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 DS 481.J44M53 
 
 Memorandum of the life and public charit 
 
 3 1924 024 058 137 
 
PI Cornell University 
 J Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024058137 
 
SIR JAM8ETJEE JEJEEBHOY. 
 
MEMORANDUM 
 
 LIFE AND PUBLIC CHAEITIES 
 
 SIE JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY. 
 
 FEINTED POE PEIVATE CIECULATION. 
 
 MDCCOLT. 
 
FEINTED BT 
 
 JOHN EDWAUD TATl!OS, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, 
 
 LINCOLN'S IHN FIELDS. 
 
PBIVATE. 
 
 MEMORANDUM 
 
 OP THE 
 
 LIFE AND PUBLIC CHARITIES OF 
 SIE JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY. 
 
 Among the most remarkable natives of India now 
 living, if not at the head of them, is undoubtedly to be 
 reckoned Six Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, of Bombay. His 
 parents, respectable in character but humble in circum- 
 stances, came to that city from Nowsaree, a large village 
 about twenty-two miles from Surat, inhabited chiefly or 
 entirely by Parsees ; Sir Jamsetjee belongs to the com- 
 munity which bears that designation, and he has ever 
 been a steadfast but by no means a bigoted adherent of 
 its ancestral faith. He was born in Bombay, in 1783, 
 where, before he was sixteen years old, he lost both his 
 parents iu one twelvemonth by death. His father-in- 
 law however (the father of the child to whom, according 
 to Oriental custom, he had been betrothed in infancy) 
 had some years previously placed him in the way of be- 
 coming acquainted with the mode of keeping accounts. 
 
He was then just able to read and write the commercial 
 vernacular of Bombay, and he afterwards acquired at 
 school some slight knowledge of English. These seem 
 to have formed the whole of his educational advantages. 
 
 2. In 1799, that is, when he was sixteen years old, and 
 had just lost both his parents, he embarked, with a cousin, 
 for Calcutta, carrying with him his whole fortune of 120 
 rupees, or about j612.* After a stay in that city of some- 
 what more than a year, spent in book-keeping and in 
 translating Bengalee, he returned to Bombay ; and he 
 there soon commenced trading to Bengal and China on 
 his own resources, now increased to about £18 in money, 
 and the profits of some goods he carried with him on 
 his return. He seems however to have earned already 
 a considerable amount of goodwill and confidence, for, 
 young as he yet was, he found it possible to borrow 
 j6200 ; and having afterwards entered into an advanta- 
 geous arrangement with his father-in-law, he obtained 
 from various parties the large sum of £3500, at a rate 
 of premium, however, proportioned to the slenderness of 
 the guarantee afforded by his own stock. 
 
 With these funds he embarked in a more extensive 
 trade with China, which he prosecuted for some time by 
 means of his voyages in person to that country. On 
 his return from the first of these he lost some property 
 from a fire in Bombay ; his homeward passage on the se- 
 cond of them was in the fleet of the East India Company's 
 vessels, which, in the celebrated action under Sir Na- 
 thaniel Dance, beat off the French squadron commanded 
 
 * Throughout these pages money will usually be expressed in the 
 nearest whole pounds sterling, at the rate of ten rupees to the. pound. 
 
by Admiral Linois ; on the third occasion he seems to 
 have had no misfortime. 
 
 3. So far Jamsetjee had been very successful in a 
 mercantile sense ; but on his fourth return voyage^ after 
 realizing large profits in China, the ship in which he was 
 embarked with his purchases for India, was intercepted 
 and overpowered by two vessels of the French force for- 
 merly repiilsed. He thus lost aU his property, and, worse 
 still, he was carried prisoner to the Cape of Good Hope, 
 then a neutral port in the hands of the Dutch. On the 
 voyage the prize first narrowly escaped recapture by the 
 English, and then was in still greater danger of ship- 
 wreck. He was stripped by his captors of everything 
 except his clothes, and while he was at the Cape pro- 
 visions commanded famine prices. The English Consul 
 however assisted him, and happily his own importunity 
 and the intercession of the ladies proceeding in the same 
 vessel procured him a passage to Calcutta in a Danish 
 ship just about to sail for Serampore. He sufiered 
 greatly on the voyage from exposure to the weather, as 
 well as from the scantiness and wretched quality of the 
 ship's provisions : his only relief was in the kindness of 
 the ladies who first interested themselves for him. Half 
 a bag of worm-eaten rice, a little salt-fish, and twenty 
 dollars in money, were a most important addition to his 
 preparations for the voyage, which he gratefully accepted 
 from the British Consul. 
 
 4. Through visible perils of war as well as of the ocean 
 our wanderer at length reached Calcutta, and there ofiered 
 fervent thanksgiving to Providence for his preservation 
 and his return to friends, of which he had often despaired. 
 
8 
 
 Some weeks afterwards he arrived in Bombay, almost as 
 much to the smprise as the joy of relatives who had given 
 him up for lost. 
 
 5. A fifth and last voyage to China seems to have been 
 sticcessfulj and in the course of it he established com- 
 mercial relations vdth Madras. Jamsetjee however now 
 gave up this mode of transacting his business ; and from 
 about the year 1807 he became stationary at Bombay, 
 from which place he has ever since directed the opera- 
 tions by which his great wealth has been acquired, and 
 where it is little to say that his wide-spread charities 
 have made his name a household word. 
 
 6. The business seems always to have been carried on 
 in conjunction with partners, and a few circumstances in 
 relation to these associates are worthy of notice. Jam- 
 setjee's first considerable adventure was the purchase of 
 a ship in company with Motichimd Amichund, Mahom- 
 med Hussein Rogay, and the commander of the ship. 
 Captain Robb, an Englishman. The first of these was a 
 Hindoo of the Jain, persuasion, and to him we shall have 
 to revert. Of the second, a Mussulman, we need only 
 say that he and his son, the late highly respected Ma- 
 hommed Ally Rogay, continued in the closest commer- 
 cial connection with Jamsetjee down to a very late period. 
 The success of this, their first ship (left to the manage- 
 ment of Jamsetjee), led to successive extensions of enter- 
 prise with equally good results, until at length, in 1821, 
 the party thought themselves strong enough to buy up 
 the whole of the importation from China of that season. 
 The profits of that speculation however did not fulfil their 
 expectations. Nor did a succeeding term of renewed 
 
partnership prove as prosperous as the former ones ; a 
 declension attributed to separate transactions of the Jain 
 partner, Motichund, carried on, contrary to agreement, 
 for his private account. A separation was the conse- 
 quence, but not, as we shall see, a breach of friendship. 
 Greater caution, under the advice of Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 
 brought renewed prosperity to aU parties, Motichund 
 himself included, who died in 1836, possessed of a large 
 fortune, which he bequeathed to his son. 
 
