Sir Thomas Metcalfe, 4th Baronet

Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, 4th Baronet, (2 January 1795 – 3 November 1853) was an East India Company civil servant and agent of the Governor General of India at the imperial court of the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar.

Biography Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe was born on 2 January 1795 at 49 Portland Place, London, and christened on 27 March 1795 in St Marylebone Parish Church, London. He arrived in Delhi in 1813 and lived there for forty years. His elder brother, Charles (1785–1846), was Resident to the Mughal Emperor's court, and briefly the provisional Governor General of Bengal (1835–36). He married Felicite Anne Browne on 13 July 1826.

In 1830, Metcalfe began to build the "Metcalfe House" on the outskirts of Delhi, taking land belonging to Gurjar villagers. He filled it with his collections of art, books and relics of Napoleon. The Metcalfe House was called Matka Kothi by the bearers and khansamahs (chefs) serving Sir Thomas, as they found it difficult to pronounce the name Metcalfe. He succeeded his brother as Baronet in 1844, and became an important figure in the cultural climate of Delhi. and including descriptive text and touching words and was sent to his daughter Emily as she headed from an English schooling to join him in Delhi. The album has now been acquired by the British Library.

During the rainy season he used to stay at 'Dilkusha' (Delight of the Heart), which was built on the first floor of the tomb of Mohammed Quli Khan, brother of Adham Khan, general of Mughal Emperor, Akbar, situated south east of the Qutb complex in Mehrauli, an area which was also the traditional retreat of the Mughals for the season. left Dilkhusa (Delight of the Heart) the country house of Metcalfe, in Mehrauli, Metcalfe album, 1843 While his main house was a colonial bungalow, built in 1844, its library contained over 20,000 books including Napoleon memorabilia. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the house was sacked by the Gurjar villagers from whom the land was bought to erect the building and the library was destroyed and looted.

Family His father was Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, 1st Baronet and his mother was Susannah Sophia Selina Debonnaire. His father first went to India in 1767 as a cadet in the East India Company Army, eventually becoming a Director of the British East India Company.

He married, firstly, Grace Clarke, daughter of Alexander Clarke, on 7 June 1815, by whom he had one daughter. He married, secondly, to Felicite Anne Browne, on 13 July 1826, by whom he had one son and two daughters. He was succeeded in his title by his eldest son, Sir Theophilus John Metcalfe, 5th Baronet, who was also in the Indian Civil Service.

Death The tomb of Sir Thomas Metcalfe at St. James' Church near Kashmiri Gate, Delhi In 1853 Metcalfe suffered a digestive disorder which led to his slow death. His doctors believed that the ailment was caused by poison, since the symptoms were similar to those seen in certain "inconvenient" high ranking members of the Mughal royal family such as Mirza Fakhru who was a friend of Metcalfe. Metcalfe's family, and Metcalfe himself, suspected that he was being administered poison on the instructions of Zinat Mahal, the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah's favorite wife. He was buried in a grave to the east of the Skinner Family's cemetery, at the St. James' Church near Kashmiri Gate, Delhi.

Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi

Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi, also called the Delhi Book, is an album consisting of 89 folios with approximately 130 paintings by Indian artists. The paintings depict Mughal and pre-Mughal monuments of Delhi, the lives of native Indians as well as other contemporary material. Metcalfe added extensive descriptions to almost all paintings. He had assembled the album to be a gift for his daughters in England, and he sent it to them in 1844. The most important feature of the album is that it shows buildings as they were before the siege of Delhi during the Indian Mutiny. Many of these structures were razed, vandalized or suffered neglect in the years following the Mutiny.

Architectural legacy