Neil Benjamin Edmonstone (1765-1841) was born on 6 December 1765. He became a writer in the civil service of the East India Company in 1783, and was appointed Perisan translator to the government in 1794. He was Lord Mornington's private secretary during the Madras expedition against Tipu Sultan in 1799, and became secretary to the foreign, political and secret department of the Government of India in 1801, and chief secretary to the government in 1809. He was a member of the Supreme Council at Calcutta, 1812-1817, and a director of the East India Company from 1820. Edmonstone died in London on 4 May 1841.
The collection includes letters relating to the children Edmonstone had by his relationship with a native woman in India (no. 3). The mother's identity is not known, although she was of sufficient education to be able to correspond with her sons in England. The letters indicate that the couple had at least four children, of whom three were boys who took the surname Elmore: John, probably born in 1796; Alexander ('Alick'), born two years later; and Frederick, born four or five years after Alexander. There is only a passing reference to the daughter. In 1802 John and Alexander were placed in the care of Miss Margaret Ballie, who lived in Inverness. She was the sister of an officer in the East India Company's army who was an intimate friend of Neil Edmonstone. Frederick was taken to England in 1811, and placed at a school with W. Shepherd, who kept an academy at Leyton. However, he fell ill, and died within a few years. John entered the army at the age of nineteen, after a commission was purchased for him by Edmonstone's brother, Charles, in a Scots regiment stationed at Charlesfort, Kinsale. Alexander found employment in a manufacturer's business in Glasgow.
From the guide to the Neil Edmonstone: Correspondence and papers, 1783-1981, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
