Mark Wilks - Revision history

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			{{Short description\|Madras Army officer, historian and colonial administrator}}
	{{Use dmy dates\|date=June 2017}}		{{Use dmy dates\|date=June 2017}}
	{{Use Indian English\|date=June 2017}}		{{Use Indian English\|date=June 2017}}
	[[~~File:~~ColMarkWilks.jpg\|~~thumb~~\|~~right~~\|~~Col~~. ~~Mark~~ Wilks]]		{{Infobox officeholder
	[[Colonel]] '''Mark Wilks''' {{post-nominals\|country=GBR\|FRS}} (1759 – 19 September 1831) was a [[~~Isle of Man\|Manx~~]] ~~soldier~~, historian and ~~East India Company~~ administrator who worked in southern India principally in the princely state of Mysore. He was the acting Resident at the Wodeyar Court.		\| honorific_prefix = Col.
			\| name = Mark Wilks
			\| honorific_suffix = FRS
			\| office = [[Speaker of the House of Keys]]
			\| monarch = [[King William IV]]
			\| term_start =
			\| term_end =
			\| predecessor =
			\| successor =
			\| image = ColMarkWilks.jpg
			\| imagesize =
			\| caption =
			\| birth_date = 1759
			\| birth_place = [[Douglas, Isle of Man]]
			\| death_date = 19 September {{death year and age\|1831\|1759}}
			\| death_place = [[Kelloe House]], [[Berwickshire]]
			\| nationality = [[United Kingdom\|British]]
			\| party = Independent
			\| partner =
			\| alma_mater =
			\| children =
			\| parents = {{ubl\|Elizabeth (née Christian)\|Rev. James Wilks}}
			\| profession = {{hlist\|Army officer\|historian\|colonial governor\|politician}}
			\| known_for =
			\| lieutenant_governor = [[John Ready]]
			}}
			[[Colonel]] '''Mark Wilks''' [[Speaker of the House of Keys\|SHK]], {{post-nominals\|country=GBR\|FRS}} (1759 – 19 September 1831) was a [[Madras Army]] officer, historian and colonial administrator who worked in southern India principally in the princely state of Mysore. He was the acting Resident at the Wodeyar Court.

	==Life==		==Life==
	He was born at [[Kirk Michael, Isle of Man\|Kirk Michael]] vicarage in the [[Isle of Man]], the son of Rev. James Wilks and Elisabeth Christian, and came from a lineage of Manx gentry. He was named after his godfather, Bishop [[Mark Hiddesley]].<ref>{{cite book \|last1=Moore \|first1=Arthur William \|title=Manx Worthies, Or, Biographies of Notable Manx Men and Women \|year=1901 \|publisher=S.K. Broadbent \|page=155 \|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgQPAAAAQAAJ&q=Mark+Wilks+b.+1759&pg=PA154 \|access-date=1 February 2021 \|language=en}}</ref>		He was born at [[Kirk Michael, Isle of Man\|Kirk Michael]] vicarage in the [[Isle of Man]], the son of Rev. James Wilks and Elisabeth Christian, and came from a lineage of Manx [[landed gentry]]. He was named after his godfather, Bishop [[Mark Hiddesley]].<ref>{{cite book \|last1=Moore \|first1=Arthur William \|title=Manx Worthies, Or, Biographies of Notable Manx Men and Women \|year=1901 \|publisher=S.K. Broadbent \|page=155 \|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgQPAAAAQAAJ&q=Mark+Wilks+b.+1759&pg=PA154 \|access-date=1 February 2021 \|language=en}}</ref>

