Mark Thornhill

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Mark Bensley Thornhill (25 April 1822 - 14 March 1900), was the British district magistrate and collector of the district of Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India, at the onset of the Indian Rebellion of 1857.

In early 1857 he was the first to report what he thought was an unusual movement of chapatis.

He wrote Indian fairy tales (1879) and his memoirs The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progress, and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny (1884).

Early life and education[edit]

Mark Bensley Thornhill was born on 25 April 1822 in Middlesex, Stanmore, to John and Henriette.[1][2] In 1840 he passed the general examinations at the East India College, Haileybury.[3][4] There, he won medals in classics, political economy, and law.[3]

Career[edit]

In December 1840 he arrived in India, where he was appointed to the Indian Civil Service.[5][6] In 1842 he was posted as assistant to the commissioner of Allahabad.[5] In 1844 he became assistant magistrate to the collector of Delhi.[7]

He was posted as district magistrate and collector of the district of Mathura in 1854,[8] and was in that position at the onset of the Indian Rebellion in 1857.[9][10][11][12] Historian John William Kaye noted that Thornhill had recorded in his memoirs what he thought was an unusual movement of chapatis in early 1857.[13][14] The first to report the occurrence, Thornhill also documented that a similar movement of chapatis had occurred just prior to the Vellore Mutiny.[15][16]

In 1879 he published Indian fairy tales.[17] In 1884 he published his memoirs titled The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progress, and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny.[18][12][19]

Personal and family[edit]

His brother was the secretary to the lieutenant-governor at Agra.[20]

Death[edit]

He died on 14 March 1900 in the Isle of Wight.[21][22]

Selected publications[edit]

  • The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progress, and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny. London: J. Murray. 1884.
  • Indian fairy tales. London: Hatchards. 1888.

References[edit]

  1. ^ London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms. Great Stanmore: St John the Evangelist. 1813–1923. p. 47.
  2. ^ The Personal Adventures and Experiences of a Magistrate During the Rise, Progress, and Suppression of the Indian Mutiny. Cambridge University Press. 2012. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-108-04470-7.
  3. ^ a b The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China, and Australia. Parbury, Allen, and Company. 1840. p. 287.
  4. ^ Danvers, Frederick Charles; Monier-Williams, Sir Monier; Bayley, Sir Steuart Colvin; Wigram, Percy; Sapte, Brand (1894). "Active services of old Haileyburians during the mutiny". Memorials of Old Haileybury College. A. Constable. p. 623.
  5. ^ a b East-India Register and Army List. Calcutta: Ramchunder Doss. 1856. p. 382.
  6. ^ Dewar, Douglas (1922). Bygone Days in India. John Lane. p. 191.
  7. ^ Edmond, E. (1845). The Bengal Civil Service Gradation List, 1845-46. Calcutta: Thacker. p. 49.
  8. ^ "North Western Provinces appointments". Friend of India and Statesman. 27 July 1854. p. 474 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ The Army and Navy Magazine. W.H. Allen. 1883. p. 35.
  10. ^ Dalrymple, William (17 August 2009). The Last Mughal: The Fall of Delhi, 1857. A&C Black. ISBN 978-1-4088-0688-3.
  11. ^ Padamsee, A. (2 August 2005). Representations of Indian Muslims in British Colonial Discourse. Springer. p. 106. ISBN 978-0-230-51247-4.
  12. ^ a b Anderson, Clare (September 2007). The Indian Uprising Of 1857-8: Prisons, Prisoners and Rebellion. Anthem Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-1-84331-387-8.
  13. ^ Nayar, Pramod K. (2017). "Key words". The British Raj: Keywords. Routledge. pp. 43–44. ISBN 978-1-351-97242-0.
  14. ^ Ahmad, Aijaz (2021). "10. General uprising or popular perspective". Uprising of 1857: Some Facts about Failure of Indian war of Independence. New Delhi: K.K. Publications. p. 182.
  15. ^ Kaye, Sir John William (1897). "4. The Agra and Rohilkhand Divisions". Kaye's and Malleson's History of the Indian Mutiny of 1857-8. Vol. VI. New York: Longmans, Green, and Company. pp. 85–90.
  16. ^ Dash, Mike. "Pass it on: The Secret that Preceded the Indian Rebellion of 1857". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  17. ^ Library, Boston Public (1900). Monthly Bulletin of Books Added to the Public Library of the City of Boston. The Trustees. p. 200.
  18. ^ Bancroft, James W. (2020). The Devil's Trap: The Victims of the Cawnpore Massacre During the Indian Mutiny. Pen and Sword. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-5267-1803-7.
  19. ^ Fuerst, Ilyse R. Morgenstein (23 January 2020). Indian Muslim Minorities and the 1857 Rebellion: Religion, Rebels and Jihad. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-7556-0379-4.
  20. ^ Mount, Ferdinand (2015). "11. Commemoration". The Tears of the Rajas: Mutiny, Money and Marriage in India 1805-1905. Simon and Schuster. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-4711-2947-6.
  21. ^ "England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915". 1939 England and Wales Register. 1900. Retrieved 5 May 2023 – via ancestry.co.uk.
  22. ^ England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations). London: Crown. 1858–1995. p. 344.

Further reading[edit]

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