 7. Since the transactions of 1824 the business of Jam- 
 setjee Jejeebhoy seems to have suffered no other changes 
 than those incidental to aU long-continued mercantile 
 engagements. In 1836 his eldest son, Cursetjee Jam- 
 setjee, and an assistant, Purdoonjee Sorabjee, became 
 partners; subsequently the younger sons of Jamsetjee 
 Jejeebhoy and the surviving sons of the now deceased 
 Furdoonjee Sorabjee were admitted to the same stand- 
 ing. The high duties imposed in later years on the 
 great staples of the China trade, rendered profits much 
 smaller and more precarious than in the earlier period 
 of his career ; but no considerable check occurred in 
 a course of prosperity which had been b^un in expe- 
 rience and caution, and had ever been prosecuted with 
 energy and skill. Such were the habits of the house 
 in Bombay, and the faithfulness and ability of their 
 principal correspondents in China, that large profits 
 were realized on the whole, notwithstanding the heavy 
 losses incurred at times during the China war. It is 
 to a strict and very orderly system, carried into effect 
 in every department under his own immediate superin- 
 tendence, and with little subordinate help, that much of 
 
10 
 
 this success is to be attributed; but it can have been 
 no less owing to the confidence umversally reposed in 
 his uprightness^ clear-sightedness, liberality, and skiU. 
 The house under his control always declined commission 
 business, lest its own operations should be trammelled 
 by such vicarious engagements ; and while Jamsetjee 
 Jejeebhoy himself, with all his extended affairs, was 
 never engaged in a lawsuit on his own account, he was 
 resorted to habitually and with confidence by friends, 
 neighbours, and townsmen, for the arbitration of their 
 differences, whether of a mercantile or of a more private 
 and personal nature.* 
 
 * The Baroda Blue Boots have given a painful pubUcity to an exten- 
 sive system of private influence termed " Khutput," according to which 
 wealthy natives remitted large sums of money to their agents at Bom- 
 bay, believing that it could be employed in corrupting persons supposed 
 to possess an influence that might promote the objects of those who 
 sought redress or advantage from the Governor ia Council. 
 
 Fi'om the covert nature of Khutput, and the dexterity of his agency, 
 persons of consequence, and many others bearing respectable characters, 
 were easily made its supporters or its dupes. The magnitude of the evil 
 at length arrested the attention of the Bombay G-ovemment, and the 
 Heads of Departments in the provinces were required, by a circular, to 
 report on its natilre, extent, and modes of action. 
 
 It has ever been a leading principle of Sir Jamsetjee's life to keep aloof 
 from transactions in which his name and influence might be used for 
 questionable purposes ; and in his answer to the Circular, Mr. Bartle Frere, 
 the distmguished representative of the British Government ia Scinde, 
 paid a well-merited tribute to the high-mindedness of Sir Jamsetjee. 
 
 " When the petitioner is of rant," observes Mr. Prere, " a very favourite 
 device is to tate him to call on some gentleman, vrith whom his conductor 
 converses in English, and easily persuades his up-country friend that his 
 affairs have been the subject of conversation. If, as often happens, the 
 gentleman visited be acquainted with the petitioner's native province, 
 and can be persuaded to give any friend there a note, simply begging his 
 
11 
 
 8. That friends and connections should do honour to 
 such a man is no more than natural ; and some of the 
 most princely of the merchant princes of England have 
 adorned the mansions of Sir Jamsetjee with the sump- 
 tuous tokens of their esteem and admiration, won in 
 the course of his large dealings with them. The Govern- 
 ment found equal reason for its high regard in his mu- 
 nificent benefactions to public objects, more particularly 
 to be mentioned anon; and in 1843 the late Sir James 
 Carnac, who had just retired from the government of 
 Bombay, brought the case so fully before the authorities 
 in England, that Her Most Gracious Majesty conferred 
 on this very remarkable man the well-earned honour of 
 knighthood. Since that date his good deeds have pro- 
 ceeded at even a greater speed, and on a larger scale, 
 than before. 
 
 9. To readers in India, the character and value of 
 the public works executed by means of Sir Jamsetjee's 
 
 attention to tlie case, the delusion is complete, and the conductor has no 
 difficulty in carrying on the deception for a lengthened period, on the 
 strength of such a proof of his influence. 
 
 " Some gentlemen, I am sure without any idea of the deception to 
 which they lend themselyes, or the mischief they do, are a kind of per- 
 manent unconscious accomplices of fraud of this kiad ; and some of 
 the more respectable native merchants are far too accommodating in 
 giving and receiving introductions of parties who are, or fancy them- 
 selves, aggrieved. 
 
 " It is not necessary to particularize iadividuals, but I may be allowed 
 to mention one very striking exception in Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who 
 with every inducement fcom his great influence and the exceeding bene- 
 volence of his character, never, as far as my experience goes, lends him- 
 self to the dangerous practice of patronizing parties engaged in obtaining 
 redress of their grievances, real or supposed, by indirect influence, apart 
 from the substantial merits of their case." 
 
12 
 
 munificence speak for themselves ; to those in England 
 some explanatory remarks may be necessary. We may 
 however hegin by remarking that the close and ardent 
 sympathy of Sir Jamsetjee and his family with our na- 
 tional feelings and destiny, is shown by their subscrip- 
 tion of no less than £700 to the testimonials in honour 
 of the great commander, the Duke of Wellington, we 
 have so lately lost. 
 
