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Henry Creighton (1764–1807)

PRATIP KUMAR MITRA

In passing through so large an extent of former grandeur,once the busy scene of men, nothing presents itself but thesefew remains. Trees and high grass now fill up the space, andshelter a variety of wild creatures … .

Henry Creighton (born 1764),1 the son of a nativeof Scotland settled in Sunderland, pioneered theresearch on the antiquarian remains of the medi-eval city of Gaur. In the year 1783 at the age ofnineteen he entered as a mercantile assistant intothe service of Charles Grant (1746–1823) (Stephenand Lee 1993: 378–80), who at that time was hold-ing the important office of Commercial Resident atthe East India Company’s factory at Malda for pro-viding silk and cotton piece goods. The position ofMr Grant at Malda was very lucrative and he soon

acquired a large fortune which included a manu-factory of indigo at a place called Guamalati, situ-ated right among the ruins of Gaur. In 1786, MrGrant appointed Creighton as the Manager of theGuamalati indigo factory (Pl. 31a) and when, in1790, family reasons compelled Mr Grant to returnto England Creighton was left to superintend it.

Creighton remained at Guamalati and substan-tially increased the business2 by establishing severaldependencies of indigo manufactory until his pre-mature death in 1807. He was an excellent ama-teur painter and to find subjects for his paintings hefrequented the ruins of Gaur at his leisure hour.Gradually, from his off-time pastime he developeda serious interest on these ruins and antiquities. At

FIG. 1. Gumti gate, Gaur. Drawing of Henry Creighton. The European figure inconversation with a native under a tree probably represents Henry Creighton himself.

Pratna Samiksha, New Series 3, 2012. © Centre for ArchaeologicalStudies & Training, Eastern India, Kolkata, pp. 213–18.

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the time written of, Gaur was ‘regarded as an im-mense quarry, whence bricks had been carried toMalda, Murshidabad, Rajmahal, and other places,and many majestic and beautiful edifices of greatantiquity had been thus destroyed. Marbles andstones, being rarities in Bengal, were the objects ofconstant depredation, which was so ruthlessly car-ried forward that some noble structures were de-faced or undermined for the sake of a few blocks orslabs of marble built into their brick walls’ (Lewis1873: 130–1). Even Charles Grant, Creighton’s

master, was a party to this despoliation. At his sug-gestion, St. John’s Church was paved with stonestaken from these ruins, and sent down by him toCalcutta, at a cost to the church building fund ofRs 1,258. ‘Materials for floors, chimney pieces, andsepulchral monuments, were thus appropriatedand carried off by anyone disposed to take posses-sion of them.’ (Lewis 1873: 130–1)

In this scenario, Creighton worked in the oppo-site direction. He put in considerable labour to ex-tricate richly carved architectural fragments anddetached inscriptions from the deep jungles withwhich Gaur abounded in order to prevent themfrom falling prey to the undertakers. He carefullyrecorded their place of occurrence and fondly pre-served them in the courtyard of his factory atGuamalati.3 These inscriptions4 and antiquitiescollected at Guamalati were later removed by Will-iam Francklin, Reginald Porch and other Britishofficers to England and fortunately found their wayto the major public collections of England andUSA (Mitra 2010: 30–8). Creighton visited all theextant monuments of Gaur, took sketches of them,and even repaired some of the crumbling edificeslike Firuz Minar (Mitra 2010: 13). He also collectedthe prized glazed bricks of Gaur and coins, the lat-ter ‘have been occasionally found among the ruins’in his time. His antiquarian interests led him toPandua as well where he prepared detailed archi-tectural drawings of the Adina mosque (Francklin1910: 14) and probably other monuments, whichnever came to light. Gradually, he developed alarge portfolio of drawings of the ruins of Gaurand its vicinity. In 1801, he completed the first sci-entific survey of the city of Gaur and prepared adetailed map of its ruins. He presented a copy ofhis survey map on a reduced scale to Marquees ofWellesley, the then Governor-General of Bengal(1798–1805). A year after his death, in 1808, six ofCreighton’s drawings were engraved and publishedby James Moffat in Calcutta (Moffat 1808). Stillnine year later, in 1817, the result of his exertionsat Gaur was finally published in the form of a bookentitled The Ruins of Gour: Described and Represented inEighteen Views with a Topographical Map compiledfrom his manuscripts and drawings in the hope ofproviding some support for his family. It was pub-lished by Black, Parbury, & Allen, Booksellers to

