Thomas Rolt

For the English engineering writer and transport historian known as Tom Rolt, see L. T. C. Rolt.

Sir Thomas Rolt (c.1631–1710)[1][2] was a British official of the East India Company, President of Surat and Governor of Bombay from 1677 to 1681.[3][4] His father was Edward Rolt of Pertenhall in Bedfordshire; his mother was Edward Rolt's second wife Mary, a daughter of Sir Oliver Cromwell.[5][6]

Rolt began his career at the Surat factory of the Company, and was a writer from 1658. He moved to Persia where he was the local chief, agent on the Persian Gulf from 1671 to 1677.[6][7][8] During his period as President of Surat, the Company ordered him to cut back expenditure.[9] Rolt pursued a policy that aimed to be even-handed with respect to the Marathas and the Siddis of Gujarat, which brought him criticism from Richard Keigwin.[10]

In 1682 Rolt returned to England with a fortune.[6] He bought the manor of Sacombe in Hertfordshire in 1688, from Sir John Gore. In the vestry of Sacombe Church, there is a memorial to Rolt, who died in 1710, and to his wife, who died in 1716.[11]

  1. ^ Hugh C. Prince (2008). Parks in Hertfordshire Since 1500. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-9542189-9-7. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  2. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Colonial administrators and post-independence leaders in India (1616–2000).
  3. ^ George Bradshaw (1864). Bradshaw's Illustrated Hand-Book to the Madras Presidency, and the Central Provinces of India ... Illustrated with splendid maps, etc. W. J. Adams. p. 5. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  4. ^ Great Britain. India Office (1819). The India List and India Office List for ... Harrison and Sons. p. 125. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  5. ^ "Rolt, Edward (RLT607E)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  6. ^ a b c Eveline Cruickshanks; D. W. Hayton; Stuart Handley (1 January 2002). The House of Commons, 1690-1715. Cambridge University Press. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-521-77221-1. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  7. ^ Anne Rowe (2007). Hertfordshire Garden History: A Miscellany. Univ of Hertfordshire Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-905313-38-9. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  8. ^ Paul John Rich (2009). Creating the Arabian Gulf: The British Raj and the Invasions of the Gulf. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 1183. ISBN 978-0-7391-2705-6. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  9. ^ Watson, I. B. "Child, Sir John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5289. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  10. ^ Philip J. Stern Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of History Duke University (25 March 2011). The Company-State : Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India. Oxford University Press. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-19-987518-4. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  11. ^ William Page, ed. (1912). "Parishes: Sacombe". A History of the County of Hertford: volume 3. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 8 August 2013.