Alas, I fear there's no portrait of him wearing those gloves.

Hello, The following transcription of a letter written to a member of my family during Hastings retirement shows that he was often ill, and felt the cold on his return to England. Quite possibly that accounts for the gloves My most dear friend, I dare not answer your letter in any other terms, than to thank you for it; and I would, if I could, offer more than the simple expression of thanks, for your remembrance of me at such a time. I hear that you are at Cheltenham. A very respectable and common friend of ours gave me that information, and told me at the same time, that as you went there solely for retirement you should decline the society of your dearest friends, until your mind had recovered a part of its lost tranquillity. Mrs. Hastings and I are, I may say, alone, having only Mr. Anderson's son with us during the temporary confinement of the wife of his preceptor, who is our neighbour: and we expect to be alone as long as we are permitted to continue in the country. We both think that this house could afford you all the advantages of retirement, without the inconveniences of the plan, which you have chosen for it, and with some gratification to us. – With some? - My mind is so feeble, that it cannot express its own purposes or sensations; but I cannot lose the little time I have in corrections. – Here you may be as secluded from all society, even our own, as you can desire; and you will always know that you are near friends, to whom even that privation will afford a satisfaction, while it is necessary to your ease and peace of mind; and who will have a double pleasure in giving you their society, whenever you shall wish to have recourse to it. To this proposal whatever your other objections may be, let not that of trouble he one. That would be injustice. At any rate write to me, and let me know how you are: but be not too precipitate in declining our proposal. Too much accustomed as I have been to murmur at slight indispositions I have been punished with a real illness. For some hours I suffered acute and unremitted pain; but :I am now: and have been some days past perfectly free from it; and only experienced that diminishing languor which always attends convalescence. A little of this I am sensible of at this moment, more I think, in my mind than my body, and have more than once sought relief to both in the indulgence of a sick chair, since I began this letter. Mrs. Hastings mistaking a slight remaining lassitude for inability would have written to you in my stead. She has equally participated with me in your past sufferings, and is equally anxious to be able to contribute to their alleviation. This letter therefore is as much hers as mine almost, though my name only will be subscribed to it. May heaven bless you, my valuable friend, and prosper to their best effect the exertions of your own fortitude. WARREN HASTINGS. To Edward Baber Esqr. Cheltenham.

A person who rose from a clerk to be the Governor General. While Robert Clive was content with creating the impression that the Nawab of Bengal remained sovereign, subject only in some matters to the dictate of the Mughal Emperor, Hastings moved swiftly to remove this fiction. The Nawab was stripped of his remaining powers and the annual tribute paid to the Mughal Emperor was withdrawn.

1780 was the lowest moment of the British fortunes as Britain had lost her naval supremacy, and the French were making for the Indian Seas. It was the Hastings' access of Benaras, Bengal, overall supremacy against the Dutch and French in Madras and victory over Tipu Sultan, that stood out as bright spots.

... Re: " A person who rose from a clerk to be the Governor General. " The suggestion that Warren Hastings ' rose ' from rags to riches , is, I would suggest, an erroneous interpretation of his life and career. I note that on a thread lower down this page ( the gloves !) Hastings is described as coming from a 'poor family' background ... this was not really the case. The Hastings family were of the lesser nobility, and could proudly trace their roots back to the twelfth century - when they had first settled on their estate at Daylesford in the county of Gloucestershire . It is true, however, that by the eighteenth century, the family was living in reduced circumstances - but were certainly not 'poor' by the standards of those times. The Daylesford lands had been sold, although Hastings's grandfather, Penyston Hastings, and his father, also called Penyston , both in holy orders, continued to live nearby -at the Rectory, in the village of Churchill -and this is where Warren Hastings was born. I had the chance to visit this property a few months ago - and I can assure you that it is a substantial house and not a pauper's cottage ! Hastings's mother, Hester, (née Warren ), died shortly after giving birth to him. He and his elder sister, Anne, were left as virtual orphans when, within nine months of Warren's birth, their father abandoned them, remarried, and moved to Barbados, where he lived out the rest of his life as a drunken exile. Hastings was brought up first in Churchill by his grandfather and then by his uncle Howard Hastings - an affluent businessman - who took him away to London in 1740. Howard Hastings paid for his nephew to be educated at the prestigious Westminster School, where he excelled academically, and it was his uncle who first secured for Hastings an introduction to and first position with the East India Company.