	He purchased cadetship through [[Sir Henry Fletcher, 1st Baronet, of Clea Hall\|Sir Henry Fletcher]], in the court of the Directors of the East India Company in 1781 at the age of 18, joining the Madras Army. He was commissioned an officer in 1782 and like others, he was trained at Fort St. George, he picked up Persian. He translated the Persian poet Nasir-ud-din's work ''Aklak-i-Naseri'' into English. Wilks served as a secretary to the Military Board in 1787, accompanying Sir [[Barry Close]] on a diplomatic mission to Mysore. His early education included Greek and Latin classics which and he would later in life promote its study by his nephew [[Mark Cubbon]]. He served as the Town Major at [[Fort Saint George]] around 1788, the capital of ~~Madras Presidency. After a furlough in England Wilks became a private secretary to Lord Edward Clive. Wilks served alongside~~ [[~~James Stuart~~ (~~British Army officer, born 1741~~)\|~~General James Stuart~~]] during the storming of [[Srirangapatna]] resulting in the death of Tipu Sultan in May 1799. He was sent to Basra and returned in 1803 to India to be appointed [[Resident (title)\|Resident]] at [[Mysore]].		Hi father was a contemporary of [[Thomas Wilson (bishop)\|Bishop Wilson]]<ref>Manks Advertiser, Tuesday, October 04, 1831; Page: 7</ref>

	He wrote several historical works including, ''Report on the Internal Administration of Mysore''. This was a continuation of a report on the survey of the [[Kingdom of Mysore]] undertaken by Lieut. Col. [[Colin Mackenzie]]. He also wrote the book ''Historical Sketches of the South of India in an attempt to trace the History of Mysoor''.<ref>{{cite book\|title=Historical sketches of the south of India, in an attempt trace the history of Mysoor ''by Lieut. Colonel Mark Wilks''\|location=London\|publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme\|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007704944\|postscript=; vol. 1 (1810); vols. 2 & 3 (1817)}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal\|title=Review of ''Historical Sketches of the South of India; in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor'' by Colonel Mark Wilks, volumes ii & iii\|journal=The Quarterly Review\|date=October 1817\|volume=18\|pages=47–73\|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092624956;view=1up;seq=57}}</ref> This also relates to the works of Lieut. Col. Colin Mackenzie. Mark Wilks was the uncle of [[Mark Cubbon]] who was the Commissioner of Mysore and after whom the Cubbon Park in Bangalore is named.		He purchased cadetship through [[Sir Henry Fletcher, 1st Baronet, of Clea Hall\|Sir Henry Fletcher]], in the court of the Directors of the East India Company in 1781 at the age of 18, joining the [[Madras Army]]. He was commissioned an officer in 1782 and like others, he was trained at Fort St. George, he picked up Persian. He translated the Persian poet [[Nasir al-Din al-Tusi\|Nasir-ud-din]]'s work ''[[Nasirean Ethics\|Aklak-i-Naseri]]'' into English. Wilks served as a secretary to the Military Board in 1787, accompanying Sir [[Barry Close]] on a diplomatic mission to Mysore. His early education included Greek and Latin classics which and he would later in life promote its study by his nephew [[Mark Cubbon (army officer)\|Mark Cubbon]]. He served as the Town Major at [[Fort Saint George]] around 1788, the capital of Madras Presidency.

			After a furlough in England Wilks became a private secretary to [[Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis\|Lord Edward Clive]]. Wilks served alongside [[James Stuart (British Army officer, born 1741)\|General James Stuart]] during the storming of [[Srirangapatna]] resulting in the death of [[Tipu Sultan]] in May 1799, receiving the approbation of [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington\|Arthur Wellesley]].<ref>Manks Advertiser, Tuesday, October 04, 1831; Page: 7</ref> Wilks was then sent to [[Basra]], from where he returned to India in 1803 to be appointed [[Resident (title)\|Resident]] at [[Mysore]].

			He wrote several historical works including, ''Report on the Internal Administration of Mysore''. This was a continuation of a report on the survey of the [[Kingdom of Mysore]] undertaken by Lieut. Col. [[Colin Mackenzie]]. He also wrote the book ''Historical Sketches of the South of India in an attempt to trace the History of Mysoor''.<ref>{{cite book\|title=Historical sketches of the south of India, in an attempt trace the history of Mysoor ''by Lieut. Colonel Mark Wilks''\|location=London\|publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme\|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007704944\|postscript=; vol. 1 (1810); vols. 2 & 3 (1817)}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal\|title=Review of ''Historical Sketches of the South of India; in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor'' by Colonel Mark Wilks, volumes ii & iii\|journal=The Quarterly Review\|date=October 1817\|volume=18\|pages=47–73\|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092624956;view=1up;seq=57}}</ref> This also relates to the works of Lieut. Col. Colin Mackenzie. Mark Wilks was the uncle of [[Mark Cubbon (army officer)\|Mark Cubbon]] who was the Commissioner of Mysore and after whom the Cubbon Park in Bangalore is named.

