Dublin-born James Augustus Hicky had an adventurous nature and quickly grew tired of his monotous printer’s job. He joined the British Navy and evenually ended up settling in Calcutta, where he established Hicky’s Bengal Gazette in 1780, writes Denis J. Hickey.

 

Bareheaded, and in respectful silence on a dull October evening in 1802, the crew of the Ajax stood shoulder to shoulder as their captain concluded the age-old maritime funeral service: “The Lord lift up his countenance upon him, and give him peace, Amen”. “Amen”, the crew answered.

The captain nodded and the shrouded form with its cannonball weights was tipped into the depths of an aqua-marine ocean. But this wasn’t just an anonymous old salt! This man had helped loosen the tightly-woven mesh in which the British East India Company had ensnared that country.

James Augustus Hicky was probably born in Dublin c1739. His linen-weaver father died when James was in his early teens and the young lad found employment as a scrivener with a Dublin attorney. Tiring of the monotony of legal briefs, Hicky headed to London where he was apprenticed to a Scottish printer. Leaving prior to the completion of his apprenticeship, he joined the British Navy, but his restless spirit saw him leave the Service prematurely.

Hicky returned to London where he entered the service of Segreant Davy, a leading lawyer. Having read some publications on surgery, Hicky felt he could become a surgeon. But few potential employers were prepared to risk a self-taught surgeon on their payroll so Hicky resumed his life on the ocean wave – albeit an unglamorous one: that of a Surgeon’s Mate on a slave ship to Guinea. He soon realised his new employment was unlikely to gain him the fortune he sought – but he was aware of a shining jewel where fortunes were regularly amassed – India! He decided to set his compass to the land in which the British East India Company had sown its intangible roots.

Climatic and dietary changes were least of the challenges India posed its European immigrants. There was the ever-present risk of diseases to which Europeans had little resistance. It was estimated that around twenty-five percent of European soldiers died in India annually and that less than ten per cent survived to avail of their pensions.

Hicky jumped ship in Calcutta, abandoning his surgeon’s mate duties and settled in the ‘Black Town’ quarter, home to tradesmen and the less successful Europeans. Here he set up as a surgeon and for a time performed basic first-aid and elementary surgery. Seeing little hope of a fortune he abandoned his calling and borrowed money to purchase a small vessel with the intention of leasing her to trade between Calcutta and Madras. But his ship and cargo were damaged and later becalmed and, after two months, the vessel was forced to return to port.

Despite Hicky’s plea that the vessel would sail once repairs had been effected, his creditors showed little sympathy. They seized all his worldly goods including his ship, house and furniture and, on 20 October 1776, he was lodged in jail as a debtor – but not before he had passed his savings of 2,000 Rupees to a close friend. Enter another Hickey – William, lawyer of Calcutta’s Supreme Court.

William Hickey was intrigued to learn of a European who was somehow surviving the primitive conditions of Calcutta’s Common Jail. He decided to visit him and learn his story. Hicky told his visitor he had recovered the 2,000 Rupees he had given in trust to a friend and had invested in a printing press and types. His former apprenticeship now stood him in good stead and Hicky was soon busily employed in his prison hut printing various advertisements, handbills – even documents for the Supreme Court!

William arranged Counsel to represent Hicky in an action against Bysack, a banker who alleged he was owed 8,955 Rupees. Hicky not only won the case but was awarded an additional 600 Rupees in a counter-claim. Hicky’s next contact with officialdom proved disastrous. He was awarded the printing of the army’s new regulations. A huge undertaking, it amounted close to 40,000 pages with complex tables and grids. Hicky borrowed 4,000 Rupees for the project and hired tradesmen and additional printers.

Advance copies of the new regulations met with general army-officer opposition and Hicky found petty delays to any requests made for payment. The end came when friends of Governor General Hastings set up a press and he decreed that all official notices should be printed by them.

Early January 1780 saw curious crowds gathered around notices that appeared all over Calcutta: James Augustus Hicky was about to launch India’s – and Asia’s – first newspaper. On January 29 1780, Hicky’s Bengal Gazette hit the streets of Calcutta. Printed on Saturdays, its first three pages consisted of news and readers’ letters, with the fourth donated to advertisements.

Initially, Hicky’s benign editorship requested readers to write letters or to contribute some poetry. He called on officialdom to improve infrastructure, road construction and maintenance, and, not least, sanitation. He had some early successes – correspondents who had cited the number of bodies decaying on Calcutta streets learned the police had now assumed responsibility for same. Following a disastrous fire, Hicky’s campaign to rid Calcutta of thatched houses saw a law drafted to prevent the building of such houses within the city.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own