New Spalding Club > House of Gordon > Gordons under arms

GORDONS UNDER ARMS. 5
" Hon. James," bur. on this date in the Earl of Moray's aisle, at Restalrig
(Churchyard of Restalrig : Scottish Rec. Soc).
43- [•••]■ 1781, Sep. An officer presumably, H.E.I.C.S., Bengal,
referred to as Lt., Capt. and Col. by three different authorities in connection
with the rebellion of Cheyt Singh, Raja of Benares, who declined to pay
another five lakhs tribute to the English. Warren Hastings stated (1782,
Feb. 2) that the Begums of Oudh, to which state Benares had previously paid
the tribute, supported Cheyt Singh, and that the younger Begum, mother of
the Nawab of Oudh, "openly opposed and attacked Col. Gordon" (Gleig's
Hastings, i. 456). Col. Hannay, operating against Cheyt Singh, stated (1781,
Sept.) that Lt. Gordon's detachment was cut off (Selections from State Papers,
Foreign Depart., India, 1772-82, iii. 952, 1004) : —
It happened by the villainy of the Fouzdar of Tanda, Shumsheer Khan [the Bhow
Begum's Agent and the adopted son of] Behar Ally Khan [her principal minister], who turned
his guns upon the detachment, and an unfordable nullah front, and many thousands of
Rajpoots, who had fought them all the way from Cho%vra Ghaut, made the Sepoys despair.
Behar Ally Khan deserves death, as the loss of Gordon's detachment can only be imputed to
him. His Chellah would never have acted so damning a part without orders from him.
A completely different complexion was put on the affair (1794, May 14)
by Sheridan in his Begum speech, impeaching Hastings (1794, May 14)
Eraser Rae's Sheridan, 11. 420-8) : —
Considerable stress is laid upon the affair of Capt. Gordon. This circumstance, I con-
sidered to be the most decisive proof of the Begum's innocence, and of the foul conspiracy . . .
against them. The Begum is charged not only with actually giving assistance to Cheyt
Singh, but with preventing a British officer (Capt. Gordon) from bringing his force to join
Col. Hannay, and by that means leaving Col. Hannay in a considerable degree of peril. . . .
The fact is . . . that Capt. Gordon marches to a river, the fort on the opposite side being under
the command of Shumsheer Khan. Capt. Gordon, who was not then in the Begum's country
but had been assisted by the country people through the whole of his march, is desirous to
pass over, and is not very readily accommodated with a boat, in order that he might pass over
into the Begum's territories. ... It is stated that these country people detested the English,
and it is assumed that they were set on by the Begums, though not in their territories ; that
his detachment desert and leave him, with only 9 or ro people; that the country people, who
before were more than a match for him, leave him ; and he is carried over in safety and placed
under the protection of Shumsheer Khan. As all our material evidence has consisted in papers,
which .have accidentally come to light, we produce letters of thanks from Capt. Gordon and Col.
Hannay addressed to the Begum, who the moment she hears of their situation, sends an escort
to them, and brings Capt. Gordon up to Fyzabad, and afterwards places him in safety with
Col. Hannay. . . . Capt. Gordon says in terms of glowing gratitude, that " their safety and
life are entirely the gift of Her Highness". . . . These letters were for a considerable time
suppressed. . . . When Sir Elijah Impey went to Lucknow, to take depositions upon which
afterwards charge and proof were to be founded against the Begums ... in swearing Capt.
Gordon, Mr. Middleton [President at the Vizier's Court] and Col. Hannay, who knew the fact