The word 'rose' was in no way suggesting a rags to riches story. Hastings joined the EIC as a clerk and went on to become Governor General. Though the exact nature of his duties as clerk is not known to me, but high proportion of the Company's home employees, ranging from low servants to senior managers with executive authority were employed as clerks. The UK Data Archives have completed in compiling the annual remunerations that each clerks earned from 1700. Sir Robert Clive too started his career in EIC as a clerk. Clive's life prior to his assignment at an East-India company trading post at Madras, in 1744, showed no signs of greatness, but a considerable degree of recklessness. Yet he became most famous General associated with the British conquest of India...

During the 18th century, virtually *all* E.I.C. employees (both in Britain and overseas) began their careers as a junior' clerk ' (or a 'writer' as they were known) - this was the standard level of entrance for a young man, perhaps 18 or 19 years old and who would more often than not be the second or third son of a wealthy landed familiy - and there was very little variation in this pattern of recruitment until the 19th century. After a few years 'on the job' training, wherein book-keeping and perhaps a smattering of the local language would be absorbed, these fellows would rise or fall on the basis of their own merits - as in any large corporate organisation, talanted individuals ' rose' more rapidly toward the top... and Warren Hastings was a man of exceptional talent ...

...I have reasons to believe (as was narrated by Mark Tully) that most Britishers employed in the Indian wing of EIC joined as officers. The natives joined as sepoys and clerks. In the Madras and Bombay Presidencies the sepoys were from local communities but in Bengal they were employed from the Brahmin class. The word sepoy was coined for any Indian (hindu or Muslim without uniform) who could fit in any roles of a foot soldier, peon or whatever.

Re: " most ' Britishers ' employed in the Indian wing of EIC joined as officers." " Britisher " is such a clumsy and inelegant word ( of course, I understand that in India it is usually a term that is deployed in a perjorative sense ) . Most " Britisher's " raise an eyebrow when being addressed as a ' Brit' - which is quite a common occurence throughout the world - and take the term on the chin - but ' Britisher ', no it's not a term that we much care for... ... I think that you will find, Arindam, that ' most Britishers employed in the Indian wing of the EIC [ its biggest wing by far ]* joined as ' clerks, and not as 'officers'... many clerks subsequently, of course, became officers. It's also important to keep in mind that the number of British employees that we are referring to was very small indeed... In Hastings' time,in terms of actual individuals, there were probably fewer British EIC 'clerks, middle/senior managers' (excluding military personnel) scattered across the Indian sub-continent than you would find today, in the average office block of a major corporation in either Bombay or London ! Indeed, in 1800, the E.I.C. - a huge multi-national organisation - only employed (directly and in-directly ) about 90,000 people in total, and only 3,500 in what we might describe as a clerical or management capacity (as below) : ' The East India Company and the employment of Britons in 1800 1. OVERSEAS (a) Civil and Medical servants 1,000 (b) Company troops 20,000 2. MARITIME SERVIVE 15,000 3. IN BRITAIN (a) Home establishment 2,500 (b) Private individuals providing goods and services in London: 30,000 (c) Private individuals providing goods and services in the provinces: 25,000 TOTAL 93,500 *See HV Bowen 'The Business of Empire' (2006), p.272

Julian, not all who joined EIC were English. There were recruits from the lands of Wales, Scotland too, hence the term Britishers...no expression of contempt here (if only English were to look beyond their boundaries) :)

Re: " not all who joined EIC were English " ?? I did not suggest that they were, Arindam, hence my use of the term ' British' ( England, Wales and especially Scotland etc & etc)... In fact, the EIC recruited (especially within its military) widely from throughout Europe, and indeed, from much further afield...

.. and Britisher is an informal term as Britons. Anyway, no offence intended.

... er, none taken ... my point was aesthetic ...