Sir David Ogilby (?1755-1834) was an Irish-born officer in the East India Company's Madras Army who was knighted for his service in the Anglo-Mysore Wars.
Birth and early life He was among the numerous children of Alexander Ogilby, "an eminent bleacher and linendraper" of Limavady, County Londonderry,Londonderry Journal, 24 October 1772 (reporting his death). and his wife Mary (born Alexander). His father had captained a militia company in the 1750s,Colonel Lord Conyngham's Regiment of Dragoons arrayed in 1756 from A List of Officers in the Several Regiments & Independent Troops & Companies of Militia in Ireland, Dublin, 1761. but otherwise there was no prior military tradition in his family.
Like much else concerning David Ogilby, his date of birth cannot be stated with certainty. An early source, closely identified with Ogilby himself, states that he was born on 3 August 1755 and served with the Irish Volunteers from the age of 14 or 15.Some Striking Particulars in the Life of Sir David Ogilby, published in Walker's Hibernian Magazine or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge for February 1804, pp. 65-70. These two details are difficult to reconcile because the Limavady Battalion of the Volunteers was not formed until 7 November 1777, but a birthdate of 1755 is supported by Ogilby's reported age of 78 at death in 1834.County Chronicle and Weekly Advertiser for Essex, Herts &c, London, 19 August 1834, p. 2. Another source, consciously contradicting the first, gives his date of birth as 3 August 1767,The East India Military Calendar; containing the Services of General and Field Officers of the Indian Army, by the Editor of the Royal Military Calendar (John Philippart), Vol. II, Kingsbury, Parbury & Allen, London, 1824, pp. 291-298. but he had definitely been born by 6 March 1766 when named in a lease of lands at Ballyhenry, County Londonderry.Lease for Lives (including that of David, son of Alexander Ogilby of Limavady) Conyngham to Smith: registered memorial 239.594.163965, Registry of Deeds, Dublin.
In about 1780 he obtained an East India Company cadetship and, having attended Lewis Lochee's military academy in Little Chelsea, he embarked for India early in 1782. Within a fortnight of his arrival at Madras he was, through the influence of Paul Benfield, commissioned ensign in a Native Infantry corps in the southern army.
Military service 1782–1802 He first saw action in the attacks on Tipu Sultan's garrisons at Panchalankurichi, Sivagiri and Palakkad Fort in the latter part of 1783. In the first of these engagements the British force withdrew after "considerable slaughter on both sides"Willam Fullarton, A View of the English Interests in India and An Account of the Military Operations in the Southern Parts of the Peninsula, T. Cadell, London, 1787, p. 125. and Ogilby and his men were left to cover the retreat and bring off the wounded.
In the same year he had temporary command of his battalion when, on picket duty at Coimbatore, it successfully resisted an attack by a large body of Tipu's cavalry, and he was jointly responsible for moving some 20,000 cattle and sheep to supply the army assembled at Dharapuram. When later engaged on a similar movement of stock with a small detachment of sepoys, he had to beat a 15-mile retreat over the open plains of Dharapuram under repeated attack by a mounted force of 400. The Second Mysore War ended shortly afterwards.
Having successfully applied for appointment to the 1st Madras European Regiment, he was soon given command of a company on the general staff of the army. He was later promoted lieutenant and, following outbreak of the Third Mysore War and the capture of Dharapuram in 1790, had command of the native troop detachments forming part of the garrison there.
Returning to field service in command of a grenadier company, he distinguished himself by his valour at the taking of the important stronghold of Dindigul in July 1790 and was appointed Fort Adjutant. He remained in that post until 1796, strengthening the allegiance of several Polygar leaders to the East India Company and bringing the extensive and fertile valley of Dindigul under control by obtaining surrender of the fortress of Uthamapalayam, for which achievement he received special thanks from Government.J. G. S. Neill (as "A Staff Officer"), Historical Record of The Honourable East India Company's First Madras European Regiment, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1843, pp. 338-339. The surrender of Uthamapalayam was accomplished after he took hostage two Polygar chiefs who professed loyalty to the Company but exposed their treachery when conversing in the Tamil language in Ogilby's presence, not realising he was proficient in their tongue.
From 1796 to 1800 he had command of the garrison at Namakkal, with responsibility for holding in check the strong outpost of Karur. He later claimed that, prior to the outbreak of the Fourth Mysore War, he submitted to Lord Clive plans for the surprise and reduction of the forts of Karur, Erode, Dharapuram, Coimbatore and Calumbaum, pledging to take Karur at the head of half his garrison or die in the attempt; the submission was said to have utilised intelligence he obtained by entering Karur in disguise, and to have been favourably received but not adopted because of the need to maintain supplies from the relevant districts for the grand army at Seringapatam.
In 1796 he was, with other lieutenants in the East India Company service (HEICS), given the brevet rank of captain in His Majesty's armyKentish Gazette, 2 September 1796, p. 2. and in 1798 he was promoted captain-lieutenant in the HEICS.Asiatic Annual Register for the Year 1799, 2nd Edn., J. Debrett, London, 1801, p. 143 (reporting appointment dated 15 July 1798). Few European constitutions were considered equal to twenty years' service in the Indian climate,Fullarton, A View of the English Interests in India, p. 219. and in 1800 Ogilby was at Madras and about to go on furlough due to deteriorating health when he learned that his corps was among those General Wellesley had assembled at Chitradurga to suppress the insurgency of Dhondia Wagh. He immediately travelled 600 miles inland to take part in the defeat of Wagh's forces. He eventually left India on furlough in 1802, sailing from Bombay for America on 22 May.Saint James's Chronicle, 11 December 1802, p. 4.
