- William Petrie
William Petrie (b. 1784; d. 1816) was an Officer of the East India Company in
Chennai (formerly Madras) during the 1780s. He set up a private observatory in his residence located inEgmore ,Chennai ,India . The main aim of the observatory was "to provide navigational assistance to the company ships and help determine the longitudes by observing the eclipses of Moon and satellites of Jupiter".Fact|date=June 2008 He gifted the observatory to the East India Company and the first modern astronomical observatory outsideEurope was born. It was named as theMadras Observatory and was located inNungambakkam .Michael Topping (1747-96) was appointed as the astronomer of this observatory by the Company. TheMadras Observatory later evolved intoIndian Institute of Astrophysics .Petrie was a Member of Council in Madras in the 1790s, and acted for three months as Governor of Madras in 1807. He was appointed
Governor of Prince of Wales Island (Penang Island ) in 1809, and died there. [Buckland, C. E., "Dictionary of Indian biography", 1906]Governor of Penang
Petrie received his appointment on 29 Nov 1811 probably owing to Aechibald Seton being absent on duty with the Java Expedition. Seton was officially Lieutenant-Governor of Penang from 9 May 1811 to 27 July 1812 but was absent on duty with The Java Expedition from 13 May 1811 until the end.
Petrie served as Acting Governor till the end of Seton's official rule and then as Governor of Penang from September 1812 to October 1816. He died while still in office.
A number of the “interactions” with the public by the Governors are also recorded in the pages of the Gazettes. William Petrie, Governor from 1812 to 1816, for example, requested in the last days of 1813 that “the Gentlemen of His Majesty’s and the Honorable Company’s Civil, Naval and Military Service, and the other Gentlemen of the Settlement will honor him with their company at Breakfast at half past eight; and at dinner, at half past four o’clock, on New Year’s Day.” [New Ways of Knowing: The Prince of Wales Island Gazette—Penang’s First Newspaper by Geoff Wade, University of Hong Kong; Email gwade@hkucc.hku.hk, Presented at The Penang Story – International Conference 2002 18-21 April 2002, The City Bayview Hotel, Penang, Malaysia organised by The Penang Heritage Trust & STAR Publications]
References
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