Serie SC29/2 - Documents of Maratha History collected by Sir Charles Warre Malet

Sir Charles Warre Malet entered the service of the East India Company at an early age. He filled various posts, including charge of a mission to the Mughal emperor and of the residency at Cambay from 1774 to 1785, where he formed views in favour of expanding British power in India. Malet also developed an unrivalled knowledge of Gujarat and western India more generally, and was dispatched by the government in Calcutta to persuade the Maratha leader Sindhia to accept the appointment of a company resident to the court of the peshwa at Poona, a post which he took up himself in November 1785. He considered western India an asset to improve British trade with China, and considered it important to have greater control over the rulers of western India. When Tipu Sultan attacked Travancore in 1789, Cornwallis made an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Peshwa of Mahratta through Malet. This treaty was signed with difficulty, as Tipu also sought to forge alliances with the Peshwas. For his efforts Malet was created a baronet in February 1791. Malet retired to Britain in 1798 accompanied by Susanna (d. 1868), daughter of the portrait painter James Wales. The couple married on 17 September the following year and had eight sons. He died at Bath on 24 January 1815, when he was described as living at Wilbury House, Wiltshire.