	After his return from India, Mark Wilks, with the active help and co-operation of [[James Achilles Kirkpatrick\|James Kirkpatrick]], the [[East India Company]] (EIC) Resident at [[Hyderabad, India\|Hyderabad]], wrote one of the first histories of medieval South India: ''Historical Sketches of the South of India''. This volume examined the rise of the Mysore [[Wodeyar]] dynasty in the confusion following the fall of [[Vijayanagara]] in 1565. Wilks denounced the reign of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan in his historical enquiries and sought to find the causes for the decline of the Vijaynagar Empire.		After his return from India, Mark Wilks, with the active help and co-operation of [[James Achilles Kirkpatrick\|James Kirkpatrick]], the [[East India Company]] (EIC) Resident at [[Hyderabad, India\|Hyderabad]], wrote one of the first histories of medieval South India: ''Historical Sketches of the South of India''. This volume examined the rise of the Mysore [[Wodeyar]] dynasty in the confusion following the fall of [[Vijayanagara]] in 1565. Wilks denounced the reign of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan in his historical enquiries and sought to find the causes for the decline of the Vijaynagar Empire.

	In 1813 he was appointed Governor for three years of [[Saint Helena]] where the exiled former French Emperor [[Napoleon]] is said to have found Wilks a highly engaging and affable man. Saint Helena was chiefly a center for slave trade and as Governor he did not outlaw it ~~but he is thought to have taken a sympathy for~~ Samuel Ally, a freed slave. Wilks invited [[William Roxburgh]] to study the possibility of cultivating cinchona. After the British government took temporary control of St Helena from the EIC during Napoleon's time on St Helena, Wilks return to England in 1816 and was elected to the Manx parliament, the [[House of Keys]]. In 1826, after the death of his father-in-law, he became [[Speaker of the House of Keys\|Speaker of the house]]. A portrait of Mark Wilks still hangs in the [[Tynwald]] building in Douglas.		In 1813 he was appointed Governor for three years of [[Saint Helena]] where the exiled former French Emperor [[Napoleon]] is said to have found Wilks a highly engaging and affable man. Saint Helena was chiefly a center for slave trade and as Governor he did not outlaw it. He engaged the services of Samuel Ally, a freed slave, who returned with Wilks to the Isle of Man and took employ as his servant.<ref>Rising Sun, Saturday, 1 June 1822; Page: 3</ref><ref>{{Cite web\|title=Samuel Ally (1804–1822) − Find A Grave Memorial\|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/192371189/samuel-ally\|access-date=2021-12-01\|website=www.findagrave.com\|language=en}}</ref> Wilks invited [[William Roxburgh]] to study the possibility of cultivating cinchona. After the British government took temporary control of St Helena from the EIC during Napoleon's time on St Helena, Wilks return to England in 1816 and was elected to the Manx parliament, the [[House of Keys]]. In 1826, after the death of his father-in-law, he became [[Speaker of the House of Keys\|Speaker of the house]]. A portrait of Mark Wilks still hangs in the [[Tynwald]] building in Douglas.

	In February 1826, as Colonel Mark Wilks, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref>{{cite web \| url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27wilks%27%29 \|title= Library and Archive Catalogue \| publisher= Royal Society\| access-date= 30 October 2010}}</ref>		In February 1826, as Colonel Mark Wilks, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref>{{cite web \| url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27wilks%27%29 \|title= Library and Archive Catalogue \| publisher= Royal Society\| access-date= 30 October 2010}}</ref>
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	He married twice. In 1813 he married his second wife, Dorothy Taubman, daughter of his predecessor as Speaker. He had a son John Barry (named after Barry Close) who died young and a daughter, Laura, who married Gen. Sir John Buchan KCB of [[Kelloe House]], Berwickshire, where Wilks died on a visit in 1839.		He married twice. In 1813 he married his second wife, Dorothy Taubman, daughter of his predecessor as Speaker. He had a son John Barry (named after Barry Close) who died young and a daughter, Laura, who married Gen. Sir John Buchan KCB of [[Kelloe House]], Berwickshire, where Wilks died on a visit in 1839.

