Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/311

 4to), and some speeches, charges, and legal opinions, rightly styled by Wheaton ‘a rich collection of precedents on the maritime law of nations;’ his argument before the House of Lords in support of the admiralty bill, a locus classicus on the history of the admiralty court, and other miscellanea, will be found in his ‘Life’ by William Wynne, 1724, 2 vols. fol. ‘An Exact Collection of the most considerable Debates in the honourable House of Commons at the Parliament held at Westminster, 21 Oct. 1680,’ &c., appeared under his name in 1681 (8vo), and does not seem to have been disowned; but, as he was notoriously opposed to the publication of the transactions of the house, it is probably not authentic. 

JENKINS, RICHARD (1785–1853), Indian statesman, born 18 Feb. 1785 at Cruckton, near Shrewsbury, was eldest son of Richard Jenkins, esq., of Bicton Hall, Shropshire. In 1798 he was nominated writer on the Bombay establishment, and went to India in 1800. After a distinguished course at the company's college of Fort William, he became an assistant in the governor-general's office. In 1804 he was appointed first assistant to Webbe, the British resident at the court of Dowlut Rao Scindia. About this time began his friendship with Elphinstone [see ], whose love of literature and sport he shared. His linguistic powers were great, and Elphinstone wrote: ‘Jenkins understands all languages wonderfully.’

In 1804 Scindia's intrigues with the Raja of Berar and other Mahratta powers roused suspicions of his loyalty to the British government. The resident was taken ill and died on 9 Nov. 1804, and thereupon the sole conduct of the negotiations with Scindia devolved upon Jenkins, who was appointed acting resident, pending the arrival of Webbe's successor, Colonel Close, from Poona. Scindia's movements were so distinctly hostile to the British government that Jenkins repeatedly threatened to withdraw from his court. Scindia's evasions interposed delays, and at last, at the end of January 1805, the plunder of the resident's camp by a body of Scindia's pindarries rendered Jenkins and his associates virtually prisoners. They were released in October, on the demand of Lord Lake, before opening the negotiations which led to the treaty with Scindia in November 1805. In 1807 Jenkins was appointed to take charge of the residency at Nagpore during Elphinstone's absence on a mission to Afghanistan, and became the resident on Elphinstone's appointment to Poona in 1810. Jenkins, in several communications to Lord Minto, now first suggested the annihilation of the pindarries, and the design was afterwards carried out by the Marquis of Hastings. The Mahratta powers generally viewed the step with dislike, and it no doubt was in part the cause of the outbreak at Nagpore in 1817. Early in that year Appa Saheb, the regent of that state, had obtained the throne on the murder of his ward. He was apparently friendly to the British government, and had entered into a subsidiary treaty; but his intrigues with the peishwa and the concentration of his troops at Nagpore roused Jenkins's suspicion, and to anticipate attacks he caused all the available British troops, less than fourteen hundred in number, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Hopetoun Scott, to occupy the neighbouring hill, Sitabaldi. On 26 Nov. this force was attacked by the Nagpore army of eight thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry. The engagement lasted for eighteen hours continuously during 26 and 27 Nov. Jenkins was present the whole time, and actively encouraged the troops. His conduct was noticed in the despatches, and in a speech by Canning in parliament. After the British arms had gained the victory Jenkins demanded the surrender of the raja and the disbandment of his army, but a second battle on 16 Dec. was necessary to exact these conditions. Appa Saheb was afterwards replaced on the throne, but his renewed intrigues with the peishwa determined Jenkins to arrest and imprison him on 15 March 1818. Rahuji, an infant grandson of Rahuji II, was placed on the throne under British tutelage, and the kingdom of Nagpore was practically governed by Jenkins from this period until December 1826, when