Chapter VI / Osterley Walk
Osterley at Madras: II
Along with other East Indiamen, the Osterley ships brought into England and to the Childs’ treasury a variety of colonial goods and private commissions with which they even ran lotteries for fun.
In 1761, Robert Adam - a renowned architect who had worked with at 24 East India Company men29 and about 17 slave-owning elites30 - was employed by Robert Child II to completely remodel the manor of Osterley into the house that we see here today. As a shareholder of the East India Company and heir to the family bank, Robert Child desired to refashion Osterley House as a glittery symbol of his wealth and status- as a “party palace” to entertain guests. The material worlds of East and South Asia were stitched into the fabric of the house, with objects procured through private trade commissions and ferried by the East Indiamen.
We are now in 1777.
A second Osterley ship docked at Madras Harbour beside Fort St. George. Within the premises of the Fort was located the office of the Madras Bank, which would go on to become a joint-stock company called the Bank of Madras. Madras Bank was founded for and by European traders, and worked closely with the Company to support its endeavours. In 1779, the Osterley II was captured by the French on its homeward journey.
© Yale Center for British Art.
You are at Osterley House.
Proceed to the entrance. Ask a volunteer for directions to the library and look for a tall, black lacquered screen placed outside it.
Image: Fort St. George, 1736. Print made by Gerard van der Gucht, 1696–1776. Yale Center for British Art. Paul Mellon Collection, B1978.43.272. (Public Domain)
29 Palmer, Sue & Sands, Frances. 2020. “Clients/connections of Sir John Soane and Robert Adam who were Directors of the East India Company, profited from the East India Company or other colonial positions/connections”. Sir John Soane Museum Collections. Accessed August 2, 2024. https://www.soane.org/sites/default/files/2023-11/Soane%20and%20Adam%20clients%20and%20connections_East%20India%20Company%20links%20and%20similar.pdf
30 Palmer, Sue & Sands, Frances. 2020. “Clients of Sir John Soane and Robert Adam connected with the trade in enslaved people”. Sir John Soane Museum Collections. Accessed August 2, 2024. https://www.soane.org/sites/default/files/2023-11/Soane%20and%20Adam%20clients_connections%20with%20the%20trade%20in%20enslaved%20people.pdf
Fort St. George, 1736. Print made by Gerard van der Gucht, 1696–1776. Yale Center for British Art. Paul Mellon Collection.