Dadabhai Naoriji (MP for Finsbury Central, 1892-5) and Mancherjee Bhownagree (MP for Bethnal Green North-East, 1895-1906) have generally been considered to be ‘the first elected MPs of colour’,1S. Mukherjee, ‘“Narrow-majority” and “Bow-and-agree”: public attitudes towards the election of the first Asian MPs in Britain, Dadabhai Naoroji and Mancherjee Merwanjee Bhownaggree, 1885-1906’, Journal of the Oxford Univ. History Society (2004), ii. 1. but the Anglo-Indian Dyce Sombre has an earlier claim.2M.H. Fisher, The inordinately strange life of Dyce Sombre: Victorian Anglo-Indian MP and ‘chancery lunatic’ (2010); idem., ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’, Oxf. DNB [www.oxforddnb.com]. This biography draws heavily on Fisher’s work. It seems likely that he was in fact the second non-white MP to enter the Commons, following John Stewart, MP for Lymington, 1832-47, the illegitimate son of a slave-owner.3Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 1, 173, 344, notes Stewart’s earlier claim, while House of Commons Library. Parliamentary trends: statistics about Parliament. Research paper 09/69 (2009), 29, lists Dyce Sombre as ‘probably’ the first non-white MP. However, while references to Stewart’s mixed race background appear only after he had left Parliament, Dyce Sombre’s distinctiveness was remarked upon as soon as he entered the British political scene.4HP Commons, 1832-68: ‘Stewart, John’. Appearing on the hustings at Sudbury in 1841, he was described as ‘to all appearance a genuine Indian Rajah, in an English dress... He was of portly make, and of a dark mahogany, or rather a tawney, complexion... Black mustaches graced his upper lip, and his tout ensemble was that of a wealthy native of India’s burning sands, who had just exchanged the flowing robe and turban for the English coat and hat’.5Essex Standard, 2 July 1841. His vast wealth helped to secure his return for this notoriously venal borough, but he was unseated for bribery. This short-lived and inglorious parliamentary career, coupled with the fact that he was declared a lunatic in 1843, when another account described him as ‘rather a fine-looking man, in height about five feet ten inches, a head of fine black hair, complexion dark, with a good countenance, but bearing evident symptoms of his Indian extraction, being what is termed a half caste’,6Morning Post, 2 Aug. 1843. undoubtedly explains why Dyce Sombre has largely been overlooked, although he has recently been the subject of a biography by Michael Fisher.7Fisher, Dyce Sombre.
David Ochterlony Dyce, as he was originally known, was born in Sardhana, a semi-sovereign state near Meerut in India. His father George (1788-1838) was the only surviving child of Lieutenant David Dyce, a Scottish Presbyterian serving in India, and an unknown Indian woman. His mother was of mixed European and Indian ancestry, with both her grandmothers being Indian.8Fisher, Dyce Sombre, pg. xvii, 31; idem., ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’. One of them was the first wife of Walter Reinhardt (d. 1778), known as Sombre or Somru, a notorious German mercenary who had acquired Sardhana through service to the Mughal emperor. Upon his death, control passed to his mistress, Farzana, known as Begum Sombre, a Muslim who converted to Catholicism.9Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’; idem., Dyce Sombre, 13-18. George Dyce subsequently became chief of her government and colonel-commander of her army, and the begum took his son under her wing, raising him as a Catholic, which he remained throughout his life. He was educated privately, in part by Catholic priests, but also for a year by Rev. John Chamberlain, a Baptist missionary, and for 4 years by Rev. Henry Fisher, Anglican chaplain of St. John’s Church, Meerut. He mixed in British social circles in Meerut, usually wearing European dress, and joined the freemasons.10Ibid., 2, 38-9, 66-7. His father fell from favour with the begum, not least after his attempted coup against her in 1827, and in 1831 Dyce supplanted him as colonel-commander and was made the begum’s principal heir, a position he acknowledged in 1835 by adding the name of Sombre to his own.11Ibid., 43-6; Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’. Prompted by a £15,000 donation from the begum, the pope appointed him a chevalier of the order of Christ.12Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’.
