[1] Charles II transferred Bombay to the E.I. Company in 1668.

[2] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II. 238.

[3] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, pp. 65 ff.

[4] R. and O. Strachey, Keigwin’s Rebellion, p. 19 and App. E.

[5] The letter of December 15, 1673, from Aungier and Council mentions these as some of the chief classes of Hindus in Bombay.

[6] R. and O. Strachey, Keigwin’s Rebellion, p. 41.

[7] Ibid. p. 68.

[8] Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI. (Materials), Part III, p. 8.

[9] Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI, Part iii, p. 8.

[10] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 238.

[11] Rev. F. Ovington, Voyage to Suratt in 1689. London, 1696.

[12] P. B. Malabari, Bombay in the Making, p. 437.

[13] Ibid. p. 465. Vereador means procurator or attorney. The Vereador wore a gown as Vereador da Camera or member of a town council (Da Cunha).

[14] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 212.

[15] Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI, Part iii, pp. 8 ff.

[16] P. B. Malabari, Bombay in the Making, p. 287.

[17] Warden’s Report in W. H. Morley, Analytical Digest of Cases decided in the Supreme Court of Judicature (London, 1849), Vol. II, p. 458.

[18] W. H. Morley, Digest etc., Vol. II (Warden’s Report); Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI, iii.

[19] General Wedderburn was killed at the storming of Broach in November, 1772.

[20] The fact that it was called the Bhandari militia implies that the Native Christian element had largely disappeared, and that Bhandaris and other Hindus of the lower classes formed the bulk of the force.

[21] Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI (Materials), Part iii.

[22] Morley Digest etc. (Warden’s Report).

[23] Ibid.

[24] Ibid. Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI, Part iii.

[25] At that date the office of Superintendent of Police existed at Calcutta.

[26] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 241 (note) Morley, Digest etc.

[27] Morley, Digest etc. (Warden’s Report) Vol. II; Bombay Gazetteer, Vol. XXVI, Part III, 67.

[28] Sir J. Mackintosh’s letter in Morley, Digest etc., Vol. II, p. 513.

[29] It is not clear whether this post is identical with “Pilaji Ramji’s Naka” of the twentieth century, which is the name familiarly applied to the junction of Grant Road and Duncan Road near the Northbrook Gardens. Here some years ago one Pilaji Ramji occupied a corner house, in which he used to place an enormous figure of the god Ganesh during the annual Ganpati festival. Large crowds of Hindus used to visit the house to see the idol, and hence gave the name “Pilaji’s post” to the locality. It is quite possible that the name first came into use in the eighteenth century.

[30] Published in 1816, with illustrations by Rowlandson.

[31] Morley, Digest etc. (Warden’s Report), Vol. II, p. 492.

[32] Bombay Courier, February 4th, 1797.

[33] Sir J. Mackintosh’s letter of October, 1811, in Morley, Digest etc. Vol. II.

[34] Warden’s Report in Morley, Digest etc. Vol. II, pp. 482 ff.

[35] The Third Magistrate was not appointed until 1830. The other two were appointed in 1812, and the Second exercised jurisdiction over the whole Island, excluding the Fort and Harbour.

[36] Morley, Digest etc. (Warden’s Report), Vol. II.

[37] Hobson-Jobson, 1903, s. v. Cauzee.

[38] The Kazis of the Bene-Israel officiated at all festivals of the community until the latter half of the nineteenth century, when, as education advanced, the office gradually became extinct. One Samuel Nissim was Kazi in 1800 (Gazetteer of Bombay City & Island, Vol I, pp. 250 ff.)

[39] One of the most notorious gangs was that of a certain Ali Paru, described in the Times of India of July 27, 1872.

[40] Bombay Courier, March 3rd, 1827.

[41] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 143.

[42] One Thomas Holloway appears in the Annual Register as “High Constable” in 1827.

[43] The Supreme Court supplanted the Recorder’s Court in 1823, and was opened in 1824.

[44] F. D. Drewitt, Bombay in the days of George IV.

