Sir Proby Thomas Cautley, KCB (3 January 1802 – 25 January 1871), was an English engineer and palaeontologist who is best known for having conceived and supervised the construction of the Ganges Canal during East India Company rule in India. The canal stretches some 350 miles between its headworks at Haridwar and, after bifurcation near Aligarh, its confluences with the Ganges river mainstem in Kanpur and the Yamuna river in Etawah.Stone (2002) p.18 At the time of completion, it had the greatest discharge of any irrigation canal in the world.
Proby Cautley was educated at Charterhouse School (1813–18), followed by the East India Company's Military Seminary at Addiscombe (1818–19). After less than a year, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and dispatched to India, joining the Bengal Presidency artillery in Calcutta. In 1825, he assisted Captain Robert Smith, the engineer in charge of constructing the Eastern Yamuna canal, also called the Doab canal. He was in charge of this canal for 12 years between 1831 and 1843. By 1836, he had become Superintendent-General of Canals.
Cautley is also known for his research on fossils found in India, particularly those found in the Siwalik Hills, which he conducted in collaboration with Hugh Falconer. In 1846, he was made a fellow of the Royal Society for this work.
Parents and childhood
Proby Cautley was born in Raydon, Suffolk on 3 January 1802 to Catherine, née Proby (–1830), and Thomas Cautley (–1817). Proby Cautley's grandfathers on both sides were clergymen. His father, Thomas, was an erudite man who had spent most of his life at the University of Cambridge. Thomas had entered Trinity College in 1772. He was chosen Second Wrangler in the B. A. examination. He went on to receive the M.A. and B.D. degrees. After being elected a Fellow of Trinity College in 1778, he held various administrative positions at Cambridge until .
In 1791, Thomas was granted a living and rectorship at Raydon, where, after his marriage and departure from Trinity, he took up residence. However, his wife died after the birth of the couple's second daughter. Eighteen months later, Thomas married Catherine, the second of eight daughters of the clergyman, Narcissus Charles Proby (1738/9–1804) in nearby Stratford St. Mary. Reverend Proby, who owned land in Stratford, Cheshire, and Ireland, was wealthy by what was typical for that time and place. Each daughter had a marriage settlement of £1,000. In 1803, the year following Proby Cautley's birth, Thomas Cautley combined his living with his father-in-law's. Upon Reverend Proby's death in December 1804, the Cautleys moved into the Stratford parsonage. Proby was the eldest surviving son; a year after him, a sister, Catherine Maria, was born, followed later by a brother George, and a second sister Arabella.
Supported by Thomas Cautley's two incomes, the family lived comfortably. The children were raised in an intellectually invigorating atmosphere. Their interests included painting, collecting plants in their natural environment, fossils, and reading. River Stour, which ran through Stratford, had a lock which survives. Later in life, George produced some books of verse. One poem dedicated to Proby on the occasion of the opening of the Ganges Canal in 1854, replayed childhood memories: The garden brook, home of thy first essay, The mimic sluice, and fairy waterwheel, And those mild eyes which blest thy thoughtful play...
Thomas Cautley's health began to falter in 1807. He died on 13 July 1817 and was buried in Roydon church, where his first wife is also memorialised. Proby's brother George entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, in 1825 and became a clergyman, while his sisters remained at home with their mother until her death in June 1830. There are memorials to her and Proby's father in Stratford St Mary church. Proby's childhood was passed amidst a large family: his own family, and, living nearby, his grandmother Proby, his mother's seven sisters, and his cousins. This contrasted markedly with his life in India, where he was to arrive alone on a vast continent still shy of his 18th birthday.
Education
Proby Cautley was sent away to boarding school at age 11, entering Charterhouse School in January 1813, and remaining a pupil there until July 1818. The school, founded in 1614 and not far from St Paul's School, London, had approximately 200 pupils. The annual fees was £80, putting the school outside the reach of all but the somewhat affluent. During that time, the headmaster was the Reverend John Russell, who was in office from 1811 until 1832.
Cautley's time at Charterhouse was very likely also passed under a system traditional in public schools, with the rule of monitors, fagging, corporal punishment, and an education made up mainly of Latin and Greek, with a bit of Mathematics. Charterhouse was an institution with a close and long-established association with military service in India during the period of East India Company rule there. A Charterhouse education was not uncommonly followed by further studies at the East India Company's Artillery and Engineers Seminary at Addiscombe.
A decision on a military career having been taken, Cautley was recommended sometime in 1817 by his uncle, Archibald Elijah Impey, to James Pattinson, who was on the Court of Directors of the Company, and authorised to nominate several boys annually to the Seminary. On 29 July 1818, Cautley was taken by his uncle to East India House, London, the headquarters of the Company, to apply for admission as a cadet to Addiscombe. Cautley furnished details of his date of birth and physical fitness. He and his uncle attested that the admission to Addiscombe was achieved without cost to the recipient.
