22 



THE PREDECESSORS OF THE 



within their jurisdiction and to punish offenders conform- 

 ably to the laws of England. 1 



In 1653 Fort St. George, which had up to this time been 

 governed by an Agent and Council who were subordinate to 

 the President and Council of Bantam, was raised to the rank 

 of a presidency, 2 and in 1657 the Company obtained a 

 Charter from Cromwell, 3 but this Charter was probably 

 destroyed at the Restoration, and all record of it appears to 

 have been carefully suppressed. 



The next Charter, that of the 13th Charles II (3rd April 

 1661), provided that all plantations, forts, fortifications, 

 factories or colonies, where the Company's factories and trade 

 were or should be in the East Indies, should be under the 

 power and command of the Company, who should have liberty, 

 full power and authority to appoint and establish Governors 

 and all other officers to govern them : and that the Governor 

 and his Council of the several and respective places where 

 the Company had or should have any factories or places of 

 trade within the East Indies might have power to judge all 

 persons belonging to the Company, or that should live under 

 them, in all causes whether civil or criminal according to the 

 laws of the Kingdom, and to execute judgment accordingly ; 

 and in case any crime or misdemeanour should be committed 

 in any of the Company's factories in the East Indies where 

 judicature could not be executed as aforesaid for want of a 

 Governor and Council there, then it should be lawful for the 

 chief Factor of that place and his Council to transmit the 

 party together with the offence to such other plantation, 

 factory or fort where there was a Governor and Council 

 where justice might be executed, or into the Kingdom of 



1 Bruce' s Annals of the East India Company, vol. i, p. 459. 



2 Bruce's Annals, vol, i, p. 484. 



3 Ibid, p. 529. 



