Frederick John Shore

Frederick John Shore (31 May 1799 – 29 May 1837) was a civil servant and judge who worked in the East India Company service in India. He was a son of John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth (1751–1834). Unusual for the period, Shore was openly critical of East India Company rule in India. He published under the pen name "A friend to India" in the India Gazette, a Calcutta periodical. Biography Shore was born in England, the second son of John Shore, 1st Baron Teignmouth and Charlotte née Cornish (1759-1834). He was baptized at St George Hanover Square, Middlesex on 26th November. He came to India in 1817 as a writer (a junior clerk) and then became an assistant to the secretary of the board of commissioners. He joined the Bengal Civil Service in 1818 and became joint magistrate at Bulandshahr. In 1822 he became superintendent of Dehra Dun, in 1832 Civil & Sessions judge at Fatehgarh, Farrukhabad and from 1836 was Civil Commissioner and Political Agent of the Sagar and Nerbudda Territories. He married Charlotte Mary Cornish (1800-1883) of Devonshire, daughter of his mother's brother, in 1830 and they had three children. His daughter Louisa Sara Floyer (1830–1909) was involved in introducing knitting and needlework into girls' education at the elementary school level in Lincolnshire. India Shore is best known for his notes on English administration in India under the title Notes on Indian Affairs published in two volumes. In it he was outspokenly critical of English administration. He noted the economic condition of the people: "But the halcyon days of India are over; she has been drained of a large proportion of the wealth she once possessed, and her energies have been cramped by a sordid system of misrule to which the interests of millions have been sacrificed for the benefit of the few." .... "The gradual impoverishment of the people and country, under the mode of rule established by the British Government, has hastened their (old merchant princes') fall." He was critical of English ignorance of native languages and considered the judicial system to be a mockery of justice. He was in favour of having a native nobility manage agricultural lands. Shore wore Indian ("mussalman") clothes to court which led to a government order being issued against his practice.