Henry Miers Elliot

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Sir Henry Miers Elliot KCB (1 March 1808 – 20 December 1853) was an English civil servant with the East India Company and a historian who worked in India for 26 years. He is best known for The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians, eight volumes published after his death (1867–1877).

Born in Westminster, he was the third of fifteen children of John Elliot. He studied at Winchester College and was headed for New College, Oxford, but chose a career with the East India Company, becoming one of the first civilians to pass an open exam for India. He excelled in oriental languages, classics, and mathematics.

Elliot held various administrative posts in India, including roles in Bareilly, Delhi, and Muradabad, and later served as secretary to the Sudder board of Revenue for the North-West Provinces. In 1847 he became secretary to the governor-general in council for the foreign department. He accompanied Lord Hardinge to the Punjab, wrote a memoir on its resources, and, as foreign secretary, helped in the Sikh War and in negotiating a treaty with Sikh chiefs. He was awarded the KCB in 1849.

In his spare time, Elliot pursued scholarly work. He published Supplement to the Glossary of Indian Terms in 1845 (with a second edition in 1860). His major project was Bibliographical Index to the Historians of Muhammadan India, which aimed to analyze 231 Arabic and Persian historians; only the first volume appeared in 1849.

He married Eliza Rebecca Cowell, daughter of a judge at Bareilly. Ill health forced him to seek a change of climate, and he died on 20 December 1853 at Simon’s Town, Cape Colony, aged 45. A memorial exists at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Kolkata.

Elliot’s manuscripts were used by scholars to publish important histories, including The History of India, as Told by Its Own Historians (edited by John Dowson, eight volumes, 1866–1877, with a sequel by Bayley in 1886). His Memoirs on the History, Folklore, and Distribution of the Races of the North-West Provinces were edited by John Beames in 1869, and a revised edition of his Glossary appeared later. An Appendix to the Arabs in Sind, written on his deathbed, reflects his enduring intellectual vigor.