 10. The sum of £16,500, devoted to the erection of 
 a hospital, one of the most conspicuous and pleasing of 
 the pubhc structures of Bombay, would be appreciated 
 in some degree in any country; so, also, would the 
 additional gifts of £3000 for an Obstetric Institution, 
 and £1500 for a fund to provide books and prizes for 
 the students in the Medical College attached to the 
 Hospital. But to understand the full value of these 
 donations, it must be remembered that medical science 
 had but a feeble existence in India, and in its sur- 
 gical department could hardly be said to exist at all, — 
 that the pursuit of anatomical knowledge was repug- 
 nant to all native ideas, — and that, consequently, there 
 was neither public medical relief for the indigent, nor 
 scientific aid for the wealthy, nor (still worse) any pro- 
 bability of such a co-operation of private persons as 
 would permanently remedy the evU. The difficulty, and 
 it was an appalling one, was overcome by the intelli- 
 gent munificence of a single man ; and to overcome it, 
 at a cost equivalent to that of a County Hospital in 
 England, was by no means the last, neither was it the 
 largest, of his good works. Since the establishment of 
 the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital, and of the Grant 
 
13 
 
 Medical College in connection with itj the acquisition 
 of medical and surgical knowledge by educated natives 
 of Bombay itself, has made great strides, although much 
 yet remains to be done in this respect amongst the 
 teeming people of India at large. 
 
 11. The Bridge and Causeway at Mahim, constructed 
 in the name of Lady Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, is a work of 
 great public utility, as well in respect of the Govern- 
 ment itself, as of the people who more immediately 
 profit by it. A strait divides the small but extremely 
 thickly-peopled island and great commercial emporium 
 of Bombay from its neighbour island, Salsette. The 
 western mouth of this strait, where it joins the ocean, 
 separates Mahim (once the Portuguese capital, and now 
 containing 30,000 inhabitants,) from the populous town 
 of Bandora on the opposite shore. Moreover this is 
 the ordinary line of transit between the large city of 
 Bombay and the wealthiest side of the island of Sal- 
 sette, viz. that towards the ocean : it is also the direct 
 road from the seat of government to the Upper Concan 
 and the rich British Province of Guzerat. This much 
 frequented passage was always inconvenient, and often 
 dangerous. The Government indeed often wished for, 
 and proposed to execute, the works necessary at so im- 
 portant a spot, but never found itself in a condition to 
 undertake so expensive a structure for a local purpose. 
 The Bridge, with its road and approaches, constructed 
 under the direction of an eminent officer of the Bom- 
 bay Engineers, by which the danger is now entirely 
 removed, is the gift, and bears the name, of Lady Jam- 
 setjee Jejeebhoy. The cost of these works was more 
 
14 
 
 than i818,000. Their utility cannot but be increased 
 by the railway, a branch of which brings passengers 
 from Bombay to Mahim. 
 
 12. These remarks, of course, apply in principle to 
 the other Bridges which will be found mentioned in the 
 list subjoined. It wants however something more than 
 European experience to appreciate the value of such 
 works in. a country shut up by the want of them for 
 several months in every year by the heavy rains of the 
 monsoon, which render unfordable all the watercourses. 
 
 13. A large class of works, constructed at the expense 
 of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, are those for the supply of 
 water. Those who have not experienced the climate, 
 or seen the cities of the East, can hardly conceive the 
 value of such works. Even in our own country, every 
 year deepens .the conviction than an ample supply of 
 good water is a requisite of public health which admits 
 of neither substitute nor curtailment. But where in- 
 tense heat prevails, where engineering is in the rudest 
 state, and where antiquated forms of social organization 
 do not foster mutual co-operation for local purposes, it 
 is hardly to be believed how great is the difficulty of ob- 
 taining water at all — how severe is the labour required 
 to procure even scanty supplies of it in large cities — how 
 great is the distress occasioned by the want of it, — or 
 how rarely are any works to be found which sufficiently 
 meet the requirements of a neighbourhood. 
 
 14. Several items of this kind will be found in the 
 appended list ; the largest of them is that of the water- 
 works at Poona, constructed at a cost of .£18,037. It 
 was on the occasion of his building a place of worship 
 
15 
 
 at that city for persons of his own faith, (on which he 
 expended about £4500,) that Sir Jamsetjee proposed 
 also to bring water from the Moota-Moola river, more 
 than a mile distant, sufficient for the supply of a large 
 part of the city. To effect this it was necessary to con- 
 struct a substantial stone weir across a river several 
 hundred feet wide, which, from the violence of the cur- 
 rent at particular seasons of the year, proved a work of 
 considerable difficulty, and of great expense. To this 
 was added machinery and pipes from England, for 
 forcing and conveying the water to the higher level of 
 the reservoir in the city; and for the erection of this 
 machinery, an engineer also had to be procured at great 
 cost from England. Works equal to those required for 
 the supply of considerable market-towns in this country, 
 thus form but one item in a long list of similar bene- 
 factions. 
 
 15. It is to be added, however, under this head, that 
 a considerable sum has been expended in providing 
 water for different quarters of the city of Bombay, — an 
 object, the full accomplishment of which is a matter of 
 great anxiety to the Government at the present time. 
 Whoever has seen these wells, with large groups of 
 women fetching water from them for domestic use, and 
 of professional water-carriers conveying it for sale, wiU 
 best understand the value of the gift thus bestowed by 
 private munificence on all classes of the population of 
 Bombay. 
 
 16. To understand the application of large sums to 
 " Dhurmsallas," it must first be stated that in India 
 there are no poor-laws, there are few associations for 
 
16 
 
 purposes of private benevolence which are not limited to 
 the caste of the contributors, and there are no native 
 inns. A " DhurmsaUa" is a hospital, a house of refage 
 for the destitute poor, or a building for the use of poor 
 travellers, as the case may be. A building for charitable 
 uses in Bombay, which cost him £8000, Sir Jamsetjee 
 Jejeebhoy placed in the hands of the ''District Bene- 
 volent Society" of that city, together with an endow- 
 ment of £5000, and a donation from his Lady of £2000 
 more. The value of the other structm-es of this kind 
 which are mentioned wiU easily be recognized. 
 