On the begum’s death in January 1836, Dyce Sombre received her personal property (amounting to £150,000, although he could only receive the interest from it until aged 30), but Sardhana and its army were seized by the East India Company (EIC), against whom he began a protracted series of lawsuits.13Ibid.; Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 75. He left Sardhana that October to tour India, south-east Asia and China. Although accompanied by his two Indian mistresses, whom he subsequently married off, he frequented brothels, and also ran up large gambling debts.14Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’; idem., Dyce Sombre, 96, 99, 101-2. While in Calcutta he quarrelled publicly with his father, who had lodged a lawsuit against him over the begum’s will. In February 1838 he left for England, transferring most of his assets there, his annual income being around £20,000. He quickly entered London society with the assistance of the begum’s friend, viscount Combermere.15Ibid., 115, 124, 127. He had planned to bring his only surviving illegitimate daughter, Penelope, to England with him, but she died on the journey: Ibid., 112. He acquired a coat of arms, but was blackballed from the Oriental Club.16Ibid., 128. It appears, however, that he was later admitted to the Reform Club, and allegedly stole a silver fork to prove that he had dined there: Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 187-8. The club’s membership list for 1841 does not survive, and Dyce Sombre was not listed as a member in 1842 (information from Seth Thévoz). Obituaries claimed that he was ‘one of the fêted lions of the season’17Gent. Mag. (1851), ii. 201., and that ‘though his complexion was dingy and his figure obese, his wealth repaired every defect’.18Allen’s Indian Mail (1851), ix. 432. Dyce Sombre recorded his weight as 19 stone 9 pounds in 1834: Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 51. Upon attaining control of his fortune in December 1838, his marriage proposal was accepted by Mary Anne Jervis, a younger daughter of viscount St. Vincent, whose family had ‘a mixed public reputation’, and who was ‘much gossiped about for her longstanding relationships with elder men who explicitly avoided marriage with her’.19Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 145, 154, 157. In addition to the gossip about Mary Anne, the viscount had divorced his first wife for adultery, his heir (Mary Anne’s older half-brother) had been declared a lunatic in 1829 and excluded from succession to the viscountcy, and another son (Mary Anne’s younger brother) had eloped with a labourer’s daughter to Gretna Green in 1838: Ibid., 138, 140, 145. (Among them was the duke of Wellington, who wrote of his relief at ‘the lucky coincidence of the Black Prince appearing’.20C. Petrie, Wellington. A reassessment (1956), 247.) They had a ‘tempestuous’ engagement, which was broken off at one point, quarrelling over Mary Anne’s reluctance to curb her social engagements, and over the religion of any future children (Mary Anne was an Anglican).21Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 164-6.
Before their marriage in September 1840 (in both Anglican and Catholic ceremonies), Dyce Sombre toured Scotland and England, and also visited Paris, Malta and Rome, where he met the pope to arrange a funeral mass for the begum, for whom he also commissioned a lavish monument, and made the acquaintance of William Gladstone.22Morning Post, 22 Oct. 1839, 30 Jan. 1840; Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 160-3, 167; H.C.G. Matthew (ed.), Gladstone diaries, ii. 569. In July 1839 he caused a stir in London when he was arrested for indecent exposure after he was seen urinating against a lamppost by two women, one of whom died shortly afterwards, apparently of ‘fright and agitation’.23Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 164. Accompanied by Combermere to appear before Marylebone magistrates, Dyce Sombre – described as ‘a stout, fine-looking man, of military appearance, wearing mustachios’ – was cleared of this charge,24Morning Chronicle, 8 July 1839. Interestingly this report made no allusion to Dyce Sombre’s racial identity. and was also absolved at the inquest, which found that the woman had died of apoplexy.25The Charter, 14 July 1839. In March 1840 he was admitted to the queen’s levee at St. James’s Palace.26Morning Post, 7 Mar. 1840. He and Mary Anne toured the Continent in the autumn of 1840 and again in autumn 1841: Morning Post, 2 Oct. 1840, 20 Sept. 1841.