	[[Sir Mark Collet, 1st Baronet\|Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet]] was his great-great nephew. Their papers are held together at the Manx National Heritage Library and Archives.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Family papers of Sir Mark Edlmann Collet, including Buchan, Wilks, Cubbon and Collet relatives - Archives Hub \|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/d8fef24a-7e33-351f-9129-0f1fd9a1dd21 \|publisher=Manx National Heritage Library and Archives\|access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref>		[[Sir Mark Collet, 1st Baronet\|Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet]] was his great-great nephew. Their papers are held together at the Manx National Heritage Library and Archives.<ref>{{cite web \|title=Family papers of Sir Mark Edlmann Collet, including Buchan, Wilks, Cubbon and Collet relatives − Archives Hub \|url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/d8fef24a-7e33-351f-9129-0f1fd9a1dd21 \|publisher=Manx National Heritage Library and Archives\|access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref>

	==References==		==References==
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	{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Mark}}		{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Mark}}

			[[Category:1759 births]]
	[[Category:1831 deaths]]		[[Category:1831 deaths]]
	[[Category:~~Manx people~~]]
	[[Category:~~People of the Kingdom of Mysore~~]]		[[Category:People from the Madras Presidency]]
	[[Category:~~Manx politicians~~]]		[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]
			[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
	[[Category:Governors of Saint Helena]]		[[Category:Governors of Saint Helena]]
	[[Category:~~Fellows of the Royal Society~~]]		[[Category:Manx historians]]
	[[Category:~~Year of birth uncertain~~]]		[[Category:British resident at Mysore]]
	[[Category:~~1759 births~~]]		[[Category:People from Michael (sheading)]]

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{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=June 2017}}
[[File:ColMarkWilks.jpg|thumb|right|Col. Mark Wilks]]
[[Colonel]] '''Mark Wilks''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}} (1759 – 19 September 1831) was a [[Isle of Man|Manx]] soldier, historian and East India Company administrator who worked in southern India principally in the princely state of Mysore. He was the acting Resident at the Wodeyar Court.

==Life==
He was born at [[Kirk Michael, Isle of Man|Kirk Michael]] vicarage in the [[Isle of Man]], the son of Rev. James Wilks and Elisabeth Christian, and came from a lineage of Manx gentry. He was named after his godfather, Bishop [[Mark Hiddesley]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moore |first1=Arthur William |title=Manx Worthies, Or, Biographies of Notable Manx Men and Women |year=1901 |publisher=S.K. Broadbent |page=155 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgQPAAAAQAAJ&q=Mark+Wilks+b.+1759&pg=PA154 |access-date=1 February 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

He purchased cadetship through [[Sir Henry Fletcher, 1st Baronet, of Clea Hall|Sir Henry Fletcher]], in the court of the Directors of the East India Company in 1781 at the age of 18, joining the Madras Army. He was commissioned an officer in 1782 and like others, he was trained at Fort St. George, he picked up Persian. He translated the Persian poet Nasir-ud-din's work ''Aklak-i-Naseri'' into English. Wilks served as a secretary to the Military Board in 1787, accompanying Sir [[Barry Close]] on a diplomatic mission to Mysore. His early education included Greek and Latin classics which and he would later in life promote its study by his nephew [[Mark Cubbon]]. He served as the Town Major at [[Fort Saint George]] around 1788, the capital of Madras Presidency. After a furlough in England Wilks became a private secretary to Lord Edward Clive. Wilks served alongside [[James Stuart (British Army officer, born 1741)|General James Stuart]] during the storming of [[Srirangapatna]] resulting in the death of Tipu Sultan in May 1799. He was sent to Basra and returned in 1803 to India to be appointed [[Resident (title)|Resident]] at [[Mysore]].

