https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=John_Baillie_of_LeysJohn Baillie of Leys - Revision history2026-07-31T23:44:59ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=John_Baillie_of_Leys&diff=373247&oldid=prevBot at 14:35, 14 June 20222022-06-14T14:35:36Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>[[File:Sir_Henry_Raeburn_-_Portrait_of_John_Baillie_(1772-1833)_-_68.41.12_-_Minneapolis_Institute_of_Arts.jpg|thumb|Portrait of John Baillie]]<br />
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Colonel '''John Baillie''' (10 May 1772 – 20 April 1833) of Leys, entered the military service of the [[East India Company]] in 1790. He proved to be an excellent linguist and took up a professorship at [[Fort William College]] in [[Calcutta, India]]. In 1807 he resigned his professorship for the position of Resident at the Indian city of Lucknow which he held until 1815. In that year was commissioned a Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Native Infantry. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1816 and as well as managing the family estates in [[Inverness-shire]] he became Member of Parliament and a director of the East India Company.<br />
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==Biography==<br />
John Baillie was born at Inverness on 10 May 1772. He was the younger son of George Baillie of Leys, Inverness, and his wife, Anne. Baillie served in the East India Company from 1790 until retiring in 1818 (arriving in India in 1791 and leaving in 1816).{{sfn|Lane-Poole|Falkner|2004}}{{sfn|Casey|2009}} He was commissioned an [[ensign (rank)|ensign]] in 1793 and a lieutenant in 1794, devoting his leisure to the study of oriental languages, which he prosecuted with such success that on the foundation of the new college of [[Fort William College]] in [[Calcutta, India|Calcutta]] in 1801 he was appointed professor of the Arabic and Persian languages and of Mohammedan law.{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1885|p=418}}<br />
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In 1803, on the outbreak of the [[Second Anglo-Maratha War]], Baillie joined in the siege of Agra with the rank of captain, and soon after was appointed to the difficult post of [[Political officer (British Empire)|Political Agent]] at [[Bundelkhand]] in central India. Disaffection was rife there, and the chiefs were forming dangerous combinations. Captain Baillie, however, succeeded in disuniting the league of the chiefs and re-establishing order and security, for which services he was publicly thanked by the governor-general in a letter to the directors, in which it was said that "the British authority in Bundelkhand was only preserved by his fortitude, ability, and influence". He had, in fact, transferred to the company a territory with a revenue of £225,000 a year.{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1885|p=418}}<br />
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Baillie resigned his professorship in 1807 for the position of [[Resident (title)|Resident]] at the Indian city of [[Lucknow]] which he held till 1815.{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1885|p=418}} In that year was commissioned a Lieutenant-Colonel of the 4th Native Infantry.{{sfn|Casey|2009}}<br />
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Baillie returned to the United Kingdom in 1816 and as well as managing the family estates in [[Inverness-shire]] he became Member of Parliament and a director of the East India Company. He stood successfully for Parliament: for [[Hedon (UK Parliament constituency)|Hedon]] (1820–1830), [[Inverness Burghs (UK Parliament constituency)|Inverness Burghs]] (1830–1831) and again for Inverness Burghs (1832 – 20 April 1833).<br />
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He was elected as a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1817.<ref>[http://royalsociety.org/uploadedFiles/Royal_Society_Content/about-us/fellowship/Fellows1660-2007.pdf Complete List of Royal Society Fellows 1660–2007]</ref><br />
In 1823 he became a director of the East India Company, and was willing use his influence in Parliament to support the Companies interests.{{sfn|Casey|2009}}<br />
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==Works==<br />
While professor, John Baillie wrote:{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1885|p=418}}<br />
*''Sixty Tables elucidatory of a Course of Lectures on Arabic Grammar delivered in the College of Fort William during the first year of its institution'' (first edition 1801)<br />
*'''The Five Books upon Arabic Grammar'', i.e. the "Meeut Âmel", "Shurhu Meeut Âmel", "Mesbâh", "Hedâyut oon-Nuhve", and the "Kâfeea", of which the first four were issued in two thin volumes in 1802–3, and the last had not been published by 1900.<br />
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Baillie also translated from the Arabic part (relating to commercial transactions) of a digest of Mohammedan law in 1797, at the request of Sir [[John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth|John Shore]] (Lord Teignmouth), the then governor-general, but the work was never completed.{{sfn|Lane-Poole|1885|p=418}}<br />
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Baillie's position as Resident in Lucknow allowed him to amass a large collection of manuscripts, many of which later passed to the [[Edinburgh University Library]] in 1876, where they were catalogued by Edward Robertson in 1912. He is best known for his collection of paintings and illustrated manuscripts, such as the ''[[Jami al-Tawarikh]]'', and the poems of [[Hafiz Shirazi|Hafiz]] of [[Sharaz]].{{citation needed|date=January 2013}}<br />
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==Press Cutting – Morning Post 22 April 1833 – Deaths==<br />
On the 20th inst., at his house in Devonshire-place, in the 61st year of his age, Colonel John Baillie, of Leys, Inverness-shire, M.P. for the Inverness District of Burghs and a Director of the East India Company.<br />
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==Notes==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
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==References==<br />
*{{Citation |last=Casey |first=Martin |contribution=Baillie, John (1772–1833), of Leys Castle, Inverness and Devonshire Place, Mdx. |url=http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/baillie-john-1772-1833|title=The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820–1832 |editor-first=D.R. |editor-last=Fisher |year=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}<br />
*{{ODNBweb|last=Lane-Poole |first=Stanley |last2=Falkner |first2=James (reviewer) |year=2004 |title=Baillie, John (1772–1833)|id=1064}}<br />
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'''Attribution'''<br />
*{{DNB|last=Lane-Poole |first=Stanley |wstitle=Baillie, John (1772-1833) |volume=2|page=418}}<br />
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==Further reading==<br />
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*{{Citation |last=Blair |first=Sheila |year = 1995 | author2 = Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb | title = A compendium of chronicles: Rashid al-Din's illustrated history of the world |publisher=Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and [[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-727627-3 |page=34 }}<br />
*{{Citation|last=Grant |first=James |year=1879 |title=Cassell's illustrated history of India| publisher = Cassell |page=412}}<br />
*{{Citation|date=25 November 2010 |accessdate=19 January 2012 |url=http://www.imes.ed.ac.uk/index-pages/department/about_us.html |title=Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies: About us |publisher=[[University of Edinburgh]] |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120225034649/http://www.imes.ed.ac.uk/index-pages/department/about_us.html |archivedate=25 February 2012 }}<br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{hansard-contribs | lieut-colonel-john-baillie | John Baillie }}<br />
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[[Category:1772 births]]<br />
[[Category:1833 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:Military personnel from Inverness]]<br />
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]<br />
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies|Baillie,John]]<br />
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies|Baillie,John]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1820–1826]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1826–1830]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1830–1831]]<br />
[[Category:UK MPs 1832–1835]]<br />
[[Category:British military personnel of the Second Anglo-Maratha War]]<br />
[[Category:Directors of the British East India Company]]<br />
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]</div>Bot