John Zephaniah Holwell

Who was John Zephaniah Holwell?

John Zephaniah Holwell FRS was a surgeon, an employee of the English East India Company, and a temporary Governor of Bengal. He was also one of the first Europeans to study Indian antiquities.

Holwell was a survivor of the Black Hole of Calcutta, June 1756, the incident in which British subjects and others were crammed into a small poorly-ventilated chamber overnight, with many deaths. Howell's account of this incident obtained wide circulation in England and some claim this gained support for the East India Company's conquest of India. His account of the incident was not publicly questioned during his lifetime nor for more than a century after his death. However, in recent years, his version of the event has been called into question by many historians.

Born in Dublin, he grew up in London, and studied medicine at Guy's Hospital. He gained employment as a surgeon in the English East India Company and was sent to India in 1732. He served in this capacity until 1749. In 1751, he was appointed as zemindar of the Twentyfour Parganas District of Bengal. He then served as a member of the Council of Fort William and defended the settlement against Siraj Ud Daulah in 1756. He later succeeded Robert Clive as temporary Governor of Bengal in 1760, but was dismissed from the Council in 1761 for remonstrating against the appointment of Henry Vansittart as Governor of Bengal. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767.