[45] P. B. Malabari, Bombay in the Making, p. 283.

[46] Times of India, September 22, 1894.

[47] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 224 (note 2.)

[48] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 146-7.

[49] S. T. Sheppard, The Byculla Club, p. 5.

[50] Mrs. Postans, Western India in 1838, Vol. I, p. 27. The Pagis received about Rs. 7 a month for prowling about the compounds of houses by night.

[51] Ibid., Vol. II, p. 222.

[52] Mrs. Postans, Western India in 1838, Vol. I, p. 92.

[53] Mrs. Postans, Western India in 1838, Vol. I, p. 27.

[54] Bombay Times, Feb. 22, 1845.

[55] Ibid., July 31, 1844.

[56] Report of Bombay Chamber of Commerce, 1854-55, pp. 11, 12.

[57] Bombay Times, December 14th, 1850.

[58] Bombay Times, October 18, 1851.

[59] Report on the Administration of Public Affairs in the Bombay Presidency for 1855-56. “During the year 1855 great reforms have been effected in the Police within the jurisdiction of His Majesty’s Supreme Court. Complaints were made by the Chamber of Commerce of the venality of the European constables and of the inefficiency of the general force. These complaints, and other circumstances which induced suspicion, determined Government to place in immediate command of the Police, Mr. Forjett, the most active and efficient of the Mofussil Superintendents, a gentleman who had once been a Foujdar, and who had risen to high and responsible appointments, solely through his own remarkable energy, acuteness and ability. An enquiry by this gentleman soon showed the existence of corruption among the European Constables, a corruption which impaired the efficiency of the whole force. A considerable number were summarily dismissed, and a thorough reform in Police arrangements throughout the Island was commenced by the new Superintendent. These are still in progress: but the Government has been assured that a feeling of entire security as to life and property is now entertained by all classes of the community.”

[60] Mr. B. Aitken in Old and New Bombay states that Forjett was partly of French descent, and that the family name was originally Forget. Owing to constant mispronunciation, Forjett eventually anglicised the name in the form now familiar to students of Bombay history.

[61] See General Adm. Report, Bombay, 1855-56 and 1858-59.

[62] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 244.

[63] The Annual Adm. Rep. Bombay Pres. for 1858-59 mentions that only one case of burglary had occurred in that year and that “robberies with violence have entirely disappeared”.

[64] Annual Police Returns, showing state of crime, for 1859-61. (India Office Records).

[65] Report of the Maharaja Libel Case, Bombay Gazette Press, 1862.

[66] Dunlop had been 3rd Assistant to the Master Attendant of the Government Dockyard, and was appointed head of the Water Police in 1844. Prior to that year no proper water police force was in existence.

[67] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. III, 252; Times of India, January 2nd, 1865; Annual Adm. Rep. Bombay Presidency, 1862-63.

[68] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. III, 49.

[69] Annual Crime Return, 1860; Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, 244.

[70] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, p. 157.

[71] C. Forjett, Our Real Danger in India, 1877; Bombay Gazette, December 25th, 1907.

[72] C. Forjett, Our Real Danger in India, 1877; Holmes, History of the Indian Mutiny.

[73] Apparently it was customary during the Muharram festival in the ’fifties of last century to post a body of 200 Europeans in “the Bhendy Bazar stables”. Presumably additional European police were brought in from Poona and other districts. The Muharram danger was finally eradicated in 1912.

[74] The Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, 158.

[75] C. Forjett, Our Real Danger in India, 1877.

[76] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, Vol. II, 158-9.

[77] C. Forjett, Our Real Danger in India.

[78] Douglas, Bombay and W. India, I, 211.

[79] C. Forjett, Our Real Danger in India.