 17. The "DhurmsaUa" built by Sir Jamsetjee at 
 KundaUa, midway between Bombay and Poona, is a 
 good example of resting-places under that name. It is 
 situated at the upper end of a steep ascent of several 
 miles long, which rises 1500 feet from its foot, and 
 which leads to the general table-land of the Deccan; 
 the traveller thus reaches the DhurmsaUa at the termi- 
 nation of a wearisome day's journey. It is a spacious 
 buUding divided into several compartments, so as to 
 supply separate and comfortable accommodation for 
 persons of different castes, religion, and ranks. Situated 
 on the high-road from the western coast and the western 
 capital of India to our chief mUitary stations in the in- 
 terior, this hospice is not only a valuable boon to the 
 Indian public at large, but has proved a great comfort 
 to European soldiers and their families, who, passing in 
 small detachments, commonly rest a night here as 
 they proceed to the British camps at Poona, Kirkee, and 
 Ahmednuggur. 
 
 18. Of institutions for purposes of education. Sir 
 
17 
 
 Jamsetjee has always been a large and zealous supporter, 
 as he was amongst the earliest of his countrymen to 
 perceive the vast advantages the people of India would 
 derive from acquaintance with European literature and 
 science. He contributed liberally to the foundation of 
 the Elphinstone Institution, and to the endowments of 
 the several professorships in Bombay. How successful 
 these means have been in calling forth the talent and 
 industry of the natives of that city, is shown by the pro- 
 ficiency of many of the persons so educated in the higher 
 departments of knowledge, by the degree in which 
 Bombay itself is influencing the educational taste and 
 standard of the Western Presidency in general, and by 
 the fact that the institutions of that city and of Poona 
 supply not only well qualified teachers for the schools 
 of the British provinces, but excellent tutors for native 
 princes. 
 
 19. In order to place within the reach of his country- 
 men the more valuable results of European thought and 
 experience. Sir Jamseljee has promoted the translation 
 of standard English works into the vernacular languages 
 of the Bombay Presidency. The fact is known, and the 
 cost incun'ed must have been considerable, although it 
 does not appear enmnerated with the rest. 
 
 20. The last item in the annexed list belongs to this 
 class, and requires a special remark. A correspondence 
 is now before Government, in which Sir Jamsetjee pro- 
 poses to endow a School of Design in Bombay, with a 
 sum of £10,000. His object is to afford to his country- 
 men those advantages of culture, in respect of the prin- 
 ciples of art, which their admitted taste, and their known 
 
18 
 
 fineness of organization and touchy assure us could be 
 employed witli vast advantage. At the Great Exhibition 
 of 1851, the natives of India surprised all Europe and 
 America with the richness of their imagination, the 
 justness of their appreciation and association of colours, 
 and the unapproachable delicacy of many of their works. 
 They seem only to want the guidance of artistic educa- 
 tion, to be able to place themselves amongst the fore- 
 most in the walks of tasteful industry. The object of 
 Sir Jamsetjee is to open to his half-employed fellow- 
 countrymen a career in which they seem so likely to 
 excel. 
 
 21. Private and personal benevolence was not likely 
 to be omitted by one whose public acts are such as have 
 been described. Of very much done in this way no record 
 of course exists ; nor is it probable that the facts, if they 
 were known, would require more than general remark, 
 — except in one instance, which, since it has escaped 
 from privacy, may be employed to characterize their 
 generaj spirit. Very severe reverses of fortune had 
 befallen a wealthy and respected fellow-townsman, who 
 was neither Hindoo nor Parsee, but a native Catholic 
 Christian; and the aid of Sir Jamsetjee, amounting to 
 £10,000, was given to his family on a scale which was 
 dictated rather by his sympathy with their feelings, than 
 by any exact measurement of mere necessities. 
 
 22. It has already been stated that Sir Jamsetjee felt 
 himself compelled to separate in business from his friend 
 Motichund Amichund, and that disappointments if not 
 losses had been the result of the latter period of their 
 connection. Now that friend was not a Parsee, but a 
 
19 
 
 Jain — the community which bears that name holding a 
 modified form of Hindooism. One of the peculiarities 
 of the sect is a high degree of tenderness for animal life^ 
 and in accordance with it Motichund built a place in 
 Bombay, at a cost of £10,000, for the care and support 
 of maimed and aged animals ; this place, like others of 
 the kiad in India, is well known under the name of the 
 " Pinjra-pol." After the death of Motichund, his friend 
 Jamsetjee, in mere regard for his memory and known 
 predilections, devoted no less than £7160 to this in- 
 stitution, employed iu such a manner as to secure its 
 efficient maintenance in future. To this sum he added 
 £300 for the benefit of a similar institution at Patton, in 
 Guzerat. Extraordiaary care of animals however is no 
 part of the Parsee faith, and this expenditure for such an 
 object could only have arisen from a spontaneous regard 
 to the known views of his friend, wiUingly finding ac- 
 tion in a way of humanity. A " Pinjra-pol" may wear 
 a singular appearance to a European, but in the cir- 
 cumstances of India it is not without a certain kind of 
 moral value ; and as an institution it is certainly humane. 
 Even Europeans have often been glad to avail themselves 
 of its aid for their ovm injured or decayed horses. 
 
 33. More nearly conforming to our sympathy is Sir 
 Jamsetjee' s endowment for the relief of poor Hindoos 
 in Guzerat, — a useful charity, the motive to which was 
 the same affectionate remembrance of his friend Moti- 
 chund. 
 
