Edward Holden Cruttenden

(Image courtesy of Schwarz Philadelphia)

Edward Holden was born around 1717, in or near London, to Robert Cruttenden and Sarah Cliff.

Nothing is known of Edward's early life. On the 26th May 1737 he arrived in Calcutta, India where he  was employed by the East India Company as a Writer in the Accomptants Office on a salary of £5 per year. His sureties being Robert Cruttenden of London and Robert Surman, banker. The next year he moved into the Export Warehouse.

Writers kept accounts and were responsible for correspondence with London. Every letter to Head Office was completed in triplicate to ensure delivery, two copies were sent by two different sailing ships and the other went overland. All senior posts as Writers were obtained by a nomination by the Directors; patronage ceased in 1856.

Edward arrived in India at the same time as fellow Writer, Roger Drake, who was to become Governor of Bengal.

Calcutta is on the east, that is the left, bank of the Hooghly, the most easterly of the distributaries of the Ganges. Found in 1690 by Job Charnock of the British East India Company. During the night of the 11th/12th October 1737 a cyclone and earth quake almost flattened Calcutta, whose population was around 20,000.

Old Fort William had provided residential accommodations to the Company's writers.

From 1741 a bond for faithful service was required. Becoming a Writer was the passport to great riches and it was not always acquired without dubious dealing and corruption. A young man who survived ten years, exiled in a trying and dangerous climate, expected to go home rich and the East India Company allowed leeway for creative personal trading as long as its profits were not affected. Allegations of corruption from outsiders were rife.

Edward remained in the Export Warehouse for 5 years before becoming a Factor and Collector of the Consulage; still on an annual salary of £5.

Consulage was a duty or tax paid by merchants for the protection of their commerce by means of a consul in a foreign place.

In 1744 Edward became a Junior Merchant, but still Collector of the Consulage, now earning £30 per year.

It must have been during these years that Edward courted Miss Elizabeth Jedderie whom he married at St Anne's Anglican Church, Calcutta on 7 April 1746. Miss Jedderie may have been the daughter of James, a planter in Sumatra, and his wife Elizabeth.

1748 brought further promotion to that of Senior Merchant on an annual salary of £40. He, however, subsequently rose to be a Member of Council, and was appointed to that rank on 18 of April, 1848. He came by degrees to be second in Council and Accomptant, Roger Drake being then President and Governor. On 20 November 1752 he was appointed Colonel of Militia.

His Indian career was coloured by controversy. He incurred the wrath of the directors on a number of occasions by putting his own interests before those of the Company. He was dismissed for obtaining a contract to supply marine stores by fraudulent means. At the time he was also Superintendent of Marine. In a despatch of 31 of January, 1755, the Court wrote to Bengal that, "Having reason to be dissatisfied with the conduct of Mr. Edward Holden Cruttenden, we hereby direct that upon receipt of this he be immediately dismissed from the Company's service". He was accordingly dismissed on 28 August, 1755 (Bengal Consultations).

Edward remained in Bengal as a 'free merchant' for some years. His daughter Elizabeth was born on 7 October 1752 and a second daughter Sarah on 9 April 1754. His only son Edward Holden was born soon afterwards.

Fort William from the land side with St Anne's church c. 1730. Attributed to George Lambert. St Anne's, consecrated in 1709, at the south-western corner of the Writers Building, was destroyed in the siege of 1756.

Fort William was established to protect British East India Company trade. In 1756, with a view to the possibility of conflict with French forces, the British began building up the fort's military strength and defences. The Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, was unhappy with the company's interference in the internal affairs of his country and perceived threat to its independence. As ruler he ordered an immediate stop to the fort's military enhancement but the company paid no heed. As a consequence, Siraj organised his army and laid siege to the fort and fighting began on 16 June.

The principal British houses of the settlement stretched away on wither side of the fort along the river bank for about a mile altogether and extended a quarter mile or so inland. Drake had the common sense to realise that the English women and children should be evacuated to the ships and on the 18th the ships left Calcutta.

Drake had the commonsense to realise that the English women and children should be evacuated to the ships. The ships left Calcutta on 18 June.

