The authoress incidentally mentions that in a house at Coel, formerly the property of General Perron, Derridon was staying in 1838. His grandsons (adds Compton) were owners of the same property as late as 1871. Louis Derridon (to quote Mr. Keene) founded a family of farmers whose present representatives have preserved few signs of their European origin. Mr. Keene recalls that when he was District Judge of Agra in the 'seventies of the last century, members of this family came to his Court as litigants; they dressed like Europeans but spoke Hindustani. There are said to be persons of the name still living at Aligarh. It appears from a passing reference in Higginbotham's Men whom India has Known that the family once used to reside at Pondicherry.

The Major Derridon, of whom we have written above, is described by Compton as a "half-bred Frenchman.” He had two sisters, one of whom, Madeleine by name, married the celebrated General Perron. The following sentence regarding Perron's last days in India occurs in Larousse : Grand Dictionnaire universel du xix siècle:" Se retira à Lucknow avec sa famille et ses richesses, dout les Anglais lui entèverent une partie." When her husband returned to France, about 1806, Madame Perron accompanied him and became the ancestress of several families of distinction. Both Perron's sons died without issue, but the eldest daughter became the Comtesse de Montesquiou Fizensac, whose grandson is the present Marquis de Brantes ;

The following is taken from the Aligarh District Gazetteer :— ́ ́ Close by [to the M. A. O. College] towards the Fort, is the ruined house called the Saheb Bagh, standing within a walled garden with a large gateway and guard-house on the roadside and bastions at each corner. This was the residence of de Boigne and Perron, and at one time it must have been a very handsome building. It was occupied for some years by the Derridon family and was last used by Mr. Smith as a Settlement Office."

while a younger daughter was the Comtesse de Rochefoucauld and died so recently as 1892.

The second Mademoiselle Derridon, Anne by name, was the wife of John Hessing who is mentioned below. On becoming a widow she came down with one or two of her younger children to Deegah, Dinapore, where she passed away on the 21st October 1820. THE ELDER HESSING.

John William Hessing is described by Major L. F Smith in his Sketch of the Irregular Corps commanded by Europeans in the service of Native Princes, as a good benevolent man and a brave soldier. A Dutchman born at Utrecht on the 5th November 1739, he came out to India at twenty-four years of age and entered from time

to time the service of several Indian chiefs. It would be no easy matter to recount his various adventures before he obtained from de Boigne the command of the first two battalions the latter had raised for Sindhia, whose army had lately been organised. Hessing took part in several engagements in more than one of which he was wounded. On account of an unfortunate disagreement with de Boigne he had to leave. But not long after he was commissioned by Madhoji Sindhia, who was still favourably inclined towards him, to raise a khás resala or bodyguard for that Chief, and accompanied him to Poona. He had increased the number of his battalions to four when ill-health obliged him to resign in favour of his son George. This was, according to Keene, about 1794, but considering that at that time George Hessing was only twelve years of age, the later date, 1800, given by Compton, is more likely to be correct. Destined to see no more active service, John Hessing then assumed command of the Agra Fort. Here he appears to have gained the esteem of everybody with

whom he came in contact, owing to his high character and generous disposition. He was also famed for his hospitality which was extended to British visitors to Agra. The following interesting glimpse of him is given by Lord Metcalfe, then (March, 1801) a young Civilian and Assistant Resident at the camp of Daulat Rao Sindhia: "I breakfasted by invitation with the Dutch Commandant, Colonel J. Hessing. I found him with his son, who commanded in the engagement at Oojein, where his battalions were defeated; a M Marshall, an Englishman, and two others, whose names I have not learnt. The breakfast consisted of kedgeree (rice and eggs), fish, game, fowls, curry and rice, stews, oranges, pears, pomegranates, eggs, bread-and-butter, cakes of all kinds, pancakes, and a number of other dishes which have escaped my recollection-amongst others I have forgotten to enumerate cheese. The Dutchman was as polite as a Dutchman could be, and very well-meaning, I am certain. On the following day I breakfasted and dined with him again." Hessing died in 1803 at Agra and is buried in the old Roman Catholic cemetery adjoining the Civil Courts. His monument, the most prominent one there, is said to have cost a lakh of rupees.* It is a red sandstone model of the Taj-to which building Victor Jacquemont, the French traveller, even preferred it! (Growse: Mathura: a District Memoir). The long epitaph inscribed on his mausoleum runs as follows:

“John William Hessing, late a Colonel in the service of Maharaja Daulat Rao Sindhia, who, after sustaining a lingering and very painful illness for many years with a tone of

An illustration, in which Hessing's monument is clearly shown, appears with an article on "The Rank and File who have given us India" in the Graphic of so recent a date as December 16th, 1911.

Christian fortitude and resignation, departed this life, 21st July, 1803, aged 63 years, II months, and 5 days. As tribute of their affection and regard, this monument is erected to his beloved memory by his disconsolate widow, Anne widow, Anne Hessing, and afflicted sons and daughters, George William Hessing, Thomas William Hessing and Magdalene Sutherland. He was a native of Utrecht in Holland and came out Ceylon in the Military service of the Dutch East India Company in the year 1757, and and was present at the taking of Candia by their troops. Five years afterwards he

returned to Holland and came out again to India in the year 1763, and served under the Nizam of the Deccan. In the year 1784, he entered into the service of Madho Rao Sindhia and was engaged in the several battles that led to the aggrandizement of that Chief, and wherein he signalized himself so by his bravery as to gain the esteem and approbation of his employer, more particularly at the battle of Bhondagaon near Agra in the year 1787, which took place between this Chief and Nawab Ismael Beg, when he then became a Captain, and was severely wounded. On the death of Madho Rao Sindhia in 1793, he continued under his successor, Daulat Rao Sindhia, and in 1798, he attained to the rank of Colonel and immediately after to the command of the Fort and City of Agra, which he held to his death."

The same old cemetery it may be added, contains monuments to Walter Reinhard (better known as General Sámru; to four of Perron's children; to Miss Madeleine Pedron, daughter of Colonel Pedron, the Killahdar of Aligarh who capitulated to Lord Lake; to members of the Indian branch of the Bourbon family; to Geronimo Verroneo, a Venetian who was believed to have prepared and submitted to Shah Jehan plans and estimates for the Taj (died 1640), and to John Mildenhall, an Englishman, who had had interviews with the Emperor Akbar (1614).*

Hessing's younger son, Thomas, married at Deegah, 30th June 1819. Miss Jane Frances Brown, third daughter of General Thomas Brown, commanding at Dinapore, and died some two or three years later, letters of administration to his estate being granted in 1822 to John Palmer the well-known Calcutta merchant. Hessings' daughter, Madeleine, had married Colonel Robert Sutherland regarding whom a few words, considering his family-relationship to the Hessings and others, may not be uninteresting.

COLONEL ROBERT SUTHERLAND

was a Scotchman and originally an officer in the 73rd Regiment from which he was cashiered. Entering in 1790, de Boigne's first brigade, he obtained command. of the third and then of the second. On de Boigne s retirement in 1795, Sutherland made every effort to succeed him, but Perron managed to secure the Command for himself, and this led to a life-long feud between the two. In 1796. Sutherland was employed in reducing some revolted districts in Bundelkhand and bringing into obedience several petty rajahs, during which time.

• See letter on "Historical Graves" by Mr. W. N. Hoffstadt in the Statesman of the 19th and the Pioneer of the 23rd October 1911.