America, knighthood and marriage In 1798 Ogilby had buried his companion Ann Campbell in the cemetery at Tiruchirappalli where he had previously laid their four children to rest.Monumental inscriptions, Christ Church Cemetery, Trichinopoly Fort, Madras Presidency, India. In 1802 he met, at Boston, Massachusetts, Mary Tyler Cooke, the orphaned nineteen-year-old niece of judge and playwright Royall Tyler, and in early winter the pair sailed for Liverpool, claiming to have married.Grandmother Tyler's Book, The Recollections of Mary Palmer Tyler (Mrs Royall Tyler) 1775-1866, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1925, pp. 299-310. They were at Limavady by 1804 when Mary gave birth to a daughter who died in May.Walker’s Hibernian Magazine or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge for March 1804, p. 191; The Lady's Monthly Museum; or Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction, Vol. XVI, April 1806, p. 228.
On 29 January 1804 Ogilby was dubbed a knight bachelor at Dublin Castle by the Earl of Hardwicke, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, a Dublin newspaper reporting "The reputation of this deserving officer had prepared Lord Hardwicke to estimate his character, and his excellency was pleased, publicly, to confer upon him the honour of knighthood, in consideration of a series of zealous and meritorious services to his country, during the long and arduous period of twenty-two years in the East Indies".Saunders's News-Letter and Daily Advertiser, 1 February 1804, p. 1. The knighthood was one of only three bestowed by Hardwicke during his time as Lord Lieutenant, 1801-1806; his selections appear idiosyncratic.
Ogilby's accolade was promptly followed by publication of a congratulatory account of his military service in Walker's Hibernian Magazine.Walker’s Hibernian Magazine or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge for February 1804, pp. 65-70. This was reproduced in the Madras-based Government Gazette, prefaced by remarks critical of its objectivity.Government Gazette, Madras, 13 September 1804, p. 3.
Accompanied by "Lady Ogilby", he proceeded to London and in October was promoted Major, 9th Native Infantry, in succession to James Achilles Kirkpatrick.Government Gazette, Madras, 11 October 1804, p. 7. In the following year the couple's "beautiful new chariot, built purposefully for India" was damaged outside the Opera House in Covent Garden,Saint James's Chronicle, 23 April 1805. and in 1806 they were based in Norfolk Street, Grosvenor Square, and preparing to depart for Madras.Government Gazette, Madras, 19 June 1806, quoting London news of 1 March. In April The Lady's Monthly Museum published "A Biographical Sketch of Lady Ogilby""A Biographical Sketch of Lady Ogilby, Interspersed with interesting Anecdotes", The Lady's Monthly Museum; or Polite Repository of Amusement and Instruction, Vol. XVI, April 1806, pp. 217-228. which included a highly coloured account of Ogilby's courtship of her and extolled her beauty, benevolence, refinement, elegance and literary talent in terms such that her aunt assumed the piece was self-written.Grandmother Tyler's Book, p. 308.
The Lady's Monthly sketch recalled that, during Ogilby's time in America, he "traversed a considerable tract of the interior" and rewarded the hospitality of those whom he met by presenting them with seeds he had collected from Tahiti, India and Mauritius and instructing them in the appropriate methods of cultivation.The Lady's Monthly Museum, pp. 222-223, 224.
On 27 May 1806 Ogilby and Mary Tyler Cook (described as spinster, of Portsea, Hampshire, and Roxbury, Massachusetts) were married at St Mary's Parish Church, Portsea, by Bishop's Licence. Their infant son and daughter had been baptised in a Unitarian chapel at Portsmouth on the previous day.Register of St Mary's Church, Portsea; Records of Hill Street Unitarian Chapel, Portsmouth (in England and Wales Non-Conformist Records Indexes 1588-1977: RG4-8). A fortnight later the family sailed for India on the Lord Eldon, arriving at Calcutta in November.Caledonian Mercury, 31 May 1896, p. 2; Government Gazette, Madras, 1 January 1807, p. 1.
Military service 1807–1809 Ogilby rejoined the 9th Native Infantry at Fort St George in March 1807Government Gazette, Madras, 12 March 1807, p. 1. and was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in May 1808.Government Gazette, Madras, 13 October 1808, p. 3. He commanded the regiment's 1st Battalion and was next senior officer to Major-General Robert Croker who had charge of the Ceded District of Bellary.Papers Relating to East India Affairs (Madras Army), House of Commons, 1810, Further Enclosure No. 30 in General Letter of 10th September 1809 from the Governor in Council at Fort St George to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors, p. 42. Ogilby's return to India coincided with an upsurge of discontent among officers of the Madras Army due to reduction of their financial benefits. By July 1809 a major failure of military discipline gripped southern India, with many officers treating their troops as their own private armies. To isolate the most mutinous element, all officers were called on to pledge that they would act in support of the government.