"The government of Fort St. David depended on that of Madras, to which it was immediately the next in rank; but, on the breach of the treaty of ransom, the Company's agents at Fort St. David regarding those of Madras as prisoners to the French, took upon themselves the general administration on the coast of Coromandel."
[14] Orme, vol. i. p. 7.
MEMOIRS OF LORD CLIVE.
CHAPTER I.
The family of Clive, established in Shropshire, since the time of Henry II., have, for a long period, possessed the small estate of Styche, in the parish of Moreton-Say, near Market-Drayton. At this seat of his ancestors, Robert Clive, the subject of this memoir, was born on the 29th of September, 1725.
His father, Richard Clive, married Rebecca, daughter of Nathaniel Gaskill, of Manchester, Esq., by whom he had a family of six sons, and seven daughters. He had been educated for the law, and continued, through a great part of his life, to practise that profession.
Mrs. Clive had two sisters, the one of whom, Elizabeth, was married, in 1717, to Daniel Bayley, Esq., of Hope Hall, near Manchester; and the other, Sarah, to the Right Hon. Hugh, eleventh Lord Sempill.
Mr. Clive's eldest son, Robert, while not yet three years of age, was sent to his uncle, Mr. Bayley, in whose family he was trained and educated for several years, as his own son.