https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=James_Grant_DuffJames Grant Duff - Revision history2026-07-31T02:50:57ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=James_Grant_Duff&diff=164510&oldid=previmported>Dawnseeker2000 at 22:55, 20 September 20202020-09-20T22:55:57Z<p></p>
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{{Infobox person<br />
| name = James Grant Duff<br />
| image = James Cunninghame Grant Duff.jpg<br />
| alt = <br />
| caption = James Cunninghame Grant Duff<br />
| birth_date = 8 July 1789<br />
| birth_place = [[Banff, Aberdeenshire|Banff]], [[Aberdeenshire]], Scotland<br />
| death_date = {{death-date and age|23 September 1858|8 July 1789}}<br />
| death_place = [[Fife, Scotland]]<br />
| nationality = British<br />
| other_names = Cuninghame<br />
| known_for =<br />
| occupation = Soldier, historian<br />
| children = 3, including [[M. E. Grant Duff]]<br />
}}<br />
'''James Grant Duff''' (8 July 1789 – 23 September 1858) was a British [[soldier]] and [[historian]]{{sfn|Hamilton|1888|p=130}} from Scotland, who was active in [[Presidencies and provinces of British India|British India]].<br />
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==Early life==<br />
Born James Grant, Duff was the eldest son of John Grant of [[Kincardine O'Neil]] and Margaret Miln Duff of Eden, who died 20 August 1824. When his father died about 1799, his mother moved to Aberdeen, where he went to school, and then onto the [[Marischal College]].{{sfn|Hamilton|1888|p=130}}<br />
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==Military career==<br />
Grant Duff was to become a civil servant of the [[East India Company]], but being impatient at the prospect of delay in obtaining a post he accepted a cadetship in 1805 and sailed for Bombay. After completing the cadet training in Bombay, he joined the Bombay Grenadiers{{when|date=September 2012}}. In 1808 Duff participated as an ensign in the storming of [[Malia, Gujarat|Maliah]], a fortified stronghold of [[Filibuster (military)|freebooter]]s, where he displayed bravery. At an unusually early age{{when|date=September 2012}} he became adjutant to his regiment and Persian interpreter, and was even more influential in it than this position indicated{{how|date=September 2012}}. While still a lieutenant he attracted the attention of [[Mountstuart Elphinstone]], then Company resident of [[Pune|Poona]], and became, along with [[Henry Pottinger]], his assistant and devoted friend. He was particularly successful in understanding the native character, and in discovering the mean between too rapid reform and too great deference to native prejudice and immobility.<br />
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During the long operations against the Peshwa [[Bajirao II]], terminating in his overthrow, Grant Duff took a considerable part, both in a civil and in a military capacity, attaining the rank of captain in his regiment.<ref>{{harvnb|Hamilton|1888|p=130}} see Forrest, ''Official Writings of Elphinstone'', pref. memoir</ref> Upon the settlement of the country he was appointed in 1818 to the important office of resident of [[Satara State]]. His instructions are contained in a letter of Elphinstone's, dated 8 April 1818, and his remuneration was fixed at 2000 rupees per month, with allowances of 1500 rupees per month, which was in addition to an office establishment.<ref>{{harvnb|Hamilton|1888|p=130}}</ref><ref>''Parliamentary Papers'' 1873, volume xxxviii. part i.</ref> Here, in the heart of a warlike province, the centre of the [[Maratha Empire|Mahratta confederacy]], with but one European companion and a body of native infantry, he succeeded in maintaining himself in a hostile environment.<br />
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By proclamation dated 11 April 1818, Elphinstone made full powers over to Grant for the arrangement of Satara's affairs of state. [[Pratap Singh, Raja of Satara|Pratap Singh]] the Rajah was rescued from his captivity by the [[Peshwa|Maratha Peshwa]], after the [[Battle of Ashteh]] in February 1819, and restored to the throne under Grant Duff's tutelage. By a treaty of 25 September 1819, Grant Duff was to administer the country in the Rajah's name until 1822, and then transfer it to himself and his officers when they should prove fit for the task. Taking great care, he impressed upon the rajah that any intercourse with other princes, except such as the treaty provided for, would be punished with annexation of his territory. He trained him so successfully in the habits of business that Pratap Singh, having improved greatly under his care,<ref>{{harvnb|Hamilton|1888|p=130}} see Heber, ''Journal'', ii. 212</ref> was made direct ruler of Satara in 1822; but under Grant's successor, General [[John Briggs (East India Company officer)|Briggs]], his behaviour was unsatisfactory.