"The East India Company was here in possession of a territory larger than that of Madras; it had been purchased about 100 years before from the Indian prince of the country, and their title to it was confirmed by the Mogul's viceroy, when the Moors conquered the Carnatic. The fort was situated near the sea, twelve miles to the south of Pondicherry: it was small, but better fortified than any of its size in India, and served as a citadel to the Company's territory. About a mile to the south of it, was situated the town of Cuddalore, in which the principal Indian merchants, and many of the natives dependent on the Company, resided. This town extended 1200 yards from north to south, and 900 from east to west: three of its sides were defended by walls flanked with bastions; that towards the sea was for the greatest part open; but a river passing from the westward, between Fort St. David and the town, flowed, just before it gains the sea, along the eastern side of the town, of which, whilst it washed the skirts on one hand, it was, on the other, separated from the sea by a mound of sand, which the surf throws upon the shore in most parts of the coast. To the westward of the fort, and within the Company's territory, were two or three populous villages, inhabited by the natives. "The government of Fort St. David depended on that of Madras, to which it was immediately the next in rank; but, on the breach of the treaty of ransom, the Company's agents at Fort St. David regarding those of Madras as prisoners to the French, took upon themselves the general administration on the coast of Coromandel." [14] Orme, vol. i. p. 7. MEMOIRS OF LORD CLIVE. CHAPTER I. The family of Clive, established in Shropshire, since the time of Henry II., have, for a long period, possessed the small estate of Styche, in the parish of Moreton-Say, near Market-Drayton. At this seat of his ancestors, Robert Clive, the subject of this memoir, was born on the 29th of September, 1725. His father, Richard Clive, married Rebecca, daughter of Nathaniel Gaskill, of Manchester, Esq., by whom he had a family of six sons, and seven daughters. He had been educated for the law, and continued, through a great part of his life, to practise that profession. Mrs. Clive had two sisters, the one of whom, Elizabeth, was married, in 1717, to Daniel Bayley, Esq., of Hope Hall, near Manchester; and the other, Sarah, to the Right Hon. Hugh, eleventh Lord Sempill. Mr. Clive's eldest son, Robert, while not yet three years of age, was sent to his uncle, Mr. Bayley, in whose family he was trained and educated for several years, as his own son.