 34. It cannot but be remarked that many of the 
 charities in the annexed list, amounting in fact to 
 about one-half of the whole in value, relate to the wel- 
 
20 
 
 fare of his fellow-worshipers, the Parsees. Sir Jamset- 
 jee, we believe, has never been an indifferent or luke- 
 warm adherent of his traditional faith, — a faith more 
 nearly approaching our own, on some important points, 
 than is generally understood. The extent of these be- 
 nefactions to those nearest and justly dearest to him, 
 shows clearly that his liberality to others arose from 
 no indifference to the claims of home and of what he 
 deemed truth; — that in fact it originated in the higher 
 and truer charity which operates unchecked in full sight 
 and earnest recognition of the most important differ- 
 ences, and which has animated the great philanthropists 
 of all countries. If "the household of" his "faith" have 
 profited by his benevolence to the amount of more than 
 £110,000, it is also true that "all men" without dis- 
 tinction have received from it an equal sum.* No less 
 than £68,700 has been expended or proposed to be ex- 
 pended in and near the city of Bombay alone, altoge- 
 ther irrespective of sectarian differences, besides large 
 sums devoted to equally impartial purposes in Poonah, 
 Surat, and other places. 
 
 25. Whether from local attachment, from a decided 
 preference for British connection and citizenship, or from 
 a conviction of the greater security of property placed 
 under the protection of the British Government, it is a 
 fact that these vast funds have been employed exclu- 
 sively, or nearly so, in the British territory, and for the 
 benefit of his fellow- subjects of the British Crown. No 
 
 * " As we have opportunity let us do good unto all men, especially 
 to those who are of the household of faith." — St. Paul to the Q-alatians, 
 Ti. 10. 
 
21 
 
 inconsiderable proportion of them indeed has been spent 
 under the direction of British officers, selected by the 
 Government at Sir Jamsetjee's requestj for the execu- 
 tion of works of which he himself only designated the 
 nature and defrayed the cost ; and the large sums which 
 form the capital of his several endowments are chiefly 
 or entirely entrusted to the honour of the British Go- 
 vernment. 
 
 26. To estimate aright the practical value of this un- 
 exampled beneficence, two or three considerations are 
 requisite. First : — since the time-established habits of 
 the people of India do. not facilitate association for pub- 
 lic objects of a general character, the efibrts of indi- 
 vidual benevolence are .far more needful and valuable 
 with them than with us, and such efibrts often find 
 a most urgent field of employment in matters which 
 would here be disposed of at once by a Charitable So- 
 ciety or a Joint Stock Company. We could hardly 
 want either a Hospital or a set of Waterworks, with-, 
 out inciting to activity many parties who, from what- 
 ever motive, would at once undertake to supply it. Not 
 so in India ; there many of the most distressiag wants 
 must remain unmet, if they require the concerted ac- 
 tion of persons of diflerent towns, districts, ranks, or 
 religious beliefs. It is only by some single mind of 
 unusual energy, much in advance of current impressions 
 and customs, and with great means at command, that 
 the remedy in such cases can be effected. To such urgent 
 uses has Sir Jamsetjee devoted so much of his well-got- 
 ten wealth. 
 
 27. Again : — the real extent of these contributions 
 does not present itself to the English mind until it is 
 
32 
 
 recollected that the value of money relatively to labour 
 and to the ordinary subsistence of the people is vastly 
 greater in India than here. If we take it at five or 
 sixfoldj which is probably on the average not far from 
 the truth, it will appear that the sum of £343,000 de- 
 voted to public benevolence by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy 
 in India is equivalent, both in effect and in the real 
 magnitude of the donation, to more than one million 
 sterling similarly employed here. The sum of j868,700, 
 expended in Bombay alone, would be represented by 
 nearly £400,000 gratuitously devoted, in Liverpool or 
 Manchester, to public works. Even to this it ought to 
 be added that large amounts employed in the more 
 private ways of doing good, as well as some items of 
 a public nature of which the particulars have not been 
 obtained, do not enter at all into the figures just given. 
 38. Lastly : — India offers no other mode of exercising 
 that public spirit which here finds ample room in a thou- 
 sand different ways. Her native Governments were not 
 founded on public opinion and popular participation, as 
 ours is at home; nor has the British Eastern Govern- 
 ment in this respect advanced, or perhaps foimd as yet 
 that it could advance, much beyond its predecessors. 
 Whatever wish, then, may exist for the promotion of the 
 public good, must hitherto have found its mode of ac- 
 tion, not in magistracies, in Parliament, in benevolent as- 
 sociated institutions, or in the efforts of the platform or 
 the press, but in such kinds of individual activity and 
 self-sacrifice as circumstances in that very different land 
 permitted. Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy gave free course to 
 his patriotism in the only way appropriate to his country 
 and his times ; and he has in that way employed great 
 
23 
 
 natural abilities and vast resources acquired by himself^ 
 to objects of higb social value and of urgent public im- 
 portance J and these he has devoted to the benefit of his 
 countrymen to an extent of which scarcely an example 
 is on recordj looking for no reward beyond the testimony 
 of an approving conscience ; and in all this he has had 
 the kindly cheering of his estimable Lady and, we believe, 
 the cordial concurrence of his family in general. 
 
 29. Pressed by the weight of years. Sir Jamsetjee 
 has latterly curtailed his mercantile engagements. Part 
 of his princely fortune is invested in landed and house 
 property in the island of Bombay and in the vast and 
 increasing city which bears the same name, where British 
 power resides and British law prevails. Another part 
 of it is in the various public securities of the British 
 Government in India. The mass of his wealth is thu 
 committed for its safety to the stability and honour of 
 our rule, — a strong practical assertion of the known 
 fact, that among the most loyal of all the subjects of our 
 Queen, is to be numbered this Asiatic Knight. 
 
 30. The following testimony from a highly respectable 
 American source, the ' Merchants^ Magazine ' of New 
 York, for December, 1852, will appropriately close this 
 brief sketch of so remarkable a life. 
 
 " No bigoted faith, no false feeling of nationality, no 
 narrow standard of judgment, no contracted theory of 
 duty, has ruled his efforts for the good of mankind, but 
 his high and generous nature 
 
 ' Grasps the whole worid of reason, Kfe, and sense, 
 In one close system of beneyolence.' 
 
