About the History and the Circumstances of the Pigott Diamond

THE PIGOTT.

The Early Days of the Indian Empire--The Black Hole of Calcutta--The Successes of Clive--"Trifling Gifts"--A Lottery Prize--Sold to Ali Pasha for pound 30,000, and by him Destroyed--Only the Model of the "Pigott" remains.

The name of Governor Pigott, connected as it is with that of the Subahdar Sooray-oo-Doulah, opens up a dark page in our Indian history. Mr. Drake, the Governor of the English settlement in Calcutta, with the Commandant, Captain Minchen, fled in the middle of the night, leaving the honor of their country, and the lives of a large body of their country-men, exposed to the frightful rancour of an inexperienced, illiterate, self-indulgent prince, hardly eighteen at the time, marching with a numerous army, and within a few hours march of Cossimbazar, to seize the English possessions, and enrich himself with the fabulous wealth supposed to be stored up in their factories (A. D. 1756). Governor Drake and Commandant Minchen, possessed of the one idea that self-preservation was the first and only law which they had to observe, came to the conclusion that the Subahdar's army boded them harm, and therefore, that the thing to be done was to decamp at midnight, to leave Cossimbazar well-nigh defenceless, and thereby to give up Calcutta, with all it contained, to a mixed Mohammedan and native force. This they did with cruel promptitude. The triumphant garrison thereupon drove the helpless foreigners, 146 of them, into the strong room used for the confinement of military offenders, since called the "Black Hole," where seven-tenths died in unexampled horror during the night, and the whole English population were exposed to miseries, in comparison of which the death on duty of every man in the city would have been a glory and a paradise.

The surrender of Cossimbazar was not known to Mr. Pigott, the Governor of Madras, till the 15th of July, and it was two months before he and his council could make up their minds to send aid to their brethren at Calcutta, and then it was due to Mr. Orme that Colonel Clive was nominated to command the expedition against the Nabob, which Mr. Manningham, being one of the runaway council at Cossimbazar, very naturally opposed. Clive, small as was the force at his command, soon recovered Calcutta for the company, and followed up this success by the total overthrow of Sooraj-oo-Doulah, his army and his kingdom. The successes of Clive were partially unavailing, because the Governor of Madras, Mr. Pigott, failed to protect "Fort St. David," which capitulated to the French. In the siege of Madras Mr. Pigott shewed some courage, and the coming up of a fleet, under Admiral Pocock, preserved the town from being taken. The French were driven beyond the Kistna, and the English gained an extended line of eighty miles along the coast, and twenty miles inland. In these successes Clive had the master hand and the lion's share.

Mr. Pigott, at Madras, after coquetting for possession of the Northern Circass (conceded both by Nizam Ali and Basalat Jung), found he had plunged the whole possessions of the Company on the Coromandel coast into most serious difficulties. He returned to England, and was created an Irish Peer, in consequence of having prudently given up his design to lead the Madras forces to re-conquer Calcutta, in favour of Colonel Clive; and Sir John Lindsay arrived at Madras as governor in quick succession to him. Sir Robert Hartland assumed the high powers with which he was invested, and forthwith Madras and Tanjore were involved in hostilities. Sir Robert Fletcher was restored to the chief command, and Mr. Warren Hastings was brought from Madras, and succeeded to the chair of the Council of Bengal, 1772. The attack on the Rohillas followed.

The conquest of Tanjore was condemned at home by the Court of Directors, who removed Mr. Wynch, the Governor of Madras, and re-appointed Lord Pigott. But Lord Pigott, determining to rule without, and in despite of his Council, was put under confinement by his own Council; and the governor, weakened by the climate and irritated by the opposition, died the prisoner of those over whom he had been appointed to preside, 1776.

How Lord Pigott obtained possession of this gem called the "Pigott" is not clear, and when any ray of light is attempted to be thrown upon its acquisition, the less " luminious" it becomes. It is pretty certain, however, that he brought this rare diamond to England somewhere about the year 1775. There is no record of the source whence he procured it, but it probably came to him either from his friend, the Rajah of Tanjore, or from the Nabob of Arcot, from whom he admitted, in a letter to the Court of Directors, that he had accepted a few presents "of a trifling value." If this diamond was amongst the gifts, it was certainly no "trifle," for it has been valued by Mawe at no less a sum than pound 40,000. At any rate it fetched pound 30,000 in the year 1801, when it fell in a public lottery to a young man, who afterwards sold it for a low price. It passed, in the year 1818, into the hands of Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, the city jewellers, and from them it was soon afterwards purchased, also for pound 30,000, by Ali Pasha, who forwarded a special messenger to receive it. Murray tells us that its new owner, "always wore it in a green silk purse attached to his girdle. When Ali Pasha was mortally wounded by Reshid Pasha, he immediately retired to his divan, and desired that his favourite wife, Vasilika, should be poisoned. He then gave the diamond to Captain D'Anglas, with an order that it should be crushed to powder in his presence, which was forthwith obeyed, and the beautiful gem utterly destroyed. Vasilika still lives, but the model of the diamond alone remains. The too obedient officer bitterly regretted his folly; and the destroyed diamond haunted him in his dreams for months afterwards."

