The mercantile classes have long been associated with acts of
charity within the communities in which they live and the records of the
East India Company provide ample evidence of numerous philanthropic
deeds. One notable example is a bequest left by one of India’s most
famous eighteenth century merchants Amir Chand [Omichund, Umichund].
A major trader with the Nawabs of Bengal and the East India Company,
Amir Chand is best remembered
for his role in the events which led to the Company acquiring political supremacy in Bengal. Even today his name conjures up images of political chicanery, extravagance and corruption, and of double dealing by Robert Clive and the British. Nevertheless on his death in 1758 Amir Chand bequeathed “certain sums of money, for charitable uses, to be distributed in different parts of the world”. The beneficiaries included the Foundling Hospital for children and the Magdalen Hospital for penitent prostitutes in London.
© The British Library Board Images Online From Felix Leigh, London Town (Verses) (BL: 12805.s.9, p.42)
The will instructed Amir Chand’s brother-in-law and executor Huzzoramaul [Huzuri Mal] to send an initial sum of 3,000 current rupees direct to England in one of the Company’s ships to be equally divided between the two institutions. The remaining 37,500 current rupees were then to be paid into the Company’s treasury in Bengal. Under the management of the Company, this sum was never to be taken out of the treasury but the interest was to be remitted annually to England and divided equally between the Governors of the two hospitals. By the 1760s the plans outlined in the will had been put in place and initial payments were made. However payments seem to have lapsed soon afterwards, probably as a result of litigation contesting the overall management of Amir Chand’s estate.
Richard Scott Morel
Curator, East India Company Records
Further reading:
IOR/E/1/62 ff. 231-235v
IOR/D/148 f. 105
John Brownlow, The history and objects of the Foundling Hospital (London, 1865), p. 50.
for his role in the events which led to the Company acquiring political supremacy in Bengal. Even today his name conjures up images of political chicanery, extravagance and corruption, and of double dealing by Robert Clive and the British. Nevertheless on his death in 1758 Amir Chand bequeathed “certain sums of money, for charitable uses, to be distributed in different parts of the world”. The beneficiaries included the Foundling Hospital for children and the Magdalen Hospital for penitent prostitutes in London.
© The British Library Board Images Online From Felix Leigh, London Town (Verses) (BL: 12805.s.9, p.42)
The will instructed Amir Chand’s brother-in-law and executor Huzzoramaul [Huzuri Mal] to send an initial sum of 3,000 current rupees direct to England in one of the Company’s ships to be equally divided between the two institutions. The remaining 37,500 current rupees were then to be paid into the Company’s treasury in Bengal. Under the management of the Company, this sum was never to be taken out of the treasury but the interest was to be remitted annually to England and divided equally between the Governors of the two hospitals. By the 1760s the plans outlined in the will had been put in place and initial payments were made. However payments seem to have lapsed soon afterwards, probably as a result of litigation contesting the overall management of Amir Chand’s estate.
Richard Scott Morel
Curator, East India Company Records
Further reading:
IOR/E/1/62 ff. 231-235v
IOR/D/148 f. 105
John Brownlow, The history and objects of the Foundling Hospital (London, 1865), p. 50.