 " It was in the spring of 1850 that we had the plea- 
 
24 
 
 sure of knowing Sir Jamseijee Jejeebhoy at Bombay. 
 He bears the marks of age in the whiteness of his hair 
 and the slight tremulousness of his hand ; but his ex- 
 pression is quick and his manners kind and genial, for 
 his heart is warm and his miud is as clear as ever. 
 He lives surrounded with all that should accompany 
 old age, — honoured by his people, loved by his family 
 and friends, and with the delightful consciousness of 
 the success of his efforts to alleviate misery and to in- 
 crease happiness. He has acquired the glory which is 
 best worth having, — the glory of good deeds. ' Quid 
 enim est melius, aut quid prsestantius, bonitate et bene- 
 ficentia?' 
 
 " We know of no parallel in the records of biography 
 to the benevolence of this Parsee merchant. The lavish 
 spendings of Herodotus Atticus, though greater perhaps 
 iu amount, are of little value when compared with those 
 of this man. One of the greatest rewards of such a 
 wise liberality is, that its example may stimulate other 
 men to similar excellence, for benevolence is the most 
 divine of virtues." 
 
25 
 
 Some events that have recently occurred, or that were 
 omitted in the above Memoir, are now added. 
 
 The following is a copy of the Inscription on the 
 Hospital for the sufferers of every country and religion, 
 erected at the sole expense of Sir Jamsetjee, and dedi- 
 cated to our Gracious Queen : — 
 
 THIS BDIEIOB 
 WAS EEBCTED AS A TESTIMONIAL OV DEVOTED IiOXALTT TO 
 
 The YOtrifa Queen of the Beitish Isles, 
 
 AND OF TJNMIN&LED BESPECT FOB THE JUST AND PATERNAL 
 
 beitish GOVEENMENT in INDIA; 
 
 ALSO IN AFFECTIONATE AJSTD PATBIOTIO SOLIOITTJDE FOE THE WBLFAEE 
 
 OF THE POOE CLASSES OF ALL EACES AMON& HIS COTTNTBIMEN, 
 
 THE BEITISH SUBJECTS OF BOMBAY; 
 
 BY 
 
 SiE JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY, Knight, 
 
 THE FIBST NATIVE OF INDIA HONOUBED WITH BBITISH KNIGHTHOOD, 
 
 WHO THUS HOPES TO PEBFOEM A PLEASING DUTY 
 
 TOWABDS HIS GOVEENMENT, HIS COUNTET, AND HIS PEOPLE, 
 
 AND IN SOLEMN EBMEMBEANCE OF BLESSINGS BESTOWED, 
 
 TO PBESENT THIS, 
 
 HIS OFFBEING OF EELIGIOUS OEATITUDE, TO 
 
 ALMIGHTY GOD, 
 
 THE FATHEE IN HEAVEN 
 
 OF THE CHBISTIAN, THE HINDOO, THE MAHOMEDAN, AND THE PAESEE, 
 
 WITH HUMBLE EAENEST PEAYEB 
 
 FOE HIS CONTINUED CAEE AND BLESSING 
 
 UPON HIS CHILDEEN, HIS FAMILY, HIS TEIBE, AND HIS COUNTEY. 
 
36 
 
 The freedom of the City of London has recently been 
 presented in a very handsome manner to Sir Jamsetjee 
 by the Authorities of the City ; that honour^ it is be- 
 lieved, never having been before bestowed on any native 
 of India, or indeed of Asia. 
 
 On this occasion the following motion was made in 
 the Court of Aldermen : — 
 
 " That the freedom of the City be presented to Sir 
 Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, of Bombay, in the East Indies, 
 as a Testimonial of the high estimation entertained of 
 him by the Corporation of the City of London, from 
 respect for his justly renowned character as a Princely 
 Benefactor of his country and mankind, a noble example 
 of blameless private life and public worth as a citizen of 
 Bombay, and of spotless commercial integrity as a most 
 eminent British subject and merchant of India."* 
 
 Consistent with his honourably acquired reputation as 
 an attached and loyal subject of our Gracious Queen, 
 and a true friend of British interests, even when those 
 interests have no immediate connection with his native 
 land. Sir Jamsetjee has been a liberal contributor to the 
 "Patriotic Fund," his contribution (including his fa- 
 mily's) being £750, nearly the largest on the list. He 
 had previously subscribed £700 to the "Wellington 
 Testimonial." 
 
 Sir Jamsetjee has three sons and many grandchildren. 
 He has been fortunate in his family : his eldest son 
 
 * Sir Jamsetjee'e first act in respect to the ireedom of the City, was to 
 send £150 as a contribution to the Charitable Funds of the London 
 Corporation, and £150 to the Worshipful Company of Cloctmabers. 
 
27 
 
 Cursetjee Jamsetjee and his brothers are highly intel- 
 ligent and valuable members of society, and as Justices 
 of the Peace, members of British Juries, and public- 
 spirited promoters of native education and useful insti- 
 tutions, Cursetjee and his brothers are ever ready to 
 second the patriotic views of their revered father. By 
 giving his only daughter a good English education (by 
 which that amiable lady has fully benefited) the good 
 Knight has proved himself an open friend to the social 
 improvement of woman in a country where the great 
 work of enlightening her — retarded by immemorial usage 
 — still proceeds but slowly, even in British territory. 
 
 The Parsee tribe to which Sir Jamsetjee belongs ori- 
 ginally came from Persia, and small communities of that 
 race yet reside there, having survived the religious per- 
 secution which compelled the bulk of the Parsees to 
 forsake their native soil, and seek an asylum, some cen- 
 turies ago, on the western shores of India. 
 
 These remnants of the ancient Parsees, though poor, 
 are described by Sir Henry Willock (who so long wor- 
 thily represented British interests at the Persian Court) 
 as so peaceable, respectable, and harmless in their lives, 
 and so remarkable for skill and industry in their callings, 
 that they are much sought after to fill offices in which 
 probity and fidelity are, in a special degree, required. 
 
