political agent atDelhi,and the collector of the southern division ofMuradabad;secretary to the Sudder board of Revenue for theNorth-Western Provinces;and (1847) secretary to the governor-general in council for the foreign department. In this capacity he accompaniedLord Hardingeto thePanjaband drew up an admirable memoir on its resources. As foreign secretary he also visited the western frontier with LordDalhousie,on the occasion of theSikh War,and negotiated the treaty with the Sikh chiefs relative to the settlement of the Panjab andGujarat,and received theKCBfor his services (1849). Throughout his official career he had devoted his leisure to study.

Early on, he conducted a magazine atMiratwhich contained many valuable articles on Indian subjects. With a view to assisting the projected official 'Glossary of Indian Judicial and Revenue Terms,' he published in 1845 atAgrahis 'Supplement to the Glossary,' described by ProfessorH. H. Wilsonas 'replete with curious and valuable information, especially as regards the tribes and clans ofBrahmansandRajputs.' A second edition appeared in 1860. His chief work, however, was the 'Bibliographical Index to the Historians ofMohammadanIndia,' in which he proposed to give an analysis of the contents and a criticism of the value of 231ArabicandPersianhistorians of India, but of which he only lived to publish the first volume (Calcuttaand London, 1849).

Elliot was married to the daughter of William Cowell a judge at the Provincial Court of Appeal, at Bareilly, Bengal, India. Failing health compelled him to seek a change of climate, and he died on 20 December 1853on his way home atSimon's Town,Cape of Good Hope,aged 45.

Children of Sir Henry Miers Elliot KCB & Eliza Rebecca Cowell

1. Eliza Amelia Elliot b. 19 Jan 1830
2. Henry Lettsom Elliott b. 4 Jul 1831
3. Fredrick Elrington Elliot b. 12 Apr 1836
4. Richard James Elliot b. 17 Dec 1840

Legacy

His memorial exists atSt. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata.There is a still-functioningElliot club,now owned by theGovernment of HaryanaatHisar,founded by him for then East India Company officials, andO.P. Jindal Gyan Kendra knowledgecurrently stands on its land.

Elliot left behind him manuscript collections which were placed in the hands of competent scholars for publication. His historical researches bore fruit inThe History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians. The Muhammadan Period,edited byJohn Dowson,8 vols. 1866–1877, with a 'Sequel,' edited by SirEdward Clive Bayley,1886. HisMemoirs of the History, Folklore, and Distribution of the Races of the North-West Provincesalso found an editor inJohn Beames,2 vols. 1869.

Works

The Sudder Board of Revenue of North-Western Provinces encouraged him to publish a glossary on terms in use throughout the region. The work included terms little covered and was heavily based onSiraj-ud-Din Ali Khan Arzu's workNawādir al-Alfāz.He completed the first volume of the work titledSupplement to the Glossary of Indian Terms,covering the Alpha bet from A to J. However, Elliot died before completing the second volume. A second edition was published in 1869 after being significantly enlarged and revised byJohn Beames.The edition was titledMemoirs on the History, Folk-lore, and Distribution of the Races of the North Western Provinces of India: Being an Amplified Edition of the Original Supplemental Glossary of Indian Terms.

Elliot's life-work, the Mohammedan historians of India, came out mostly in two well-known works. The first one was titledBibliographical Index to the Historians of Muhammedan Indiaand its first and only volume was published at Calcutta in 1849. His manuscripts were edited posthumously byJohn Dowsonand published inThe History of India as Told by Its Own Historians.A much lesser-known work titled,Appendix to the Arabs in Sind, Vol.III, Part 1, of the Historians of Indiawas written when he was on his deathbed and wrote it to apparently test the powers of his mind which he had doubted.

• Elliot, Henry Miers (1845).Supplemental Glossary of Indian Terms: A-J.Printed at the Secundra Orphan Press by N.H. Longden.
• Elliot, Henry Miers (1849).Bibliographical Index to the Historians of Muhammedan India.Vol. I (General Histories). Calcutta: Babtist Mission Press.
• Elliot, Henry Miers (1853).Appendix to the Arabs in Sind, Vol. III, Part 1, of the Historians of India.Cape Town.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• The History of India as Told by Its Own Historians:The Muhammadan Period,The Posthumous Papers of the Late H. M. Elliot, edited byJohn Dowson;in 8 volumes (1867–77)
• Memoirs on the History, Folk-lore, and Distribution of the Races of the North Western Provinces of India: Being an Amplified Edition of the Original Supplemental Glossary of Indian Terms,edited byJohn Beames;in 2 volumes (1869)
• Elliot, Henry Miers (1875).Wakiʼat-i Jahangiri.Lahore: Sheikh Mubarak Ali.

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:"Elliot, Henry Miers".Dictionary of National Biography.London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Further reading

• Penner, Peter. "Elliot, Sir Henry Miers".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/8663.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
• Wahi, Tripta (1990). "Henry Miers Elliot: A Reappraisal".The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.122(1): 64–90.doi:10.1017/S0035869X00107865.JSTOR25212571.S2CID162117838.(subscription required)

External links

• Memorial to Henry Miers Elliot at St Paul's Cathedral, CalcuttaArchived4 October 2013 at theWayback Machine
• "Works by" Elliot, Henry Miers, Sir, 1808-1853 ".
• "Monument of Henry Miers Elliot at St Pauls Cathedral, Calcutta".British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.Archived fromthe originalon 4 March 2016.Retrieved15 November2013.