UpdateBot at 06:43, 15 June 2022

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{{other people}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Charles Eyre
| image =
| birth_date = *
| birth_place = [[England]]
| death_date = 1729
| death_place = [[Calcutta]]
| resting_place = St. Anne Churchyard, [[Kew]], [[England]]
| other_names =
| spouse = Mary Charnock
| known_for = President of Fort William
| occupation = Colonial Administrator}}
[[File:"A Perspective View of Fort William" by Jan Van Ryne, 1754.jpg|thumb|300px|Fort William, {{Circa|1760}}]]
'''Sir Charles Eyre''' (died 1729) was an administrator of the [[British East India Company]] and founder of [[Fort William, India|Fort William]], [[Calcutta]]. He was a [[List of Governors of Bengal|President of Fort William]].<ref>[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/India_BrProvinces.htm Provinces of British India], World Statesmen</ref>{{self-published inline|date=August 2021}}

==Career==
[[Image:Fortwilliam1828.jpg|thumb|300px|Fort William, Calcutta: a view from the inside, c. 1828]]
While in office, Eyre started work on [[Fort William, India|Fort William]], [[Calcutta]] in 1696.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chattopadhyay |first=Basudeb |year=2012 |chapter=Fort William |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Fort_William |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> On 10 November 1698, Eyre signed the document legalizing the British occupation of three small villages that formed the basis of the Fort William settlement; his signature, and not that of his father-in-law [[Job Charnock]] (who died in 1692) appears on the document signed with the original landlords, the [[Sabarna Roy Choudhury]] family.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}} In December 1699, Eyre was appointed President and Governor of [[Fort William (India)|Fort William]] in [[Bengal]], and Bengal was at the same time constituted a Presidency. He was the first governor appointed by the Company to Bengal since [[William Hedges (colonial administrator)|William Hedges]] (agent and governor) in 1681 and [[William Gyfford]] (president and governor) in December 1683 (after which the title of governor had been temporarily dropped in favour of agent and chief of the bay of Bengal, Bengal having again been subordinated to [[Madras]]).<ref>"The Governors Of Bengal", ''The Times'', 9 October 1888, p.3, col.D.</ref>

As a merchant, Eyre amassed a fortune of 23,000 [[Pagoda (coin)|Pagodas]], which through the ingenuity of [[Thomas Pitt]] he converted into diamonds to take back with him to England in 1702, having first been ensured a sum of £13,800 through a bill of exchange.<ref>Mentz, Søren. ''The English Gentleman Merchant at Work: Madras and the City of London 1660-1740'' (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2005), p. 134.</ref> His will was proved on 23 October 1729.

==Personal life==
Eyre was from [[Kew]], Richmond, Surrey. Eyre was married to Mary, eldest daughter of Job Charnock. Eyre was a sometime resident of Kew, where he leased a house within the [[Kew Palace]] grounds from Sir [[Richard Levett]], [[Lord Mayor of London]] who owned the palace as well as the house he leased to Eyre and the estate surrounding them. Levett was a powerful early London merchant who was a merchant adventurer in the [[Honourable East India Company]] and one of the first governors of the new [[Bank of England]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=gLsmAAAAMAAJ&q=%22richard+levett%22&dq=%22richard+levett%22&lr=&ei=QgcASf3DGpDetAPZu5C0DA&pgis=1 A Pilgrimage in Surrey, James S. Ogilvy, E. P. Dutton, New York, 1914]</ref> He was a [[knight]]. Eyre was also one of the contributors to the founding of [[St Anne's Church, Kew|St Anne's Church]] in Kew in 1714.

==See also==
*[[List of rulers of Bengal]]
* [[List of Governors of Bengal]]
*[[History of Bengal]]
*[[History of Bangladesh]]
*[[History of India]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box |title=President of Bengal|
years=12 August 1693 - January 1694|
before= [[Francis Ellis (colonial administrator)|Francis Ellis]]|
after=
}}
{{succession box |title=Chief Agent of Bengal|
years=January 1694 - 1698|
before= none|
after=[[John Beard (colonial administrator)|John Beard]]}}

{{succession box |title=Chief Agent of Bengal|
years=December 1699 - 26 May 1700|
before= [[John Beard (colonial administrator)|John Beard]]|
after=}}

{{succession box |title=President of Bengal|
years= 26 May 1700 - 7 January 1701|
before= |
after=[[John Beard (colonial administrator)|John Beard]]}}
{{end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eyre, Charles}}
[[Category:Presidents of Bengal]]
[[Category:English businesspeople]]
[[Category:17th-century births]]
[[Category:1729 deaths]]

Charles Eyre - Revision history

UpdateBot at 06:43, 15 June 2022