 Differing however in religion from the other subjects 
 of a despotic Government, these poor people are exposed 
 to many grievous hardships, especially to an annual poU- 
 tax. Its severe pressure on their slender means awaken- 
 ing the sympathies of their more fortunate brethren in 
 Bombay, a subscription was lately opened there to raise 
 
28 
 
 a fund to relieve the sufferers of this arbitrary exaction: 
 Sir Jamsetjee has headed the subscription list with a 
 donation of Es. 25^000^ or £3500, — a striking example 
 of the just views which prompt his benevolence and ad- 
 just its awards.* 
 
 Bombay, being the nearest of our Indian settlements 
 to Europe, having an admirable harbour (at the most 
 central point on the west coast of the Peninsula), and 
 being the seat of extensive dockyards, arsenals, our ma- 
 nufactures of ordnance, etc., may be justly considered 
 the great focus of our military strength in Western 
 India, whence if needful an army (drawn from the 
 camps of Poona, Ahmednuggur, etc.) may be equipped 
 at a short notice and transported by a powerful steam 
 flotilla to Persia, Egypt, or indeed in any direction. 
 
 Bombay is also a great centre whence European civi- 
 lization and manufactures are spread through the wide 
 provinces of Western India, and by means of a very 
 large commercial intercourse between that Presidency 
 and Persia and Arabia, those countries participate in 
 that advantage. 
 
 To Sir Jamsetjee, either as the founder or liberal sup- 
 porter of almost every institution in Western India hav- 
 ing for its purpose the welfare of mankind, the British 
 Grovemment and a large body of its subjects are deeply 
 indebted. 
 
 Universally respected, and as remarkable for his wealth 
 as his wise application of it. Sir Jamsetjee stands pre- 
 eminent among his countrymen as the first citizen of 
 
 * The Parsees of Bombay are as liberal-minded as they are enter- 
 prising and public-spirited. 
 
Since the foregoing pages were printed, the progress 
 made by the great Parsee community, of which Sir 
 Jamseljee is so justly regarded as the leader and orna- 
 ment, has been marked by two events of no ordinary 
 significance. 
 
 On the 3rd of December last, the day appointed by the 
 Governor- General for a general thanksgiving on account 
 of the Fall of Sebastopol, the Parsees spontaneously as- 
 sembled in the Town Hall at Bombay, on a summons 
 from the ruling members of the Tribe, and a leading 
 man among them, Dosabhoy Framjee, read a lecture de- 
 tailing the events of the War, and the successes of the 
 Allied Forces. He then proceeded to enlarge on the 
 blessings which the British rule secures to the Natives 
 of India ; and concluded his address by offering, on be- 
 half of his crowded audience, the first public prayer to 
 Almighty God ever uttered by a Parsee in his own na- 
 tive tongue; for the ordinary religious services of the 
 Parsees are stiU performed in the Pehlevi, their ancient 
 language, which iu the course of ages has become quite 
 unintelligible to all but the very learned. He prayed 
 " that the shadow of the Almighty might rest wherever 
 the British rule extends, and that its moral influence 
 might be established over a still greater portion of the 
 globe ; that God would bless their Sovereign, and give 
 success to her armies ; that his own brethren might live, 
 as they now do, in perfect security, and be ever impressed 
 
with a grateful sense of the blessings they enjoy under 
 the benign rule of their gracious Queen." 
 
 The address was received with enthusiasm by the 
 meetingj which signified its hearty acquiescence in the 
 concluding prayer. The event marks an era in the an- 
 nals of India. Instances are not wanting of Sovereigns 
 who have enjoyed an extensive popularity among the 
 varied races of Hindostan ; but her history furnishes no 
 parallel example of a whole people thus rising above the 
 prejudices of agesj and in a way so opposed to their 
 usual apathetic movements in political matters^ conven- 
 ing a large public assembly, to give spontaneous expres- 
 sion to their belief in the superiority of British rule, 
 and in the power of its protection, while they invoked 
 the Divine aid for the success of its arms. 
 
 Such an expression of the confidence felt in the Govern- 
 ment, by so large, intelligent, and influential a section of 
 our native feUow-subjects, may go far to remove any 
 fear as to the eflect of foreign intrigue ,or internal dis- 
 content on the stability of our Indian Empire. 
 
 The population of Bombay is now estimated at 670,000 
 souls, and is stiU rapidly increasing, having quadrupled 
 itself in forty years. In this great commercial emporium, 
 about equal to New York in population, and containing 
 nearly one-fourth as many souls as London itself, the 
 Parsees are numbered among the most industrious, 
 wealthy, and intelligent of the whole native community. 
 Their vast commercial undertakings have connected them 
 closely not only with natives of the greatest wealth and 
 influence in the chief cities of India and China, but with 
 those in a similar high position in the Mohammedan 
 
countries of Persia, Arabia, Cabool, and Central Asia. 
 The novelty and gravity of such a meeting as has been 
 just described cannot but fail to make a wide impression 
 throughout Asia most favourable to the British character. 
 In wealth, in intelligence, and in popularity Sir Jamsetjee 
 has long stood at the head of the class which made this 
 movement, and his noble example has not been more 
 powerful in stimulating his fellow-countrymen to deeds 
 of public and private beneficence than in contributing so 
 remarkably to render them loyal and patriotic subjects 
 of the British Crown. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that this is not a solitary in- 
 stance of a similar loyal spirit being manifested by this 
 remarkable race. In July, 1854, at the commencement 
 of the war, the Parsees joined with other classes of 
 British subjects in the general fast and prayer for the 
 success of the Allied Armies against the Russians; and 
 when subscriptions were opened for the relief of the fa- 
 milies of those who fell in the war, the Parsees joined 
 with their accustomed liberality in the large contribu- 
 tions which were forwarded from Bombay. 
 
 In a previous part of this Memoir allusion has been 
 made to Sir Jamsetjee's exertions in the cause of native 
 female education. It is well known that for many ages 
 past no article in the creed of almost every nation and 
 class in India has been more universally and rigidly ob- 
 served than that which denounces every attempt to com- 
 municate to females even the rudiments of education. 
 Undeterred by such prejudices Sir Jamsetjee secured for 
 the education of his only daughter the services of an 
 English lady as governess ; and the example of a single 
 
Parsee lady in a family of such wealth and influence in- 
 structed in many branches of an Englishwoman's educa- 
 tion, and yet retaining all that among her own people is 
 valued and respected in the mother of a family, had an 
 influence which, though unseen, was probably more ef- 
 fectual with the native community at large than all the 
 arguments of those who have since advocated the cause 
 of female education. 
 
