Chapter RESIDENT to RHOTASS of R by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

RESIDENT to RHOTASS

RESIDENT, s. This term has been used in two ways which require distinction. Thus (a) up to the organization of the Civil Service in Warren Hastings’s time, the chiefs of the Company’s commercial establishments in the provinces, and for a short time the European chiefs of districts, were termed Residents. But later the word was applied (b) also to the representative of the Governor-General at an important native Court, e.g. at Lucknow, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Baroda. And this is the only meaning that the term now has in British India. In Dutch India the term is applied to the chief European officer of a province (corresponding to an Indian Zillah) as well as to the Dutch representative at a native Court, as at Solo and Djokjocarta.

a.—

1748.—“We received a letter from Mr. Henry Kelsall, Resident at Ballasore.”—Ft. William Consn., in Long, 3.

1760.—“Agreed, Mr. Howitt the present Resident in Rajah Tillack Chund’s country (i.e. Burdwan) for the collection of the tuncahs (see TUNCA), be wrote to.…”—Ibid. March 29, ibid. 244.

c. 1778.—“My pay as Resident (at Sylhet) did not exceed 500l. per annum, so that fortune could only be acquired by my own industry.”—Hon. R. Lindsay, in Lives of the L.’s, iii. 174.

b.—

1798.—“Having received overtures of a very friendly nature from the Rajah of Berar, who has requested the presence of a British Resident at his Court, I have despatched an ambassador to Nagpore with full powers to ascertain the precise nature of the Rajah’s views.”—Marquis Wellesley, Despatches, i. 99.

RESPONDENTIA, s. An old trade technicality, thus explained: “Money which is borrowed, not upon the vessel as in bottomry, but upon the goods and merchandise contained in it, which must necessarily be sold or exchanged in the course of the voyage, in which case the borrower personally is bound to answer the contract” (Wharton’s Law Lexicon, 6th ed., 1876; [and see N.E.D. under Bottomry]). What is now a part of the Calcutta Course, along the bank of the Hoogly, was known down to the first quarter of the last century, as Respondentia Walk. We have heard this name explained by the supposition that it was a usual scene of proposals and contingent jawaubs, (q.v.); but the name was no doubt, in reality, given because this walk by the river served as a sort of ’Change, where bargains in Respondentia and the like were made. [1685.—“…Provided he gives his Bill to repay itt in Syam,…with 20 p. Ct. Respondentia on the Ship.…”—Pringle, Diary Ft. St. Geo., 1st ser. iv. 123.]

1720.—“I am concerned with Mr. Thomas Theobalds in a respondentia Bond in the ‘George’ Brigantine.”—Testament of Ch. Davers, Merchant. In Wheeler, ii. 340.

1727.—“There was one Captain Perrin Master of a Ship, who took up about 500 L. on respondentia from Mr. Ralph Sheldon…payable at his Return to Bengal.”—A. Hamilton, ii. 14; [ed. 1744, ii. 12].

„ “…which they are enabled to do by the Money taken up here on Respondentia bonds.…”—In Wheeler, ii. 427.

1776.—“I have desired my Calcutta Attorney to insure some Money lent on Respondentia on Ships in India.… I have also subscribed £500 towards a China Voyage.”—MS. Letter of James Rennell, Feb. 20.

1794.—“I assure you, Sir, Europe articles, especially good wine, are not to be had for love, money, or respondentia.”—The Indian Observer, by Hugh Boyd, &c., p. 206.

[1840.—“A Grecian ghat has been built at the north end of the old Respondentia walk.…”—Davidson, Diary of Travels, ii. 209.]

RESSAIDAR, s. P.—H. Rasaidar. A native subaltern of irregular cavalry, under the Ressaldar (q.v.). It is not clear what sense rasai has in the formation of this title (which appears to be of modern devising). The meaning of that word is ‘quickness of apprehension; fitness, perfection.’

RESSALA, s. Hind. from Ar. risala. A troop in one of our regiments of native (so-called) Irregular Cavalry. The word was in India applied more loosely to a native corps of horse, apart from English regimental technicalities. The Arabic word properly means the charge or commission of a rasul, i.e. of a civil officer employed to make arrests (Dozy), [and in the passage from the Ain, quoted under RESSALDAR, the original text has Risalah]. The transition of meaning, as with many other words of Arabic origin, is very obscure.

1758.—“Presently after Shokum Sing and Harroon Cawn (formerly of Roy Dullub’s Rissalla) came in and discovered to him the whole affair.”—Letter of W. Hastings, in Gleig, i. 70.

[1781.—“The enemy’s troops before the place are five Rosollars of infantry…”—Sir Eyre Coote, letter of July 6, in Progs. of Council, September 7, Forrest, Letters, vol. iii.]