PRATIP KUMAR MITRA

FIG. 2. Hanging lamp with jets of flame.Ornamentation on the western wall beneath the

mimbar. Adina Mosque, Pandua. Copy by WilliamFrancklin after an original drawing of Henry

Creighton. Courtesy: The British Library, London.

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the Honourable East India Company, LeadenhallStreet, London (Creighton 1817).

In the Introduction to his book Creighton de-scribes the topography of the ruins and the state oftheir preservation quoting from the accounts ofearlier visitors like Ruben Burrow5 and JamesRennell (Rennell 1788). To this was added an in-ventory of ten silver coins found from the ruins ofGaur, correctly identified.6 One can never be surewhether the long quotes from Burrow or Rennell inthe text or a shorter one from Manuel de Faria ySousa (Sousa 1695) were included by Creightonhimself or by the compiler. Creighton was ac-quainted with Burrow and his account is very rel-evant here, so is the account of James Rennell. Atany rate, Creighton had access to these works andalso possibly the work of Faria y Sousa, and couldhave used them. But the occasional mention ofCharles Stewart’s History of Bengal (Stewart 1813) iscertainly the work of the compiler. Creighton didnot live till 1813 to see Charles Stewart’s historypublished. The Introduction is followed by eigh-teen superb drawings in water colour of the ruined

Henry Creighton (1764–1807)

edifices of Gaur (Pl. 31b) engraved in small byThomas Medland7 with brief written notices oneach of them. The aquatint views include gateways(Dakhil, Chand, Kotwali and Gumti), mosques(Baro Sona, Chhoto Sona, Tantipara, Lattan andChamkatti), minar (Firuz Minar) tombs (HusainShah’s tomb, tombs at the Chhoto Sona mosque),sacral building (Qadam Rasul), bridge (Bridge offive arches near Lattan mosque) and the icono-graphic details of Hindu divinities on reused stonesinside the Chhoto Sona mosque. His survey map ofGaur is also appended to the text in a reduced scalein full colour and detailed legends. Creighton’smonograph is the first attempt to rediscover a lostcity, the history of which was at that time hope-lessly unknown. His drawings form a series of de-lightfully bright and lively miniatures of the ruinedstructures which are, in some respects unreal andromantically rendered, but nevertheless a firstcharting of what was still an unexplored subject.His views include two structures, the tomb ofHusain Shah and Chand gate, which no longerexist and are known only from his drawings.

FIG. 3. The Small Golden Mosque at Gour. From ‘Views at Gour’.Six aquatints by James Moffat after Henry Creighton. Calcutta.

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Creighton’s drawings, however, came in forcriticism for their unreal rendition. FrancisBuchanan, who saw the six engravings made fromthe drawings of Creighton by James Moffat, re-marked ‘in my opinion these engravings, withoutbeing unlike, are calculated to give an idea of moreneatness and magnificence than the works actuallypossessed’ (Martin 1838: 71). A. Grote, who hadthe opportunity to examine Creighton’s mono-graph, concurred in the criticism bestowed on theillustrations by Buchanan and stated, ‘Creighton, itis true, had been resident in the Guamalti factorysince 1786; but the difference between the state ofthe ruins as figured by him, and as described byBuchanan Hamilton and Major Francklin withinthe next twenty years, is too marked to justify thebelief that it is due only to their further dilapida-tion. Creighton’s pencil and brush must to someextent have restored the buildings … .’8

