Fort William College was an academy of oriental studies and a centre of learning, founded on 18 August 1800 by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India, located within the Fort William complex in Calcutta. Wellesley started the Fort William College to train the European administrators. He backdated the statute of foundation to 4 May 1800, to commemorate the first anniversary of his victory over Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam. Thousands of books were translated from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Bengali, Hindi, and Urdu into English at this institution.
Ex libris from the Fort William College Library
Ex-libris of the Fort William College Library
Catalogue of the books in the Library of the College of Fort William (Bibliothèque Numérique Aréale, BULAC)
Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley
Richard Colley Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, was an Anglo-Irish politician and colonial administrator. He was styled as Viscount Wellesley until 1781, when he succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Mornington. In 1799, he was granted the Irish peerage title of Marquess Wellesley of Norragh. He was also Lord Wellesley in the Peerage of Great Britain.
Portrait by Thomas Lawrence, c.1813
Wellesley in officer's uniform with star and sash of the Order of St Patrick. Portrait by Robert Home
Hyacinthe-Gabrielle Roland, as painted by Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun in 1791.
Lord Wellesley in Garter Robes, with the badge of the Grand Master of the Order of St Patrick around his neck and carrying the white staff of office as Lord Steward, presumably dressed for the coronation of King William IV on 8 September 1831. Westminster Abbey in the background. Portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1833
