Image of Humble Petition of the British Subjects. In 1773 the British government

Humble Petition of the British Subjects. In 1773 the British government established the Supreme Court of...

IMAGE number: BL3261234
Image title: Humble Petition of the British Subjects. In 1773 the British government established the Supreme Court of Judicature for Bengal. Controversially, the court limited the use of juries to criminal cases, while at the same time it effectively extended English law to Indians in the region by admitting their lawsuits. As this petition shows, the Supreme Court was resented by many British expatriates, who felt that it weakened their authority and undermined 'the Great Charter of British Liberties'. Ill-feeling reached its peak in the 1779 civil trial of James Creassy, Superintendent of Public Works in Calcutta, who was denied the right to trial by jury for the assault, battery and false imprisonment of two Hindu carpenters. Creassy's case was the catalyst for this petition, bearing 647 signatures, to the House of Commons in London. It called for the restriction of legal actions by Indians and the re-establishment of the 'inherent, unalienable and indefeasible' rights granted to Englishmen in Magna Carta.
Location: British Library, London, UK

Image description: To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain in Parliament assembled. The Humble Petition of the British Subjects residing in the Province of Bengal, Behar and Orissa and their Several Dependancies 26 February 1779 Source/Shelfmark: IOR/H/144, p.327
Photo credit: From the British Library archive / Bridgeman Images
Image keywords: Calcutta / India / Asia / petition / event / events / 18th century / legacy / british library exhibitions / magna carta exhibition / liberty / magna carta anniversary / document / british library exhibition

Leave the work to our dedicated Account Managers

License details

Your details

* First name

* Last name

* Email

* Phone

* Country

Message

Asset - General information

No Additional Copyright

Permissions

Permission required for non-editorial use (inc book and magazine covers). Please contact us

	Dimension [pixels]	Dimension in 300dpi [mm]	File size [MB]
Large	6269 × 8643 px	531 × 732 mm	25.2 MB
Medium	743 × 1024 px	63 × 87 mm	888 KB

Field	Search term	Example
Asset title	title:	title:pony
Asset title and keywords	~	~pony
Asset description text	description:	description:london
Agency prefix	prfx: or $	prfx:lal or $LAL
Asset id	imageid:	imageid:250297 or imageid:[2500 TO 4000]
Agency name	coll:	coll:history
Medium	medium:	medium:oil
Century	century:	century:20th
Keywords	kw:	kw:dog
Artist name	artist: or ?	artist:monet or ?monet
Artist nationality	??	??French
Creator ID	creatorid:	creatorid:37
Location	loc: or @	loc:exeter or @exeter
Classification	class: or #	class:57 or #57. Use # for unclassified assets
Year	year:	year:1850 or year:[1700 TO 1800]

Contact us for further help