This tragical end of what Mawe calls a "diamond of the first water, and ranking amongst the finest in Europe," entirely escaped the notice of Dieulafait Kluge, and other writers on Precious Stones. All of them continued to speak of it as still in existence, Emanuel shrewdly remarking that "the present owner is not known!"

This circumstance also accounts for the astonishing differences of opinion that prevail regarding the size of a stone which has been seen by no expert since the time when it passed out of the hands of Messrs. Rundell & Co. Murray gives its weight at 47 1/2 carats; Dieulafait at 81 1/2; Emanuel at 82 1/4; and Kluge at 82 1/2. But Mawe, who was personally acquainted with the stone, and who wrote before it was sold to Ali Pasha, tells us distinctly that, "its weight is 49 carats," and this statement must be accepted as final.

The same writer describes it as "a brilliant of great surface, both in table and girdle, but is considered not of sufficient depth," and is, therefore, also lacking in brilliancy.

Another point remains to be noted. Murray makes the astonishing statement that "the 'Pigott' diamond was brought to England by Earl Pigott when Governor-General of India." Of course Earl Pigott, or rather Lord Pigott, was never "Governor-General of India," though he was twice governor of Madras.

In the interval between the two appointments he visited Europe, on which occasion he was created an Irish peer, apparently about the year 1775. Hence it must have been about this time that he brought the diamond to Europe; for his second tenure of office as is well known, ended fatally, another mournful instance of the strange and relentless destiny which has so frequently followed in the wake of these fascinating but ill-omened gems. Thornton, in his History of the British Empire in India, thus relates the circumstances:--

"At this time a man notorious in the history of the British connection with the Nabob of Arcot, first became conspicuous. The Nabob had hinted that if he was dispossessed of Tanjore, his ability to discharge the debts owing by him to British subjects would be seriously affected. A civil servant of the Company, named Paul Benfield intimated that he held assignments on the revenues of Tanjore for vast sums lent by him to the Nabob, and other assignments on the growing crops for large sums lent to individuals. These allegations were more than suspicious. It was not to be supposed that Benfield brought with him to India any wealth, and he had there enjoyed no opportunity of honestly amassing any. The governor properly demanded some evidence that the claims were just; but none was offered that could satisfy any one not previously prepared to be satisfied. A majority of the members of the Government determined against the claims; but to whatever cause it may be attributed, a change took place, and the Board reversed their own decision by determining that the crop sown during the Nabob's possession was his property; and that the alleged assignments of the Nabob to Benfield gave to his demands the character of public claims. The governor had strenuously opposed these conclusions; but his opinion was disregarded.

"This struggle was succeeded by another. A British resident was to be appointed for Tanjore. Lord Pigott proposed Mr. Russell, a civil servant, the majority of the Board supported Colonel Stuart, second in command at Madras. The question was violently debated at several meetings, the governor refused his signature to the papers necessary to carry into effect the will of his opponents, and at length the latter determined to act without it. The governor was equally bent upon maintaining his own rights, and upon two members of the Board affixing their signatures to a paper to which his had been refused, he charged them with acting in a manner subversive of the authority of the government. The persons constituting the former majority now seceded and having forwarded a protest against the conduct of Lord Pigott, assumed to themselves the right of the government. This was followed by the governor declaring all the refractory members suspended, and ordering Sir Robert Fletcher, the commander-in-chief, into arrest, for the purpose of being brought to trial by a court-martial.

"The adverse party followed the example of their chief with no slow nor indecisive steps. They determined to arrest him, and on August 24th, 1776, the Governor of Madras became the prisoner of certain members of his own council. He appealed to Sir Edward Hughes, the admiral commanding the squadron in the roads, for protection, and the admiral demanded that safe conduct to the ships should be given him. The ruling body inquired whether Sir Edward would be responsible for Lord Pigott if the request was complied with. The admiral answered that he tendered the requisition in the king's name, and would make no terms. The acting council replied that they had no proof that the Crown empowered its officers to require the removal of any servant of the Company, in such a situation as that of Lord Pigott, from under the authority of the Company's government, and the admiral rejoined that the case was unexampled, that he had done his duty in making the requisition and must leave those who had resisted it to meet the consequences. One of these consequences was lamentable. The constitution of Lord Pigott, impaired by age and an Indian climate, sank under the irritation to which he had been exposed, and the restraint to which he was subjected, and he died, the prisoner of those over whom he had been appointed to preside."