History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. IL] ZHE ONE INDIAN BARONET. 109

Majesty, and the mark of distinction which he received from his grateful fellow-citizens in the shape of a statue. But his honours did not cease here, for, shortly before his death, Her Gracious Majesty was pleased to raise him to the dignity of a baronet of the United Kingdom, which title has not to this day been conferred upon any other native of India. He died in 1859 at the patriarchal age of seventy-six. The grief of the general community on that occasion manifested itself in an intense form; the banks, merchants’ offices, and all the shops in the city were closed as a mark of respect to his memory.

Sir Jamshedji left three sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Kharshedji, succeeded to the baronetcy and his father’s entailed estate. He and his brothers inherited the spirit of their father. The Deccan College is a monument of the second baronet’s enlightened liberality. He occupied his revered father’s place in the community with equal dignity, and was honoured and respected by all. Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, Governor of Bombay, conferred upon him the distinction of a seat in the Legislative Council. On his death, which took place in the year 1877, a public meeting of the inhabitants of Bombay, European as well as native, convened through the Sheriff, and presided over by Sir Richard Temple, the able, popular,

* The patent of this baronetcy, which will be interesting to Parsi readers, is given in the Appendix.