He wrote several historical works including, ''Report on the Internal Administration of Mysore''. This was a continuation of a report on the survey of the [[Kingdom of Mysore]] undertaken by Lieut. Col. [[Colin Mackenzie]]. He also wrote the book ''Historical Sketches of the South of India in an attempt to trace the History of Mysoor''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Historical sketches of the south of India, in an attempt trace the history of Mysoor ''by Lieut. Colonel Mark Wilks''|location=London|publisher=Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007704944|postscript=; vol. 1 (1810); vols. 2 & 3 (1817)}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Historical Sketches of the South of India; in an Attempt to Trace the History of Mysoor'' by Colonel Mark Wilks, volumes ii & iii|journal=The Quarterly Review|date=October 1817|volume=18|pages=47–73|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044092624956;view=1up;seq=57}}</ref> This also relates to the works of Lieut. Col. Colin Mackenzie. Mark Wilks was the uncle of [[Mark Cubbon]] who was the Commissioner of Mysore and after whom the Cubbon Park in Bangalore is named.

After his return from India, Mark Wilks, with the active help and co-operation of [[James Achilles Kirkpatrick|James Kirkpatrick]], the [[East India Company]] (EIC) Resident at [[Hyderabad, India|Hyderabad]], wrote one of the first histories of medieval South India: ''Historical Sketches of the South of India''. This volume examined the rise of the Mysore [[Wodeyar]] dynasty in the confusion following the fall of [[Vijayanagara]] in 1565. Wilks denounced the reign of Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan in his historical enquiries and sought to find the causes for the decline of the Vijaynagar Empire.

In 1813 he was appointed Governor for three years of [[Saint Helena]] where the exiled former French Emperor [[Napoleon]] is said to have found Wilks a highly engaging and affable man. Saint Helena was chiefly a center for slave trade and as Governor he did not outlaw it but he is thought to have taken a sympathy for Samuel Ally, a freed slave. Wilks invited [[William Roxburgh]] to study the possibility of cultivating cinchona. After the British government took temporary control of St Helena from the EIC during Napoleon's time on St Helena, Wilks return to England in 1816 and was elected to the Manx parliament, the [[House of Keys]]. In 1826, after the death of his father-in-law, he became [[Speaker of the House of Keys|Speaker of the house]]. A portrait of Mark Wilks still hangs in the [[Tynwald]] building in Douglas.

In February 1826, as Colonel Mark Wilks, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].<ref>{{cite web | url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27wilks%27%29 |title= Library and Archive Catalogue | publisher= Royal Society| access-date= 30 October 2010}}</ref>

He married twice. In 1813 he married his second wife, Dorothy Taubman, daughter of his predecessor as Speaker. He had a son John Barry (named after Barry Close) who died young and a daughter, Laura, who married Gen. Sir John Buchan KCB of [[Kelloe House]], Berwickshire, where Wilks died on a visit in 1839.

[[Sir Mark Collet, 1st Baronet|Sir Mark Wilks Collet, 1st Baronet]] was his great-great nephew. Their papers are held together at the Manx National Heritage Library and Archives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Family papers of Sir Mark Edlmann Collet, including Buchan, Wilks, Cubbon and Collet relatives - Archives Hub |url=https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/d8fef24a-7e33-351f-9129-0f1fd9a1dd21 |publisher=Manx National Heritage Library and Archives|access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref>

==References==
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Wilks, Mark}}

{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://archive.org/details/historicalsketc01wilk ''Historical Sketches of the South of India'' (Volume 1)]
*[https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch02wilkuoft ''Historical Sketches of the South of India'' (Volume 2)]
*[https://archive.org/details/historicalsketch03wilkuoft ''Historical Sketches of the South of India'' (Volume 3)]

{{Speaker of the Keys}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilks, Mark}}
[[Category:1831 deaths]]
[[Category:Manx people]]
[[Category:People of the Kingdom of Mysore]]
[[Category:Manx politicians]]
[[Category:Governors of Saint Helena]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1759 births]]