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 Dictionary of Indian Biography (Buckland) |
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 Dictionary of Indian Biography M to R
| Date transcribed | 2011-08-00 | | Transcribed by | Peter Bailey | | Comment | Note that notables of Indian, Afghan, etc. origin do not always follow the alphabetical name patterns established by Buckland in his original work. |
| | Surname | Pitt | | | First Name(s) | William | | | Birth Year | 1759 | | | Death Year | 1806 | | | Entry | Second son of first Earl of Chatham : born May 28, 1759 : educated privately and at Pembroke College, Cambridge : called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, 1780 : M.P. for Appleby, 1781 : for Cambridge, 1784 : Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1782 : Prime Minister, 1783-1801, and 1804-6. His influence on Indian affairs was exerted on several occasions. His first India Bill was rejected by 8 votes on Jan. 23, 1784 : his second Bill, passed May 18, 1784, as the Statute c 24 Geo. Ill, 25, established the 'Board of Control', commonly called the India Board, to consist of Commissioners for the affairs of India, with very extensive powers. The Home Government of India nominally passed from the E. I. Co. to the Crown : but the Statute left large powers to the Court of Directors. The complex system of Government thus created endured until 1858. When the Opposition attacked Warren Hastings in 1786, Pitt voted silently against the Rohilla charge, June 2, but spoke and voted, June 13, for the Benares charge : again, for the charge relating to the Begams of Oudh : this vote, as Lord Rosebery has pointed out, made the impeachment of W. Hastings inevitable, and it was carried out. He passed also the Act of 1786, which gave the Governor-General power to over-ride his Council, and he passed the Declaratory Act of 1788, which required the Board of Control to maintain a permanent body of troops out of the funds of the E.I. Co. : died Jan. 23, 1806. |
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A List of eminent persons who served in British India, together with short biographical notes of each
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