Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 25.djvu/76

 Hartley Characters,' viii. 521. By her will, dated 25 Jan. 1824, and proved 25 Feb. 1824, she left 100l. to the Covent Garden Theatrical Fund.

 HARTLEY, JAMES (1745–1799), Indian officer, was born in 1745, and entered the military service of the Bombay presidency in 1764. In 1765 he took part in expeditions against the piratical strongholds of Rairi and Malwan on the coast of Malabar. By 1768 he had reached the rank of lieutenant, and in October 1770 he was made aide-de-camp to the governor of Bombay. He superintended the disembarkation of the detachment which took Baroach in November 1772, and in July 1774 he was raised to the rank of captain, and received the command of the fourth battalion of Bombay sepoys.

The interesting part of Hartley's career begins with the first Mahratta war. In February 1775 he was sent to co-operate with Colonel Keating in Guzerat. But the Bengal government put an end to the war in the August following, and Hartley, with the rest of the English forces, returned to Bombay. Three years later hostilities were resumed. The Bombay government now sent an army to the Konkan, with orders to march across the Ghauts on Poonah. An advanced party of six companies of grenadier sepoys under Captain Stewart first took possession of the Bhore Ghaut, where they were joined by the main army under Colonel Charles Egerton. Hartley had been offered the post of quartermaster general to the army, but he preferred to take his place at the head of his battalion. On 4 Jan. 1779 Captain Stewart, a man of conspicuous gallantry, was killed in a skirmish at Karli, and Hartley was appointed to succeed him in command of the six companies of grenadiers. On 9 Jan. the English army continued their march, and reached Tullygaom, only eighteen miles from Poonah. But [q. v.] the civil commissioner with the army, became alarmed at the increasing numbers of the Mahrattas, and determined on a retreat. Hartley strongly resisted this proposal, but was overruled, and the retreat began on 11 Jan. Hartley's reserve was directed to form the rear guard. At daybreak on 12 Jan. the Mahrattas assailed the retreating army in strong force. The main energy of their attack was directed on the rear. The sepoys were thoroughly demoralised, and it was only by means of a personal address from Hartley that they were

hindered from wholesale desertions. But, in spite of the condition of his own men and the superior numbers of the enemy, Hartley sustained the conflict with such skill that the army was able to make good its entry into Wargaum. Hartley in vam protested against the convention of Wargaum, by which the English, in return for the surrender of their ally, Rughoba, were allowed to retire unmolested. On his arrival at Bombay in the spring of 1779, Hartley was universally regarded as having saved the English army from annihilation. He was raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was appointed to the command of the European infantry on the Bombay establishment.

In December 1779 Hartley was sent with a small detachment to act under Colonel [q. v.] in Guzerat. He led the storming party which captured Ahmedabad on 18 Feb. ensuing. On 8 May, however, he was recalled to Bombay, and entrusted with the duty of securingthe Konkan, i.e. the district between the Ghauts and the sea, from which the Bombay government drew their supplies. On 24 May he defeated and dispersed a party of Mahrattas who had besieged the fortified post of Kallian to the northeast of Bombay. On 1 Oct. another attack of the enemy from the same direction was crushed at Mullungurh; the Bhore Ghaut, a central point of the mountain-chain, exactly opposite Bombay, was strongly guarded, and the Konkan effectually secured to the English. In November Goddard, in deference to the wishes of the Bombay presidency, formed the siege of Bassein. Hartley, with about two thousand men, was directed to maintain a position on the east, and so prevent the Mahrattas from raising the siege. On 10 Dec. a determined attack was made on Hartley's entrenchments at Doogaur by twenty thousand Mahrattas. After a severe conflict the assailants were repulsed and the garrison of Bassein surrendered.

Hartley continued to act as military commandant in the Konkan when a despatch arrived from London acknowledging his services but declaring his recent promotion as lieutenant-colonel informal. His further promotion and pay as a lieutenant-colonel were to be suspended till those who were his seniors should have been first promoted. Hartley quitted the army deeply hurt, and in December 1781 started for England to lay his case before the court of directors. The latter refused to make any concession, but ultimately recommended him to the king, who gave him the lieutenant-colonelcy of the 75th regiment.

In April 1788 Hartley returned to India