Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe was born on 2 January 1795 at 49
Portland Place, London, and christened on 27 March 1795 in
St Marylebone Parish Church, London. He arrived in
Delhi in 1813 and lived there for forty years. His elder brother,
Charles (1785–1846), was Resident to the
Mughal Emperor's court, and briefly the provisional
Governor General of Bengal (1835–36). He married Felicite Anne Browne on 13 July 1826. In 1830, Metcalfe began to build the "
Metcalfe House" on the outskirts of Delhi, taking land belonging to
Gurjar villagers. He filled it with his collections of art, books and relics of
Napoleon. He succeeded his brother as Baronet in 1844, and became an important figure in the cultural climate of
Delhi. and including descriptive text and touching words and was sent to his daughter
Emily as she headed from an English schooling to join him in Delhi. The album has now been acquired by the
British Library. During the rainy season he used to stay at 'Dilkusha' (Delight of the Heart), which was built on the first floor of the tomb of Mohammed Quli Khan, brother of
Adham Khan, general of
Mughal Emperor,
Akbar, situated south east of the
Qutb complex in
Mehrauli, an area which was also the traditional retreat of the Mughals for the season., Metcalfe album, 1843 While his main house was a colonial bungalow, built in 1844, its library contained over 20,000 books including Napoleon memorabilia. During the
Indian Rebellion of 1857, the house was sacked by the Gurjar villagers from whom the land was bought to erect the building and the library was destroyed and looted.
Family His father was
Sir Thomas Theophilus Metcalfe, 1st Baronet and his mother was Susannah Sophia Selina Debonnaire. His father first went to India in 1767 as a cadet in the
East India Company Army, eventually becoming a Director of the
British East India Company. He married, firstly, Grace Clarke, daughter of Alexander Clarke, on 7 June 1815, by whom he had one daughter. He married, secondly, to Felicite Anne Browne, on 13 July 1826, by whom he had one son and two daughters. He was succeeded in his title by his eldest son, Sir Theophilus John Metcalfe, 5th Baronet, who was also in the Indian Civil Service.
Death In 1853 Metcalfe suffered a digestive disorder which led to his slow death. His doctors believed that the ailment was caused by poison, since the symptoms were similar to those seen in certain "inconvenient" high ranking members of the Mughal royal family such as Mirza Fakhru who was a friend of Metcalfe. Metcalfe's family, and Metcalfe himself, suspected that he was being administered poison on the instructions of
Zinat Mahal, the last
Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah's favorite wife. He was buried in a grave to the east of the
Skinner Family's cemetery, at the
St. James' Church near
Kashmiri Gate,
Delhi. ==Reminiscences of Imperial Delhi==