Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jenkins, Richard
JENKINS, Sir RICHARD (1785–1853), Indian statesman, born 18 Feb. 1785 at Cruckton, near Shrewsbury, was eldest son of Richard Jenkins, esq., of Bicton Hall, Shropshire. In 1798 he was nominated writer on the Bombay establishment, and went to India in 1800. After a distinguished course at the company's college of Fort William, he became an assistant in the governor-general's office. In 1804 he was appointed first assistant to Webbe, the British resident at the court of Dowlut Rao Scindia. About this time began his friendship with Elphinstone [see Elphinstone, Mountstuart], whose love of literature and sport he shared. His linguistic powers were great, and Elphinstone wrote: ‘Jenkins understands all languages wonderfully.’
In 1804 Scindia's intrigues with the Raja of Berar and other Mahratta powers roused suspicions of his loyalty to the British government. The resident was taken ill and died on 9 Nov. 1804, and thereupon the sole conduct of the negotiations with Scindia devolved upon Jenkins, who was appointed acting resident, pending the arrival of Webbe's successor, Colonel Close, from Poona. Scindia's movements were so distinctly hostile to the British government that Jenkins repeatedly threatened to withdraw from his court. Scindia's evasions interposed delays, and at last, at the end of January 1805, the plunder of the resident's camp by a body of Scindia's pindarries rendered Jenkins and his associates virtually prisoners. They were released in October, on the demand of Lord Lake, before opening the negotiations which led to the treaty with Scindia in November 1805. In 1807 Jenkins was appointed to take charge of the residency at Nagpore during Elphinstone's absence on a mission to Afghanistan, and became the resident on Elphinstone's appointment to Poona in 1810. Jenkins, in several communications to Lord Minto, now first suggested the annihilation of the pindarries, and the design was afterwards carried out by the Marquis of Hastings. The Mahratta powers generally viewed the step with dislike, and it no doubt was in part the cause of the outbreak at Nagpore in 1817. Early in that year Appa Saheb, the regent of that state, had obtained the throne on the murder of his ward. He was apparently friendly to the British government, and had entered into a subsidiary treaty; but his intrigues with the peishwa and the concentration of his troops at Nagpore roused Jenkins's suspicion, and to anticipate attacks he caused all the available British troops, less than fourteen hundred in number, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Hopetoun Scott, to occupy the neighbouring hill, Sitabaldi. On 26 Nov. this force was attacked by the Nagpore army of eight thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry. The engagement lasted for eighteen hours continuously during 26 and 27 Nov. Jenkins was present the whole time, and actively encouraged the troops. His conduct was noticed in the despatches, and in a speech by Canning in parliament. After the British arms had gained the victory Jenkins demanded the surrender of the raja and the disbandment of his army, but a second battle on 16 Dec. was necessary to exact these conditions. Appa Saheb was afterwards replaced on the throne, but his renewed intrigues with the peishwa determined Jenkins to arrest and imprison him on 15 March 1818. Rahuji, an infant grandson of Rahuji II, was placed on the throne under British tutelage, and the kingdom of Nagpore was practically governed by Jenkins from this period until December 1826, when its relations with the British government were determined by a treaty drawn up by himself. In 1827, after publishing at Calcutta ‘A Report on the Territories of the Rajah of Nagpore,’ he returned to England. On 1 May 1828 he retired on the annuity fund, and went to live on his estate at the Abbey-Foregate, Shrewsbury. He was chosen deputy-chairman of the East India Company in 1838, and chairman in 1839. On 20 July 1838 he was made a knight grand cross of the Bath, an honour, as the Marquis of Wellesley pointed out in a letter to Jenkins, then first conferred on a civil servant of India below the rank of governor. Jenkins represented the borough of Shrewsbury in the conservative interest in the parliaments of 1830 and 1831. He retired during the two succeeding parliaments of 1833 and 1835, was elected again in 1837, and finally retired at the dissolution in 1841. The university of Oxford created him D.C.L. on 13 June 1834. He was a magistrate and deputy-lieutenant for Shropshire and a magistrate for Middlesex. He died 30 Dec. 1853 at his residence, Gothic Cottage, Blackheath, and was buried in his family vault at Bicton, near Shrewsbury. On his return from India Jenkins married Elizabeth Helen, daughter of Hugh Spottiswoode, esq., of the East India Company's civil service. He had three sons: Richard, born 8 Sept. 1828, Charles, born 20 May 1831, and Arthur, born 20 Jan. 1833; and two daughters, Emily and Cecilia Harriet Theophila.
[Colebrooke's Life of Elphinstone; Gent. Mag. February 1854; Burke's History of the Commoners, 1838; Dodwell and Miles's List of Bombay Civil Servants; Thornton's Hist. of India.]