Elijah Impey, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Calcutta, died on this day. The Regulating Act (1773) had established the Supreme Court in Fort William.
Warren Hastings, a schoolmate of Impey in England, had been appointed the first Governor-General.
Impey arrived in Calcutta in 1774. He had learned Bengali and Urdu on his way here and later leant Persian. He presided over the trial of Maharaja Nandakumar, who was accused of attempting to deprive a widow of her inheritance. Nandakumar was convicted of forgery and hanged in 1775. Impey was seen as acting in the interest of Hastings.
Hastings and Impey faced impeachment later; Nandakumar’s execution was one of the reasons behind the trial. He, like Hastings, was acquitted.
In 1790, Impey returned to Parliament as member for New Romney. He died in Newick Park in Brighton.
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