<ref>For some details of Grant"s administrative policy see his report on Satara in Elphinstone"s ''Report on the Territories taken from the Peshwa, 1821'' {{harv|Hamilton|1888|p=130}}.</ref> During this time, Grant concluded the treaties with the Satara [[jagirdar]]s, ''viz''. 22 April 1820, the Pant Sachiv, the Pant Pratinidhi, the Duflaykur, and the [[Deshmukh]] of [[Phaltan]], and 3 July 1820, the Raja of [[Akkalkot State|Akkalkot]] and the [[Sheikh Waekur]].<ref>(as the names are given by Aitcheson)</ref> The arrangements which he prescribed both for the etiquette of the Durbar and for the management of the revenue remained, as he had left them for many years.{{sfn|Hamilton|1888|p=130}}<br />
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==Return to Scotland==<br />
After five years the anxiety and toil broke down his health, and he retired to Scotland, where he occupied himself in completing ''A History of the Mahrattas'', the materials for which he had long been collecting with great diligence and under peculiarly favorable opportunities, through his access to state papers, family and temple archives, and his personal acquaintance with the Mahratta chiefs.<ref>(see in Colebrooke, ''Life of Elphinstone'', several letters to and from Grant)</ref> It was published in 1826 and was translated into the major languages of Western India, becoming required reading for Indian students during the British Raj. About 1825 he succeeded to the estate at Eden, and taking the additional name of Duff settled there, improving the property. In 1850 his wife Jane Catharine Ainslie (only daughter of Sir [[Whitelaw Ainslie]], an eminent physician and author of the ''Materia Medica Indica''), whom he married in 1825, succeeded to an estate in Fife belonging to her mother's family, whereupon he took the further name of Cuninghame.{{sfn|Hamilton|1888|p=130}}<br />
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==Family==<br />
Duff died on 23 September 1858, leaving a daughter and two sons, of whom the elder, [[M. E. Grant Duff|Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff]], M.P. for the Elgin Burghs, [[Under-Secretary of State for India|Under-Secretary for India]] 1868–1874, and [[Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies|Under-Secretary for the Colonies]] 1880–1881, and [[List of colonial Governors and Presidents of Madras|Governor of Madras Presidency]] 1881–1886.{{sfn|Hamilton|1888|p=130}}<br />
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== Works ==<br />
* {{cite book|last=Grant Duff|first=James|title=A History of the Mahrattas|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/britishraj/Duff.html}} Full text online at ibiblio.org (All three volumes in HTML form, complete, chapter-by-chapter, with all footnotes and a combined index)<br />
* ''A History of the Mahrattas,'' 3 vols. London, Longmans, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green (1826); also more recent editions, {{ISBN|81-7020-956-0}} {{ISBN|1-4212-2137-3}}; [https://books.google.com/books?vid=0IHfKb-QJzMBfSIv&id=ZQXGmDs3LlMC&printsec=toc&dq=%22James+Grant+Duff%22+%2BHistory+of+the+Mahrattas%22#PPP1,M1 vol. II only on line.] Also, [https://books.google.com/books?vid=0yn61LmNFJxfrhM8p75j9D&id=e_Pc4ZQMoy0C&dq=%22James+Grant+Duff%22+%2BHistory+of+the+Mahrattas%22 revised ed., S. M. Edwardes, London, etc., Oxford University Press (1921) Vol. II only on line.]<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
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== Bibliography ==<br />
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*{{Nuttall|title=Duff, James Grant}}<br />
*{{DNB|first=John Andrew |last=Hamilton |wstitle=Duff, James Grant |volume=16 |pages=130–131}} <br />
** Banffshire Journal, September 1858, from which all the other periodical notices are taken<br />
** James Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas, 4 vols<br />
** Burke's Landed Gentry<br />
** Aitcheson, Indian Treaties, volume iv.<br />
** Colebrooke's Elphinstone<br />
** Dr. Murray Smith, 'Sattara', Calcutta Review, x.p.&nbsp;437<br />
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== Literature ==<br />
** A.R. Kulkarni: ''James Cuninghame Grant Duff. Administrator-Historian of the Marathas''.Kolkata : Bagchi 2006 (first English edition, first Marathi edition ''Jemsa Kaniṃgahêma Grênṭa Ḍapha''. 31, 266 S. Puṇe : Vidyāpīṭha Prakāśana [1971?]<br />
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[[Category:People from Banff, Aberdeenshire]]<br />
[[Category:1789 births]]<br />
[[Category:1858 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Aberdeen]]</div>imported>Dawnseeker2000