[80] The use of the phrase “Deputy Commissioner of Police” is explained by the fact that, strictly speaking, the Senior Magistrate was at this date Commissioner of Police, and Forjett as head of the “executive police” was his Deputy. Forjett in his book speaks of himself as Commissioner of Police: but this title was not given to the head of the force till 1865. In the Senior Magistrate’s Annual Crime Return for 1860 Forjett is styled Superintendent of Police: but in his evidence before the Supreme Court in the Bhattia Conspiracy Case, Forjett stated, “In my official capacity as Deputy Commissioner of Police, I received a letter.”

[81] In earlier days one of the chief haunts of these gangs was a deep hollow near the site of the present Arthur Crawford Market (J. M. Maclean, Guide to Bombay, 1902, p. 206.)

[82] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, II, 244; Ann. Adm. Rep. Bombay Presidency, 1858-59.

[83] C. Forjett, Our Real Danger in India.

[84] F. H. Forjett joined the 59th Foot in 1865 and in 1870 was transferred to the Bombay Staff Corps. He served mostly in the 26th Bombay N. I., which in the “seventies” and “eighties” was known familiarly as the “Black Watch”, owing to its having no less than three Eurasian British officers, namely John Miles, the Commandant, a half-caste of dominating personality, John M. Heath and F. H. Forjett.

[85] C. E. Buckland, Dictionary of Indian Biography.

[86] J. Douglas, Bombay and Western India, I, 211.

[87] Letter to Morning Post, August 30th, 1921.

[88] Prior to 1865 there appear to have been 26 mounted police.

[89] First Annual Rep. of the Commissioner of Police, 1884; Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, II, 245.

[90] G. R. J.D. No. 5628 of August 10th, 1883.

[91] Annual Crime Return, 1872.

[92] G. R. J. D. 2633 of April 21st, 1877.

[93] G. R. J. D. 2427 of April 29th, 1873.

[94] Times of India, 1872; Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, II, 179.

[95] Senior Magistrate’s Report of Crime, 1873.

[96] Times of India, February 14th, 1874; the Annual Register, 1874; J. M. Maclean, Guide to Bombay (1902) p. 285; Gazetteer Bombay City II, 180.

[97] Memoir of Sir Dinshaw Petit, Bart. by S. M. Edwardes, 1923.

[98] Annual Report of Senior Magistrate, 1874.

[99] Letter from Lord Salisbury to the Governor-General in Council, July 9th, 1874.

[100] Sir R. Temple, Men & Events of My Time in India.

[101] Annual Report of Senior Magistrate of Police for 1875.

[102] G. R. J. D., June 24th, 1892.

[103] G. R. J. D., 5389 of August 28th, 1893.

[104] Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island, II, 237. A Fourth Presidency Magistrate was appointed in 1892 and was accommodated in the Esplanade Police Court. After the occupation of the Nesbit Lane building by the Second Presidency Magistrate, the Court of the Fourth Magistrate was also located there.

[105] Report of Comm. of Police for 1893.

[106] Mr. Cooper, the Chief Presidency Magistrate, retired in 1893 and was succeeded by Mr. J. Sanders-Slater.

[107] Mr. Crummy acted more than once as Deputy Commissioner of Police.

[108] P. E. Roberts, Hist. Geography of British Dependencies, Vol. VII, p. 508.

[109] The account which follows is taken, in some passages verbatim, from Sir V. Chirol’s Indian Unrest, 1910.

[110] The Sirdar served for 38 years, having joined the force as a second-class Jemadar in 1865. Apart from his work as a detective, he is remembered as the founder of the Maratha Plague Hospital, which he organised and opened in 1898.

[111] G.R.J.D. 3051 of June 4th, 1903.

[112] He received the title of Khan Bahadur in 1904 and the King’s Police Medal in 1910.

[113] V. Chirol, Indian Unrest, pp. 55, 56.

[114] V. Chirol, Indian Unrest, p. 57.

[115] Prior to 1913 the Excise authorities were not empowered to prosecute offenders in the Courts. The Police had to conduct all prosecutions. From the year mentioned the Excise department was given the necessary powers.

[116] A full and detailed report of the disturbance is given in Mr. Edwardes’ letter to Government, No. 545 C. of January 20th, 1911, printed below as an Appendix.