Elijah Impey

File:Zoffany-Impey-family-Calcutta.jpg of the family of Elijah and Mary Impey in Calcutta in 1783]]

Elijah Impey was born on 13 June 1732 at Butterwick House in Hammersmith. He was the youngest son of merchant Elijah Impey (1683–1756) and his second wife Martha, daughter of James Fraser. He was educated at Westminster School with Warren Hastings. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1751 and proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1752,{{cite ODNB|id=14371|year=2004|first=T. H.|last=Bowyer|title=Impey, Sir Elijah|date=23 September 2004}} graduating in 1756 as the second Chancellor's classical medallist{{acad|id=IMY752E|name=Impey, Elijah}} and becoming a fellow in 1757. He was called to the bar in 1756. He then practised law for seventeen years on the western circuit. On 18 January 1768, he married Mary Reade, the daughter of a baronet from Oxfordshire. They had five sons and two daughters. Impey also had two illegitimate children with Elizabeth Curbyshire.

In 1773 the Regulating Act reformed the government of East India Company-ruled Bengal, establishing the Bengal supreme council and a supreme court with Warren Hastings as the first governor-general. Impey was appointed the first chief justice of the new supreme court at Calcutta in March 1774 and knighted later that month. He arrived in Calcutta with the other supreme court judges in October. En route to India he learned Bengali and Urdu, and once there studied Persian.{{cite web |last=Dalrymple |first=William |author-link=William Dalrymple |date=30 November 2019 |title=The forgotten Indian artists of British India |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50542353 |accessdate=30 November 2019 |publisher=BBC News}} He was accompanied by his wife, who became one of the first British patrons of Indian artists. From the mid-1770s Impey and his wife hired local artists to paint the various birds, animals and native plants, life-sized where possible, and in natural surroundings. The collection is often known as the Impey Album.

Not long after Impey's appointment, the shortcomings of the newly established system created problems for the administration in Bengal. The jurisdiction of the supreme court and the powers of the council were not clearly defined, leading to disputes between the two branches. The council itself, made up of the governor-general and four councillors, was divided into two hostile factions, one supporting and the other opposing Governor-General Hastings.

In 1775 Impey became embroiled in the legal processes surrounding Maharaja Nandakumar, an Indian notable who accused Hastings of corruption. After accusing Hastings, Nandakumar himself was accused of an instance of forgery from 1769. While the accusations against Nandakumar were advanced by his Indian enemies, and there is no evidence that they were in direct contact with Hastings, they were encouraged by one of Hastings's closest friends. Nandakumar was sentenced to death under the British statute that made forgery a capital crime.{{cite ODNB|id=69061|year=2004|first=P. J.|last=Marshall|title=Nandakumar [Nuncomar], maharaja|date=23 September 2004}} Impey refused to allow a reprieve or a stay of execution. He later justified his decision by stating that this would have undermined the authority of the court because the evidence of wrongdoing was so obvious.{{cite ODNB|id=69061|year=2004|first=P. J.|last=Marshall|title=Nandakumar [Nuncomar], maharaja|date=23 September 2004}} However, there were contemporary allegations that the execution was the result of a conspiracy by Hastings and Impey. Later, these allegations were repeated by historian Thomas Babington Macaulay in his essay on Hastings, which strengthened the popular perception of Impey as a partial judge. This theory has generally been discounted by later historians, although Impey's refusal to grant reprieve or stay of execution has been criticised. It was also not clear at the time that the British statute on forgery applied in India.

In 1790 Impey was returned to Parliament as the member for New Romney constituency and spent the next seven years as an MP before retiring to Newick Park near Brighton. He died there in 1809 and was buried in the family vault at St Paul's, Hammersmith, London. With his wife he is commemorated in the church with a wall monument by Peter Rouw. He had married on 18 January 1768 Mary, daughter of Sir John Reade, 5th Baronet, of Shipton Court, Oxfordshire; they had five sons.

In 1795 his application for a fellowship of the Royal Society was rejected.

File:Beechey. Elijah Impey.png of Elijah Impey]]

A portrait of Impey, by Johan Zoffany hangs in Kolkata High Court. Tilly Kettle, Thomas Lawrence and William Beechey also painted him.Levey 2005: 49–59

His wife, Mary Impey, is commemorated in the name of the Impeyan pheasant (Lophophorus impejanus).

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/lotw/1.html The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (includes photo)]

File:Impey Wall Monument.jpg

• {{cite book|title=Memoirs of Sir Elijah Impey, Knt., First Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature, at Fort William, Bengal; with Anecdotes of Warren Hastings, Sir Philip Francis, Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, Esq., and Other Contemporaries; Compiled from Authentic Documents, in Refutation of the Calumnies of the Right Hon. Thomas Babington Macaulay|ref=none|url=https://archive.org/details/memoirsofsirelij00impeuoft|year=1846|first=Elijah Barwell|last=Impey|publisher=Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.}} A biography by Impey's son, written in response to the negative portrayal of Impey in Macaulay's essay on Warren Hastings.
• {{cite book|first=James Fitzjames |last=Stephen|title=The Story of Nuncomar and the Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey|year=1885|publisher=Macmillan|location=London|ref=none}} 2 volumes (vol. 1, vol. 2).

• [http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/collection/6980/10198 Exhibition of "Lady Impey’s Indian Bird Paintings"] at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (until 14 Apr 2013)

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{{succession box

| title = Member of Parliament for New Romney

| with = Richard Joseph Sullivan

| before = John Henniker

| after = John Willett Willett
John Fordyce

| years = 1790–1796

}}

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Category:1732 births

Category:1809 deaths

Category:British India judges

Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies

Category:British MPs 1790–1796

Category:18th-century British judges

Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge