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An Abbott of Teynampet

Areader who reads the fine print in Madras History, G.A. Thomas, reminds me that Abbott (Miscellany, April 23) was for a brief period a well-known name in Madras. William Abbott, however, was a name of some significance in the Madras of the late 18th Century - and that would rather pre-date my theory about Abbotsbury being a 1950s name.

However, it is quite possible that Abbotsbury was a name out of the past that was revived. Rather tenuous grounds for this would be that at the other end of this stretch of road, leading off from the Gemini Flyover, was Cathedral Gardens, a garden house whose name is remembered in road name alone today. And Cathedral Gardens was home for a long time to R. A. Maitland of the firm of Abbott & Maitland. It is not inconceivable that both lived close to each other in the Teynampet area in the late 18th Century.

William Abbott, an American merchant in Madras, was appointed American Consular Agent, the first American representative in the City, on November 24, 1794. Abbott arrived in Madras in the early 1780s and in 1788, became agent of Paul Benfield, who very likely built Chepauk Palace and made the Nawab of the Carnatic a debtor. This connection enabled Abbott to become the Nawab's Agent in 1792; his closeness to the Nawab might have been one reason for his quasi-consular appointment.

A wheeler-dealer, Abbott was Manager of the Madras Courier in 1785, a partner in Roebuck and Abbott in 1792, Deputy Master Attendant of the Port in the 1790s, an Alderman from 1793-1797, and Mayor of Madras in 1797-1798. In 1799, he founded Abbott & Maitland and in 1812 finally retired and left for England. He certainly was not buried in Abbotsbury!

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