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'''John Staples Harriott''' (1780–1839)<ref>{{cite book|author1=Survey of India|author2=R. H. Phillimore|title=Historical Records of the Survey of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HqdTzPRXOqEC&pg=PA506|year=1950|publisher=U.P.|page=506}}</ref> was a British army officer stationed in India, in the service of the [[East India Company]]. He came to acquire the ''[[Jami' al-tawarikh]]'' in its original manuscript. In his studies of the [[Roma people]], he made an identification with a legend of [[Bahram Gur]] and the [[Luri people|Luri]] to support a Romani presence in [[Sasanid]] Persia, now considered to be an unjustified and uncritical deduction that has persisted.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Adrian Marsh|author2=Elin Strand|title=Gypsies and the Problem of Identities: Contextual, Constructed and Contested|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u52vzyK3v7EC&pg=PA46|date=22 August 2006|publisher=Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul|isbn=978-91-86884-17-8|page=46}}</ref>

== Life ==
[[File:Père-Lachaise - Division 45 - Harriott 02.jpg|thumb|[[Père-Lachaise Cemetery]]]]

He was a son of [[John Harriott (sailor)|John Harriott]]. In 1796 he became a cadet with the East India Company, and became a lieutenant in the [[Bengal Presidency]] in 1798, captain in 1806, and major in 1817; lieutenant-colonel in 1823 and colonel in 1829. In 1803 he lost a leg at the [[Battle of Delhi (1803)|Battle of Delhi]], serving under [[Lord Lake]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Harriott, John |volume=24}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Alphabetical list of the officers of the Bengal army: with the dates of their respective promotion, retirement, resignation, or death ... from ... 1760 to ... 1834 inclusive, corrected to ... 1837|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMOEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PT78|year=1838|publisher=Longman, Orme, Brown, and co.|pages=78–9}}</ref><ref>Dodwell and Miles, eds., ''Alphabetical list of the officers of the Bengal army; with the dates of their respective promotion, retirement, resignation, or death ... from ... 1760 to ... 1834 inclusive, corrected to ... 1837'' (1838), pp. 132–3; [https://archive.org/stream/alphabeticallist00dodwrich#page/132/mode/2up archive.org.]</ref> He lived much of his life in Calcutta,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://etext.ku.edu/view?docId=ksrlead%2Fksrl.sc.bengalsupreme.xml |title=Exemplification of Will (Hawkes) |access-date=10 July 2022 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020051028/http://etext.ku.edu/view?docId=ksrlead%2Fksrl.sc.bengalsupreme.xml |url-status=dead }}</ref> and ultimately reached the rank of Major General.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/SearchUI/details?Uri=D293780|title=Will of John Staples Harriott, Major General in the British Service and Colonel of the}}</ref>

In 1819–20 Harriott was collecting [[Romani language|Romani]] vocabulary in [[Hampshire]], England.<ref>{{cite book|author=Yaron Matras|title=Romani in Britain: The Afterlife of a Language|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gcRvAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT55|date=5 October 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-7486-8701-5|page=55}}</ref> Some of his results were read to the [[Asiatic Society of Bengal]] in 1822.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hELAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA32|year=1830|publisher=Parbury, Allen, and Company|page=32}}</ref> In 1830 a membership list for the [[Royal Asiatic Society]] gives his address as [[Mortlake]].<ref name="(London).1835">{{cite book|author=Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland (London).|title=Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNhSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA17|year=1835|publisher=The Society.|page=17}}</ref>

== ''Jami Al Tawarikh'' ==
Harriott is known as one of the owners of the key manuscript of the ''[[Jami' al-tawarikh]]'', an important medieval manuscript dealing with Mongol history. How he came into its possession is not clearly known. According to [[Sotheby's]], he found it in [[Danapur]] in 1813. [[William Hook Morley]] noticed it in the Royal Asiatic Society's manuscript collection in 1838. From 1948 it was at the [[British Museum]], on loan, and then was sold, to an unknown purchaser.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/198101/a.history.of.the.world.htm| title = Saudi Aramco World : A History of the World}}</ref>

==Works==
*''Pauperism and the Poor Laws'' (1821)<ref>{{cite book|title=Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GaNSAAAAcAAJ&pg=PR41|year=1835|publisher=Parbury|page=xli}}</ref>
*''Observations on the Oriental Origin of the Romnichal, Or Tribe Miscalled Gypsey and Bohemian'' (1830)<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of the American Oriental Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gvwIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA154|year=1862|publisher=American Oriental Society|page=154}}</ref>
*A memoir on the [[Kabir panth]]s, in French translation (1832)<ref>{{cite book|author=John Staples Harriott|title=Mémoire sur les Kabir Pantis, secte de déistes de l'Hindoustan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-81bAAAAQAAJ|year=1832}}</ref>
*''Remarks Relative to the Actual Condition of Ireland, Made During a Late Sojourn in that Country''<ref>{{cite book|author=John Staples Harriott|title=Remarks Relative to the Actual Condition of Ireland, Made During a Late Sojourn in that Country|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8B0-NAAACAAJ|year=1833|publisher=G.G. Bennis}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Harriott, John Staples}}
[[Category:British East India Company Army generals]]
[[Category:1780 births]]
[[Category:1839 deaths]]

John Staples Harriott - Revision history

Bot at 11:08, 23 August 2022