In 1841 he sought advice on entering Parliament from the assistant secretary to the treasury, Charles Edward Trevelyan, whom he had known in India. Trevelyan recommended the Commons as ‘a useful and improving occupation’ for ‘a man of fortune and leisure’.27Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 173-4. Dyce Sombre was referred to the Liberal organiser, James Coppock, who welcomed him as ‘ductile materiel... ready to conform to any politics’.28Ibid., 174. When Sudbury’s Liberals approached the Reform Club for last-minute candidates, his name was proffered, together with Frederick Villiers, former MP for Canterbury.29Ibid., 176, 178-82; HP Commons, 1832-68: ‘Villiers, Frederick’. He arrived in Sudbury a few hours before the nomination, and made no speeches during the contest, with Villiers speaking for them both in support of free trade.30Bury and Norwich Post, 7 July 1841. One report claimed that ‘there were loud calls on the ex Rajah to address the Electors, but it was all in vain... if a man is only acquainted with the Hindostanee language it is very plain that he cannot talk English, and not one word did we hear during the two days of the election... except “tankee! tankee!”.31Essex Standard, 2 July 1841. The same report claimed that a leading Sudbury Liberal had said that Villiers would pledge to move in the Commons that Dyce Sombre should always be accompanied by a sworn interpreter in the House. Despite his taciturnity, these and similar assessments of Dyce Sombre’s linguistic abilities were unfair: the lord chancellor later judged that ‘he wrote English with great precision’, and ‘though there was a sort of hesitation in his manner, he spoke and understood the English language very accurately’.32The Times, 9 Aug. 1844. For other comments in 1841 about Dyce Sombre’s lack of familiarity with the English language, see The Times, 7 July 1841. He was able to write in Persian and Urdu: Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 6.
While Coppock boasted that he had ‘craftily obscured’ Dyce Sombre’s ethnicity from Sudbury’s voters, press reports suggested otherwise, and one of the Conservative candidates described him as ‘rather dark for an English candidate’.33Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 183; Essex Standard, 2 July 1841. It was, however, his wealth which was the key attraction for Sudbury’s voters, and much of the £3,000 he supplied for the contest was spent in bribery, helping to secure victory for him and Villiers.34Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 181-2, 184. His return prompted allusions to Lord Camelford’s threat to return his black footman for the rotten borough of Old Sarum.35Essex Standard, 9 July 1841. The Conservative-supporting Essex Standard, meanwhile, contended that ‘we did not think so ill of his face as we did of those worthies of Sudbury, who could have the face to present to English Freemen the son of an East India Begum, to legislate under the principles of Magna Charter’, fulminating that this made ‘a mockery of Parliamentary representation’.36Essex Standard, 2 July 1841.
It was immediately obvious that Dyce Sombre’s return would be challenged, not only on grounds of bribery, but also because he was alleged to be an alien, Sardhana being outside British India.37Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 7, 179. The Liberal organiser, Joseph Parkes, saw him at the Reform Club shortly after the election:38Joseph Parkes to Edward Ellice, 5 July 1841, Ellice MSS, National Library of Scotland.
The Black Man has just shown here. He came to say that the Carlton Club accused him of Bribery & alien-ism. I told him to hold his tongue, & that on the former charge he was pure as unsunned snow. I never saw such an M.P. before... He looks as if he came from that part of the Indies where Monkey worship is the national religion.
Ten days later, Parkes received another visit:39Joseph Parkes to Edward Ellice, 15 July 1841, Ellice MSS.
The Black Man is in a perfect sweat, & emits a rank smell like a Negro or Chimpanzee of the Zoological Gardens. The Carlton threaten him abominably… He came in to the Club to me in great alarm... to say that he heard Lord Combermere was to swear to his non British origin; & that the Tories alledged [sic] he was not qualified. I told him only a midwife could prove a birth. I composed him, & introduced him to a Lord. Lord Clarendon was in the room at the time. The introduction made the Black smile like an Orang-outang, & Lord Clarendon could hardly keep his own countenance. He is not black, but the Beast answers exactly to Buffon’s description of the Great Ape.
Two petitions were presented against the return of Villiers and Dyce Sombre, 30 Aug. and 6 Sept. 1841, although the latter was dropped. Meanwhile, both had taken their seats, and in the handful of divisions when he was present, Dyce Sombre voted with the Liberals, supporting them on the amendment to the address, 27 Aug. 1841. He also divided for a return of the number of jury cases in the Scottish court of session, 11 Feb. 1842; with Russell in opposition to Peel’s sliding scale on corn, 16 Feb. 1842; and in support of bringing up a petition against income tax, 11 Apr. 1842. He and Villiers were unseated, 14 Apr. 1842, the evidence of ‘great, systematic, and extensive’ bribery by their agents having been so compelling that the issue of his qualification did not need to be pursued. The election committee also recommended that Sudbury be disfranchised, a process completed in 1844.