 In January last, when all the native female schools 
 met in the Town Hall at Bombay, for the purpose of 
 being examined by the Viscountess Canning, it was ob- 
 served by one of the speakers "that the Parsees, who take 
 the lead in everything among the natives here, are by 
 far the largest contributors from their families to this 
 most interesting assemblage of young female students." 
 Out of 654 girls assembled 501 were Parsees; and unless 
 we are all mistaken in looking on the want of educated 
 females as one main cause of the moral darkness of 
 India, there is nothing for which Sir Jamsetjee deserves 
 better of his country and its rulers than for the aid he 
 has given to the cause of female education. 
 
29 
 
 the Western capital of India, and no measure of our 
 Gracious Queen's reign bearing on her Eastern Empire 
 had a happier effect among her native subjects than that 
 conferring on this excellent man the honour of Knight- 
 hood. 
 
30 
 
 PUBLIC WORKS AND OTHER CHARITIES 
 
 OP SIR JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY, OF 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 FOE BEITISH AND GBNBEAL OBJECTS. 
 
 On account of tlie Jamsetjee Jejeeblioy Hospital . £16,050 
 
 Mahim Bridge and Approae]ies 15,500 
 
 Mahim Eoad (contribution) 2,200 
 
 Bridge at Earla Parla, in Salsette .... 400 
 
 Deepening a Tank at Bandora 650 
 
 Dhurmsalla, or House of CHarity, in Bellasis E«ad, 
 
 Bombay, including an Endowment of £5000 . . 15,000 
 
 Waterworks at Poona 18,027 
 
 Dhurmsalla, or House of Charity, at EtundaUa . . 2,000 
 Contributions to Sufferers by Fire at Suiat and Syed 
 
 Poora 3,080 
 
 Payments for the amicable settlement of sundry pri- 
 vate and family disputes referred to him for arbitra- 
 tion 3,600 
 
 Bridge at Bartha, near Surat 730 
 
 Subscriptions and Donations : — 
 
 To the Elphinstone Professorship .... 1,150 
 
 To the Byculla Schools 100 
 
 To the District Benevolent Society, Bombay . 500 
 
 To the Proposed Sailors' Home, Bombay . . 200 
 
 To the School of Industry at Sewree . . . 150 
 
 To the Free School, Calcutta 200 
 
 To the Eelief of the Scotch and Irish . . . 1,000 
 
 To the Naval School at Devonport .... 100 
 
 Wells on the Esplanade, Bombay .... 500 
 
 Carried over . . £81,137 
 
31 
 
 Brought forward . . . £81,137 
 WeUs, with an aqueduct to convey water to Musjid 
 
 Bunder . . 300 
 
 Ditto, at Calaba . . 320 
 
 Reservoir, between Poona and Aimednuggur . . 60 
 
 Belief afforded distressed friend and his family for a 
 
 series of years (not a Parsee) . . . . 10,000 
 
 Sums paid for the release of poor debtors in 1822, 1826, 
 
 and 1842 304 
 
 Book and Prize Fund, Grant Medical College, Bombay 1,500 
 Contribution to a Eoad at Bandora .... 312 
 Large Public Tank, near the Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hos- 
 pital, Bombay 2,300 
 
 The Obstetric Institution, in connection with the Jam- 
 setjee Jejeebhoy Hospital .... 3,000 
 Contribution to the Fund in Bombay for the Benefit of 
 
 European Pensioners and their Widows . . . 500 
 To the Wellington Testimonials, Local and General . 700 
 Proposed Endowment of a School of Design in Bom- 
 bay, now before Government 10,000 
 
 £110,432 
 
 FOE PAESBB OBJECTS. 
 
 Donation to the Parsee Benevolent Instition of an 
 Endowment Fund for the Education and Mainte- 
 nance of poor persons . . ... £44,000 
 
 Parsee Place of Worship at Poona .... 4,500 
 
 Endowment for the Performance in Bombay and Gu- 
 
 zerat of various Parsee rites and ceremonies . . 18,000 
 
 A new Building, and adjoining Ground, for the Cele- 
 bration of certain Public Festivals among the 
 Parsees .... .... 7,000 
 
 Sums remitted for the Relief of poor Parsees, at and 
 
 near Surat, from 1840 to 1847 . . . 3,900 
 
 Carried over . . . £77,400 
 
32 
 
 Brouglit forward . . . £77,400 
 Eedemption of tlie Body -tax levied bytlie Gackwar on 
 
 tte Parsees of Nowsaree 1,700 
 
 Parsee Cemeteries in various places .... 2,960 
 Sums given in aid of distressed members of respectable 
 
 Parsee families 4,400 
 
 Building and Repairs of various Parsee places of vror- 
 
 ship 1,670 
 
 Trustee Fund for the benefit of the poor Blind at Now- 
 
 saree ,. . 500 
 
 Subscriptions to the Parsee Punchayet, for charitable 
 
 works 1,500 
 
 Fund for the Funeral Expenses of poor Parsees, at 
 
 Gundavee, near Nowsaree . ... 500 
 
 Dhurmsalla at Nowsaree 2,000 
 
 Endowment for poor Parsees at Surat . . . 12,500 
 
 Ditto ditto at Nowsaree . . . 6,250 
 
 A Zend Avesta School for Parsees .... 300 
 
 Buildiiigs at Nowsaree for Parsee religious observances 840 
 
 Ditto, connected with the Cemetery at the same place 860 
 
 £113,380 
 
 FOE HINDOO OBJECTS. 
 
 Subscriptions to the Pinjra-pol in Bombay, out of re- 
 spect to the deceased Motichund Amichund . . 7,160 
 To the Pinjra-pol at Patton, for the same motive . 300 
 
 Endowment for the reUef of poor Hindoos in Guzerat, 
 
 in memory of Motichund Amichund . . . 3,000 
 
 £10,460 
 
 STJMMAET. 
 
 For British and general purposes .... 110,432 
 
 — Hindoo ditto . 10,460 
 
 — Parsee ditto £113,380 
 
 Total £234,272