Much of the garrison now turned to the liquor stores. John Holwell relates the events of 18/19 June:  "The Company's House, Mr Cruttenden's, Mr Nixon's, Dr Knoxs' and the marine yard were now in flames and exhibited a spectacle of unspeakable horror. We were surrounded on all sides by the Nabob's forces, which made a retreat by land impracticable".

John Howell was one of the 146 prisoners taken on 20 June, and imprisoned in a tiny room now known as 'the Black Hole of Calcutta'. 123 suffocated to death, but Holwell survived.

The Cruttenden family took refuge at Fulta.

The plight of the English in the ships was pitiable beyond measure. The flotilla of around 15 vessels was crowded out with men, women and children. They barley had a week’s supplies to support them. As it made its way downriver from Govinpur Point, fearing attack from the land and river at the same time, it came under the guns of Thana Fort; two ships anchored, and were promptly seized by the Bengalis. The rest of the flotilla again ran the gauntlet of fire from the fort, and this time succeeded in getting through with minimal damage.

On 24 June the ships reached Budge Budge, where all the Indians were put ashore in order to conserve supplies. Two days later, they reached Fulta, a comparatively safe point, but no more than a primitive village, where they dropped anchor. Their supplies were now almost exhausted. The ships were in the most inhospitable part of the Ganges basin, yet they stayed there for almost three weeks before the Dutch at last agreed to send them food and water secretly via the small settlement there.

Unfortunately Edward's wife, Elizabeth, was to die at Fulta.

The battle of Plassey was a decisive East India Company victory over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies. The battle took place on 23 June 1757 at Palashi, West Bengal, on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, about 100 miles north of Calcutta, near Murshidabad, then capital of the Nawab of Bengal.

Drake was relieved of the governorship for fleeing from Calcutta and William Watts was made governor on 22 June 1758.

Some time before October 1759 Edward, his children, and their ayah, returned to England, having amassed in Bengal alone an unremitted fortune of £50,000. However, this was without cost , the events of 1756 and 1757 cost him his wife and house.

With this money he bought estates at Putney Heath in Surrey and a residence in St Andrew Holborn, London.

It was in October 1759 that Edward or his children first attended the studios of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Further visits were made in July 1767, May 1768 and January 1769.

From these sittings Reynolds produced the above portrait of Edward and the below portrait of his children.

Joshua Reynolds, 1763
(now at the Museum of Art, Sao Paolo, Brazil. 2001)

Ayahs were commonly employed to take care of British children in India and often developed close bonds with them. The Cruttenden family's ayah reportedly saved the children's lives in the uprising, yet here she is pictured in the background, as if to emphasis the relationship of servitude.

She was evidently one of three Indian women, called Rebecca, Patty, and Sophia, whom Cruttenden's family brought back to Britain; Cruttenden returned them (along with Indian manservant Caesar to Calcutta in 1759

He entered Company politics on the side of Rous (q.v.) and Clive, whom he had known in Bengal. He first appears in the General Court in March 1763, in defence of Rous's handling of the peace negotiations with the Ministry at the end of the war,7 and went on to play an active part in the April elections. He was made 'answerable' for the votes of nine proprietors by Clive,8 while Robert Cliffe's banking firm 'split' £26,500 stock into voting units.9 Cruttenden stood on the 'Proprietors' list' with Clive, but was defeated.10

The 1764 election brought renewed efforts to oust Sulivan from power. Cruttenden helped convene a General Court to carry Clive's appointment to the Bengal government,11 but was once more unsuccessful in his attempts to enter the Direction. His chance came in the following year with Sulivan's defeat, when he came top of the poll.

As might be expected, he showed himself a supporter of Clive's party in the Direction, but as a wealthy 'nabob' with diverse financial interests, he did not neglect his own affairs. During 1768 he used his influence to reverse an earlier decision of the directors which had prevented his obtaining bills on the Company to remit the remainder of his Bengal fortune. He also had a number of shipping concerns, both in Bengal, where he had been master attendant of marine in 1753, and in London, being the 'principal owner' of Cruttenden Indiaman 'and other vessells of the Company. His will states that he was 'an Owner in Several E.I. Ships and also at Rep.a on many of them'. One of his executors was John Durand, the influential ship's husband.

Edward wrote his will at his house on Putney Heath on 10 June 1771, passing away on 19 June.  Whether he was back in London is not known but he was buried at St Andrews, Holborn on 6 July 1771.