The notes appended to the views in his book areof immense archaeological value. In the time,when Creighton made his exploratory sketches, theruins of Gaur was far more entire and the con-veyed memory of the local people fresher. Thus hewas able to relate the structures and their detachedinscriptions much better than the later visitors aswe have seen in several cases.9 He was always verycareful to note his authorities for date. Seasonedarchaeologist like Cunningham has always reliedon his dates (Cunningham 2000: 62) whereverthese are available in his monograph. His enquiryinto the historical background of the ruins of Gaurled him to many places. From Pandua he procuredsome Persian manuscript material which he prob-ably used to check the veracity of the historical in-formation locally available but could not publishthe manuscript during his lifetime. This Persianmanuscript, now untraceable, was used byFrancklin (Francklin 1910: 18–21) and Buchanan(Martin 1838(2): 616–21), later visitors to Gaur ashistorical memorandums appended to their ac-counts. The historical data derived fromCreighton’s manuscript, often referred to as‘Buchanan’s account’, still remains one of the im-portant primary sources for the chronology of theSultans of Bengal.

Although not a trained surveyor, the measure-ments of the monuments given by Creighton in his

notes are almost perfect. He took great pain in con-ducting a meticulous survey of the walled city ofGaur and its suburbs. He minutely plotted in hissurvey map the monuments, gateways, minor edi-fices, embankments, roads, bridges, waterbodies,ditches, canals, etc. to such a perfection that hismap still remains the most authentic one for theruins of Gaur. It is possible that he derived someexperience in advanced surveying and cartographyfrom Ruben Burrow (Edney 1997: 150–2), who vis-ited Gaur in 1787.

Creighton shared the Evangelical Christian be-lief and zeal of his employer Charles Grant. In hisresidency at Guamalati10 and its dependencies heestablished several Bengali free schools for instruct-ing the poor native children. He also drew up ascheme for extending such Christian nurseries allover the country for missionaries to implement(Smith 1885: 149). Creighton died on 2 October1807, in the forty-fourth year of his age atBerhampore, where he went either for some workor for medical treatment, and lies buried inBerhampore cemetery at Babulbona. He was sur-vived by seven children and his wife Frances(Frances Slupart) whom he married in 1792 at theSt. John’s Anglican Church, Calcutta11. In the epi-

FIG. 4. Final page of the last will ofHenry Creighton dated 25 June 1805.

217Henry Creighton (1764–1807)

taph (now lost) of his grave in the Berhamporecemetery he is remembered as (Wilson 1896: 181):

‘… the first instructor of native schools for in-structing the children of the poor in their ownlanguages as a means of diffusing among them

useful tracts, and thereby an extensive districtwas comparatively enlightened and civilizedand prepared for advancement to higher de-grees of moral instruction and European im-provement… .’

NOTES

1. Henry Creighton, son of Henry Creighton (Sr.)and Jane, was christened on 25 December 1764 atSunderland, Durham, England. Source: Parish registertranscripts of Sunderland and various other parishes inDurham and Northumberland, 1719–1787. MicroficheNo. 0091114. International Genealogical Index TMV4.01. British Isles.

2. Creighton was an aggressive businessman. He was‘reprehended by the Collector of Dinajpur, GeorgeHatch, for forcing the local Zamindar to supply him withboats for the indigo harvest.’ See, Bengal District Records:Dinajpur I, Bengal Secretariat Press, Calcutta, 1914, p.309ff; Blair B. Kling, The Blue Mutiny. The Indigo Distur-bances in Bengal 1859–1862, Firma KLM, Calcutta, 1977,p. 49.

3. A practice which was followed by successive incum-bents of the Guamalati indigo factory (Ravenshaw 1878:74).

4. For a possible list of inscriptions collected byCreighton, see p. 181 (no. 46) of this Journal.

5. The Journal of Ruben Burrow is now untraceable.

6. Except one coin, no. 8. This is evidently a coin ofSultan Nasir al-din Mahmud Shah though the date iswrong.

7. The engraver is draughtsman Thomas Medlandwho worked on many plates of topographical subjects.He exhibited at the RA from 1777 to 1822.