Academic prerequisites for entering cadets included a firm foundation in arithmetic, including vulgar fractions, good handwriting, and proficiency in English- and Latin grammars. During Cautley's time at Addiscombe, Dr James Andrew was the Principal and Professor of Mathematics and Classics. There were seven other teachers. The annual fee of £30 was paid by the East India Company, as were other expenses, such as the weekly pocket money of 2s 6d. Cadets choosing not to proceed to India had to reimburse the Company for costs incurred.
The cadet's uniform during Cautley's time consisted of a single-breasted coatee made of blue cloth with a red collar and cuffs, and the tail cut and folded back to expose a red lining. The trousers were also made of blue fabric with red stripes running down the outer seams. The headwear consisted of a "bell-top" shako—which flared outwards towards the top; it was made of black beaver fur, and fitted with a white plume.
A Public Examination at Addiscombe, a formal assessment in which cadets gave evidence of mastery of pre-disclosed questions, was held twice a year. A public examiner attended it. During Cautley's stay, the public examiner was Col. William Mudge, who had led the trigonometrical survey of Great Britain. Cautley's public examination was held on 6 April 1819; his stay at Addiscombe was less than a full year. It was thought that he may have been rushed through on account of a pressing call for artillerymen from India. Some students who were not quite 16, were also allowed to leave for India, a fact lamented in Col Mudge's report on the examination. Cautley received a prize for drawing; it was a copy of Edward Edwards' Perspective.
Military career in India, 1819–1825
On 19 April 1819 Cautley was commissioned as a second lieutenant. His passage to India was assigned on Marquis of Wellington, an East India Company vessel laid down in 1811. Very likely, it is what Cautley boarded at the Downs on 23 May 1819. An older ship with the same name was wrecked in 1818. The ship's fare amounted to between £55 and £95, depending on whether the newly-commissioned cadets ate with third mates in their mess or at the officers' dining table. An additional £15 had to be paid to the ship's owners.
A £95 payment guaranteed only accommodations in steerage. Sharing a cabin with another cadet, considered the best choice for an ensign like Cautley, cost more. As a cadet's salary and allowances did not commence until he arrived in India, he required a £100 letter of credit for purchasing the regimental uniform in India. Travelling with a uniform purchased in England was discouraged as the sea air often tarnished the gold or silver trimmings.
In 1819 the journey to India proceeded around the Cape of Good Hope and took four to six months. It was several decades before a feasible route over land via Cairo became available, and several decades more before the Suez Canal was opened in 1869. Once a ship docked in Diamond Harbour, 90 miles below Calcutta at the mouth of the Hooghly River, the cadets had to hire boats to take them and their luggage upriver to Fort William.
A newly-arrived cadet was advised to present his credentials without delay to the fort-major, the officer next in rank to the commandant, to set the start date for his salary. He was given living accommodations in Fort William, and the head-servant of the barracks supplied furniture and advice on acquiring personal servants. Three or four weeks could be approved for acquiring uniforms and making arrangements to proceed to one's army unit in the interior of the country. Cautley reached Calcutta (now Kolkata) on 11 September 1819, and was inducted into military service.
The journey up country was often made in a budgerow, a single- or double-masted decked boat, fitted with ten or 12 oars, and room for two passengers and their luggage. The transit up the Ganges could take two to six months, the latter duration once recorded for a fleet of boats in 1833. The mortality rate among newly-commissioned cadets from departure from England to arrival at the army unit in India was 8%. The causes were deaths at sea, tropical diseases, or sudden squalls during the river journey.
Upon arrival at his regiment, the cadet was encouraged to hire household staff, whose combined monthly salaries, together with expenses in the regimental mess, could amount to Rupees 60 (a rupee being 2s 6d at par in 1820). However, two ensigns sharing a bungalow and household staff could manage each on Rupees 40. The requisite horse and groom cost an additional 16 rupees monthly per person. As an ensign's monthly salary and allowances totalled 200 rupees, he could live comfortably on half that amount. Still, money needed to be set aside strategically. If the need for sick leave arose, the Company paid for the journey home but not the return. Three-year furloughs were not granted until after the tenth year, and officers received only two and a half years' salary. The custom of purchasing "steps" among junior officers also made savings essential. To facilitate their collective advancement up the seniority ladder, they raised money for senior officers to induce them to retire.
During his first two years in India, Cautley was stationed in the Presidency of Fort William, or the Bengal presidency. He moved successively—according to army records—to Rajputana in 1821, Cawnpore in 1822, and Agra in 1823–1824. He spent his time in artillery duties, such as the reducing forts in the Oudh State.
Early in 1825, Cautley was sent to the Himalayan foothills to assist in the comprehensive overhaul of the Doab Canal, also known as the Eastern Jumna (now Yamuna) Canal. Except for a single reassignment to military duty later that year, he was to work in hydraulic engineering for the rest of his years in India.