General Notes

Subject of....

Brendon Gooneratne, Yasmine Gooneratne. This Inscrutable Englishman: Sir John D'Oyly, Baronet, 1774-1824. London and New York: Cassell, 1999. x + 294 pp. $29.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-304-70095-0.

From: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 15

D'OYLY, Sir JOHN (1774–1824), of Ceylon, second son of the Ven. Matthias D'Oyly (1743–1816), archdeacon of Lewes and rector of Buxted, a descendant of the D'Oylys of Stone in Buckinghamshire, was born on 6 June 1774. He was educated at Westminster, where he was a favourite pupil of Dr. Vincent, and went out to Ceylon in 1795, on the conquest of that important island from the Dutch. After filling various subordinate positions, he became collector of Colombo in 1802, and in 1810 succeeded Mr. John Gay as secretary to the government of Ceylon. Only the coast of Ceylon had been in possession of the Dutch, and was at this time in the hands of the English. The interior was ruled by the savage king of Kandy, whose dominions were protected by a belt of unhealthy marsh and forest land, and who, believing himself impregnable, had committed many atrocities on British subjects. General Brownrigg [q. v.], the governor of Ceylon, at last determined to reduce this monarch, and the success of his campaigns of 1814 and 1815 was largely due to the assistance of D'Oyly, who acted as head of his intelligence department. D'Oyly also negotiated the terms of peace, and organised the new provinces thus acquired. He was created a baronet for his services on 27 July 1821, and when he died unmarried at Kandy on 25 May 1824 he filled the office of resident and first commissioner of government in the Kandyan provinces. His younger brother, Colonel Sir Francis D'Oyly, was a most distinguished officer, who acted as assistant adjutant-general to the 1st division throughout the Peninsular war, and received a gold cross and three clasps for the battles of Busaco, Fuentes de Onoro, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Nivelle, the Nive, and Orthes; he was made a K.C.B. on the extension of the order of the Bath, and acted as assistant adjutant-general in the campaign of 1815 to Picton's division, and was unfortunately killed by a cannon-ball early in the battle of Waterloo.