8. A. Grote, introduction to J. H. Ravenshaw’s book.9. For example, the AH 885 (AD 1480) inscription of

Sultan Shams al-din Yusuf Shah (now preserved at theQadam Rasul Complex) correctly related by Creightonto Tantipara mosque; the AH 909 (AD 1503) inscription ofSultan Husain Shah (now in Gobra, Kolkata) correctlyrelated to Gumti gate, Gaur. See (Mitra 2010: 105–10).

10. It was in his residency at Guamalati, John Tho-mas, the first Baptist Missionary to Bengal, startedpreaching in Bengali in the year 1788.

11. The Asia Pacific & Africa (formerly referred to asOriental and India Office) Collections, The British Li-brary, London, Biographical index, Microfilm N/1/4/137.

REFERENCES

Creighton, Henry (1817). The Ruins of Gour: Describedand Represented in Eighteen Views with a TopographicalMap. Compiled from the Manuscripts and Drawingsof the Late H. Creighton, Esq. London: Black,Parbury, & Allen.

Cunningham, Alexander (2000). Report of a Tour in Biharand Bengal in 1879–80: from Patna to Sunargaon 15: 62.New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.

Edney, Matthew H. (1997). Mapping an Empire. TheGeographical Construction of British India, 1765–1843,pp. 150–2. Chicago and London: The University ofChicago Press.

Francklin, William (1910). Journal of a Route fromRajemehal to Gour, AD 1810–11, p. 14. Shillong:Eastern Bengal & Assam Govt.

Kling, Blair B. (1977). The Blue Mutiny. The IndigoDisturbances in Bengal 1859–1862, p. 49. Calcutta:Firma KLM.

Lewis, C. B. (1873). The Life of John Thomas, Surgeon ofthe Earl of Oxford East Indiaman, and First BaptistMissionary to Bengal, pp. 130–1. London: Macmillanand Co.

Martin, Montgomery (1838). The History, Aantiquities,Topography and Statistics of Eastern India 3: 71.Pruniya, Ranggopoor and Assam. London: W.H.Allen and Co.

Mitra, Pratip Kumar (2010). ‘A Lost Inscription ofSultan Ala al-din Husain Shah of Bengal’, Journalof the Asiatic Society 52(1): 105–10. Kolkata.

_____(2010). ‘Rediscovering Gaur: Source Material inthe Public Collections of the United Kingdom’,Journal of Bengal Art 15: 30–8. Dhaka: The Interna-tional Centre for Study of Bengal Art.

Moffat, J. (1808). Views at Gaur, six aquatints by JamesMoffat after Henry Creighton, published by JamesMoffat, Calcutta.

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Ravenshaw, J. H. (1878). Gaur: Its Ruins and Inscriptions,p. 74. London: Kegan Paul.

Rennell, James (1788). Memoir of a Map of Hindoostan orthe Mogul Empire, printed by M. Brown for theauthor, London.

Smith, George (1885). The Life of William Carey D.D.Shoemaker and Missionary, p. 149. London: JohnMurray.

Sousa, Manuel De Faria y (1695). Portuguese Asia, or theHistory of the Discovery and Conquest of India by thePortuguese, trans. by J. Stevens. London.

Stephen, Sir Leslie and Sir Sidney Lee (eds) (1993).Dictionary of National Biography 7: 378–80. New York:Oxford University Press Inc. (reprint).

Stewart, Charles (1813). History of Bengal from the firstMuhammadan invasion until the Virtual Conquest of thatCountry by the English AD 1757. London: Black,Parbury, & Allen.

Wilson, C. R. (1896). List of Inscriptions on Tombs orMonuments in Bengal. Possessing Historical or Archaeologi-cal Interest 695: 181. Calcutta: Bengal SecretariatPress.