Background
James Achilles Kirkpatrick was born in 1764 at Fort Saint George, Madras, Tamil Nadu.
James Achilles Kirkpatrick was born in 1764 at Fort Saint George, Madras, Tamil Nadu.
He also built the historic Koti Residency in Hyderabad, a landmark and major tourist attraction. There he became thoroughly enamored of Indo-Persian culture of Nizam"s court, and gave up his English manner of dress in exchange for Persian costumes. Although a colonel in the British East India Company"s army, Kirkpatrick wore Mughal-style costumes at home, smoked a hookah, chewed betelnut, enjoyed nautch parties, maintained a small harem in his zenanakhana, spoke fluent Hindustani and Persian and openly mingled with the elite of Hyderabad.
Kirkpatrick was adopted by the Nizam of Hyderabad, who invested him with many titles: mutamin ul mulk (safeguard of the kingdom), hushmat jung (valiant in battle), nawab fakhr-ud-dowlah bahadur (governor, pride of the state, and hero).
Towards the end of autumn of 1801, a major scandal broke out in Calcutta over Kirkpatrick"s behaviour at the Hyderabad court. lieutenant raised a major furore because of the interracial nature of the marriage.
Kirkpatrick’s downfall came with Lord Richard Wellesley’s appointment as Governor-General of India. Wellesley was an imperialist determined to reduce the Nizam to subservience.
He strongly disapproved of British-Indian liaisons.
Kirkpatrick was summoned to Calcutta, only to be reprimanded and dismissed. James Achilles Kirkpatrick died in Calcutta on October 15, 1805. After his death, Khair-un-Nissa was taken care by James"s assistant, Henry Russell who replaced him as resident in Hyderabad.
He remained her assistant at Masulipatnam.
Later on a visit to Madras, Russell married a half-Portuguese women and left Khair-un-Nissa on her own. Khair-un-Nissa returned to Hyderabad where she died on 22 September 1813 aged 27.
The two children were baptised on 25 March 1805 at Saint Mary's Church, Marylebone Road, and were thereafter known by their new Christian names, William George Kirkpatrick and Katherine Aurora "Kitty" Kirkpatrick. Kitty was for a few years the love interest of the Scottish writer and philosopher Thomas Carlyle.
She died in Torquay, Devon, in 1889.
A large part of White Mughals, a book by the historian William Dalrymple, concerns Kirkpatrick"s relationship with Khair-un-Nissa.
