Margaret Maskelyne (1735-1817), Lady Clive, painted shortly before the tragic death of her husband in 1774. When she married Robert (1725–1774) early in 1753, his campaigns in India had all but broken his health, but the East India Company could not do without him. Lady Clive supported her new husband through in 1757, cementing Britain as the all-but-exclusive European trade partner of the Mughal Emperors, and helping to win The Seven Years’ War against France. She was beside him for his term as Governor of the Presidency of Fort William in Calcutta (1757-1760), and suffered with him through the bitter political and personal attacks that followed his retirement in 1767. Faithful to the end, Margaret made sure that when Clive died suddenly in 1774, no one would ever know what really happened.
Part 1 of 2
BEFORE the middle of the last century,* Mr Maskelyne,* brother of Dr Nevil Maskelyne, the Astronomer-Royal, went as a cadet to India, where he became acquainted with Mr Clive, afterwards Lord Clive.* The acquaintance ripened into intimate friendship, and led to constant association.
There hung up in Mr Maskelyne’s room several portraits; among others a miniature, which attracted Clive’s frequent attention. One day, after the English mail had arrived, Clive asked Maskelyne if he had received any English letters, adding, “We have been very much misunderstood at home, and much censured in London circles.”* Maskelyne replied that he had, and read to his friend a letter he then held in his hand.
A day or two after, Clive came back to ask to have the letter read to him again.
“Who is the writer?” enquired Clive.
* This was written in 1873. The events described here took place towards the end of March 1752.
* Edmund Maskelyne (1728-1775). He was the elder brother of the Rev Dr Nevil Maskelyne (1732-1811), who was the fifth Astronomer Royal, an office he held from 1765 to 1811.
* See Clive of India.
* India was the battleground between the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Great Britain, at a time when tensions in North America between the two colonial powers were about to erupt into The Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). Each had its own East India Company, vying with the other for the status as preferred trade partner of the Mughal Emperors of India, and with it supremacy in Europe and North America. Every victory and every defeat was, therefore, subject to intense scrutiny, and there was considerable criticism of the British East India Company’s management. By the closing weeks of March 1752, Clive was feeling both exhausted and unappreciated, and he longed for moral support. For Clive’s recent activities, see The Siege of Arcot and Courage Under Fire.
Précis
In March 1752, the East India Company’s rising star Robert Clive called on his friend Edmund Maskelyne in Madras. After casting a surreptitious glance at one of his host’s family portraits, not for the first time, he then cajoled him into reading aloud his letters from home, interrupting one in particular to ask who had written it. (56 / 60 words)
Part Two
Like mother, like daughter? Rebecca Clive (1760-1795), the eldest daughter of Robert and Margaret Clive. Rebecca, who had married General John Robinson in 1780, sat for the portrait between 1783 and 1785; the artist was George Romney (1734–1802), though he left it unfinished and a certain Mr Brown tidied it up. Robert and Margaret had nine children together, though only four survived to adulthood. Their eldest was Edward Clive (1754-1839), 1st Earl of Powis, who sat as an MP and served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
“MY sister” was the reply; “my sister, whose miniature hangs there.”
“Is it a faithful representation?” further asked Clive. “It is,” rejoined Maskelyne, “of her face and form; but it is unequal to represent the excellence of her mind and character.”
“Well Maskelyne,” said Clive, taking him by the hand; “you know me well, and can speak of me as I really am. Do you think that girl would be induced to come to India, and marry me? In the present state of affairs, I dare not hope to be able to go to England.”
Maskelyne wrote home,* and so recommended Clive’s suit that the lady acquiesced, went to India, and, in 1753, was married at Madras to Clive,* then rising to the highest distinction.
* On March 28th, 1752. The letter is extant.
* At St Mary’s Church in Madras on February 18th, 1753. (Madras is the English name for Chennai.)
Précis
On learning that the letter was from Maskelyne’s sister, Margaret, Clive lost no time in asking his friend if the lady might be persuaded to come out to India and marry him. Maskelyne gladly passed on Clive’s proposal, and within weeks Miss Maskelyne was India-bound. The following January, Robert and Margaret were married in Madras. (55 / 60 words)
,_Mrs_John_Robinson_-_1181063_-_National_Trust.jpg){kind=link}