THE BLACK HOLE.
The marble pavement below this spot
was placed here
by
Lord Curzon, Viceroy and Governor-General of India,
in 1901
To mark the site of the prison in Old Fort William
known as the Black Hole.
In which 146 British Inhabitants of Calcutta were
confined on the night of the 20th June, 1756,
and from which only 23 came out alive.
The pavement marks the exact breadth of the prison,
14 ft. 10 in., but not its full length, 18 feet.
About one-third of the area at the north end being
covered by the building on which this tablet is erected.
Near by Mr. Holwell, then Collector of Calcutta, who was one of the survivors, erected an obelisk at his own expense to the memory of those who perished in the Black Hole on the spot where the 123 killed were buried. The tablet bore the following inscriptions:—
To the Memory of—
Edward Eyre, William Bailie, Esqrs.; the Revd.
Jervas Bellamy; Messrs. Jenks, Reeveley, Law, Coates,
Napcourt, Jebb, Torrians, E. Page, S. Page, Grub, Street,
Harod, P. Johnstone, Ballard, N. Drake, Carse, Knapton,
Goslin, Dod, Dalrymple; Captains Clayton, Buchanan, and
Witherington; Lieutenants Bishop, Hays, Blagge, Simpson,
and J. Bellamy; Ensigns Paccard, Scott, Hastings,
C. Wedderburn, and Dymbleton; Sea-Captains Hunt, Osburn,
and Purnell; Messrs. Carey, Leech, Stevenson, Guy Porter,
Parker, Caulkee, Bendal and Atkinson;
Who, with sundry other inhabitants, Military and
Militia, to the number of 123 persons, were, by
the tyrannic violence of Suraj-ud-Dowlah,
Suba of Bengal,
Suffocated in the Black-Hole Prison of Fort William,
on the night of the 20th day of June, 1756,
and promiscuously thrown the succeeding
morning into the ditch
of the ravelin of this place.
This monument is erected by their surviving fellow-sufferer,
J. Z. Holwell.
This horrid act of violence was as amply as deservedly
revenged on Suraj-ud-Dowlah, by His Majesty's arms,
under the conduct of Vice-Admiral Watson and Col. Clive,
Anno 1757.
The Marquis of Hastings in 1840 had the monument pulled down, but Lord Curzon in 1903 had a replica made and placed in the same spot where it now stands.
APPENDIX G
Extract from the narrative of the interruption in the mail arrangements
in the N.-W.P. and Punjab subsequent to the Mutiny at Meerut and
Delhi on the 10th and 11th May, 1857.
By Mr. G. Paton, Postmaster-General, North-West Provinces.
On the mutiny of the native troops at Meerut and Delhi on the 10th and 11th May, 1857, the mail communication between Meerut, Delhi and Allyghur was interrupted. The eastern mails were then forwarded from Allyghur via Anoopshahur and Moradabad to Meerut and thence direct to Kurnaul or via Seharanpore to Umballa. In like manner the mails from the north-west were forwarded from Kurnaul and Umballa to Allyghur. There was delay by the arrangement, but it was the only one practicable on the route via Delhi being closed by the mutiny and rebellion there.
2. After the lapse of a week the mail was reopened between Allyghur and Meerut, but by the mutiny of the 9th Regiment N.I. on the 20th June at Allyghur all postal communication from the north, the south, the east and west of that station was stopped.