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  corrupt, and Strange was sent out as recorder and president of the court. Before leaving England he was knighted on 14 March 1798. Arrived in Madras, he met with much factious opposition, which he overcame by arranging (as at the Old Bailey) that only one representative of the aldermen should sit with him.

In 1800, owing to the growth in extent and wealth of the presidency, a supreme court of three judges was established by charter dated 26 Dec., with Strange as chief justice. In 1801, under the apprehension of a French attack from Egypt, two volunteer battalions were organised, one commanded by the governor, Lord Clive, the other by the chief justice. Strange drilled his men regularly each morning before his court met. In 1809 a mutiny of the company's officers, originating in the abolition of certain privileges, called out all his energies. The disaffected had many sympathisers in civilian society. Sir Thomas delivered a charge to the grand jury explaining the criminality of the officers, and their responsibility for any bloodshed that might occur. His action had a wholesome effect, and both the governor, Sir [q. v.], and subsequently Lord Minto, recommended Strange to the home government for a baronetcy; but, apparently owing to a change of government on Mr. Perceval's death, the recommendation was not carried out. In 1816 Strange completed, and printed at Madras for the use of his court, a selection of ‘Notes of Cases’ decided during his administration of the recorder's and of the supreme court, prefaced by a history of the two successive judicatures.

Strange resigned his post on 7 June 1817, and returned to England. In 1818 he was created D.C.L. at Oxford. For some years he devoted his leisure to the completion of his ‘Elements of Hindu Law.’ The work was first published in London in 1825 (2 vols. 8vo). The only native authorities on the old text-books were commentaries and digests, mostly of no great authority, of only local validity, or otherwise irrelevant. Doubtful points had accordingly been habitually referred to native pundits. Many of their replies, which Sir Thomas had diligently collected, he recorded in his great book in a form available for reference, with comments on them throughout by such authorities as Colebrooke and Ellis. A fourth edition of the ‘Elements’ was published in 1864 with an introduction by John Dawson Mayne testifying to the great value of Strange's work. For many years it remained the great authority on Hindu law.

Strange died at St. Leonard's on 16 July 1841. His portrait was painted for Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Benjamin West, and for Madras by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Subsequently a portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee was placed in the hall at Christ Church, Oxford.

Sir Thomas married, first, Cecilia, daughter of Sir Robert Anstruther, bart., of Balcaskie; and secondly, Louisa, daughter of Sir William Burroughs, bart., by whom he left a numerous family; his eldest son was [q. v.] Another son, James Newburgh Strange, born on 2 Oct. 1812, became an admiral on 9 Jan. 1880. His fifth son, Alexander Strange, is separately noticed.



STRANGE, THOMAS LUMISDEN (1808–1884), judge and writer, born on 4 Jan. 1808, was eldest son of Sir [q. v.] He was educated at Westminster school, and on leaving in 1823 went out to his father in India, becoming a writer in the East India Company's civil service at Madras in 1825. He was appointed an assistant-judge and joint criminal judge on 24 June 1831, became sub-judge at Calicut in 1843 and civil and sessions judge at Tellicherry in 1845, was a special commissioner for investigating the Molpah disturbances in Malabar in 1852, and for inquiring into the system of judicature in the presidency of Madras in 1859, and was made judge of the high court of judicature in 1862. He resigned on 2 May 1863. He compiled a ‘Manual of Hindoo Law,’ 1856, taking his father's work as a basis. This reached a second edition in 1863. He also published ‘A Letter to the Governor of Fort St. George on Judicial Reform’ (1860).

While in India he was much interested in religious subjects. In 1852 he published ‘The Light of Prophecy’ and ‘Observations on Mr. Elliott's “Horæ Apocalypticæ.”’ Subsequently he was so impressed by observing a supposed convert at the gallows proclaim his faith to be in Rama, not in Christ, that, on examining Christian evidence, his own faith in Christianity broke down. He never ceased to be a pious theist. He explained his position in ‘How I became and ceased to be a Christian,’ and many other pamphlets for the series published in 1872–1875 by (1808–1878) [q. v.]; these publications were afterwards collected