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Josias Du Pré
English merchant and civil servant From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Josias Du Pré (1721–1780) was a London merchant, a director of the East India Company and Governor of Madras.[1]
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Life
Du Pré was born in South Carolina, the son of Cornelius Dupré. He joined the civil service of the East India Company in 1752, as a factor, and rose through a succession of positions. He spent a period in England in the 1760s, and married there.[1] He purchased the Wilton Park Estate near Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire from the Basil family in 1760,[2] or around 1770.[3]
Du Pré was Governor of Madras from 1770 to 1773. He was mostly preoccupied with the construction of fortifications there. His authority was circumscribed: Eyre Coote, the military commander, and Sir John Lindsay who had overall command in the East Indies, left him little room in which to operate.[1]
Once back in England he commissioned Richard Jupp to build a mansion at Wilton Park. Known as the "White House", it was completed in 1779.[4]
Du Pré at the end of his life became a Fellow of the Royal Society,[5] owing the honour to his appointment two decades earlier of Alexander Dalrymple as his deputy.[6]
He died at Wilton Park in 1780.[3]
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Family
He married Rebecca Alexander, daughter of Nathaniel Alexander and sister of James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon, another nabob: Du Pré Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon, son of the first Earl, was named after Josias.[7]
Of the children of Josias and Rebecca:
- James Du Pré was a Member of Parliament.[2]
- Eliza married Colonel Brice, and then Rev. John Blackwood, son of Sir John Blackwood, 2nd Baronet.[8]
- Rebecca married Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 9th Baronet; Sir Philip Grey Egerton, 10th Baronet, was their son.
Du Pré's sister Esther married Paul Porcher, and was mother of the MP Josias Porcher.[9]
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Notes
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