Prior to his election for Sudbury, Dyce Sombre had made the first of a series of allegations about his wife’s immorality.40Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 168-70. These ‘unconventionally vociferous accusations’ continued, with Dyce Sombre challenging his wife’s supposed lovers to duels, among them Wellington, George Cecil Weld Forester, Lord Cardigan, various servants and waiters, and her own father.41Ibid., 191-2. On a tour of Scotland in September 1842, he refused to eat, believing that his food had been poisoned.42The Times, 13 July 1844. After various attempts to persuade him of Mary Anne’s fidelity, her family had him confined as a lunatic in March 1843.43Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 170, 193, 208-9; The Times, 18 July 1844. That July a commission of lunacy found him to be of unsound mind, retrospectively to 27 Oct. 1842, and the lord chancellor assumed control over his property, confining him to Hanover Lodge, Regent’s Park. Dyce Sombre was subsequently allowed to tour England, accompanied by a medical attendant, whom he gave the slip while in Liverpool. He fled to Paris, where he was received by Louis Philippe at the Tuileries, and where a board of French physicians declared him to be of sound mind, as subsequently did Belgian and Russian doctors.44Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’; Morning Post, 22 Apr. 1844; Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 261, 263.
He then began the first in a series of legal appeals to regain control of his property and overturn the original lunacy ruling. In 1844, following his first unsuccessful attempt, he again escaped to the Continent. In 1846, 1847 and 1848 he paid further visits to England for legal hearings and medical examinations.45Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’. A detailed account of these proceedings is given in idem., Dyce Sombre. While at Dover in 1846 awaiting his medical examination he was entertained at dinner by the commandant and officers of the garrison: Morning Post, 11 Sept. 1846. Although in 1847 the lord chancellor ruled that Dyce Sombre’s behaviour had improved, and allowed him access to a substantial portion of his income, he never succeeded in reversing the lunacy judgement.46The Examiner, 6 Nov. 1847; Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 273-4. At the heart of the matter lay the question of whether much of his seemingly odd behaviour could be ascribed to his ‘Asiatic’ ancestry and upbringing, or whether he was, as he usually but not consistently claimed, European, in which case only madness could explain his actions.47Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’; Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 8, 193-4; The Times, 15 July 1844. His cause was not helped by his licentiousness – at the 1844 hearing affidavits from ‘some women of the town’ as to his recent behaviour were deemed ‘not fit to be read in public’48The Times, 13 July 1844. – nor by his ill-conceived efforts to persuade leading figures such as Queen Victoria, Peel, Aberdeen and Russell (to whom he offered £1,000) to intercede on his behalf.49Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 282, 292; British Library Add. MSS. 43244, f. 333-4, D.O. Dyce Sombre to Lord Aberdeen, 18 Aug. 1845; Add. MSS. 40580, ff. 291-2, D.O. Dyce Sombre to Sir Robert Peel, 6 Dec. 1845. (He also solicited a baronetcy from Peel in 1846.50Add MSS. 40589, ff. 171-2, D.O. Dyce Sombre to Sir Robert Peel, 6 Apr. 1846.) He promised £10,000 to Dr. Anthony Mahon if he could get the lunacy judgement reversed and control over his property restored.51The Standard, 20 Apr. 1849. He published a rambling Refutation of the Charges of Lunacy in the Court of Chancery in 1849, and a separate pamphlet claiming that one of his sisters was illegitimate.52Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’. There was, however, some sympathy for his plight, and the Morning Post in 1850 used his case to protest that the chancery court’s jurisdiction over lunatics was ‘of such an arbitrary character, so repugnant to the feelings of Englishmen’.53Morning Post, 24 July 1850.
When not pursuing his legal case, Dyce Sombre toured Europe, visiting every capital city, as well as Cairo, but his ‘obesity, irregular lifestyle, and frequent venereal diseases broke his health’.54Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’. His travels included an audience with the Pope in 1848: Essex Standard, 4 Feb. 1848. He was said to have consumed ‘a bottle of curazoa in the morning, and three bottles of wine at dinner’ each day55Leeds Mercury, 5 July 1856., and in December 1850 burnt the soles of his feet while passed out drunk in front of a fire, suffering from infections thereafter. In May 1851 he returned to London for another attempt to prove his sanity, but died on 1 July at an infirmary at 8 Davies Street.56Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 314-16. The Gentleman’s Magazine noted that ‘few names have acquired a greater degree of scandalous notoriety’, while the Daily News remembered him as a ‘half-caste Croesus... admitted into the exclusive circle of London notorieties, kept at unsympathising distance and isolation within it, and then coolly thrown out again’.57Gent. Mag. (1851), ii. 201; Daily News, 4 July 1851. He was buried at Kensal Green cemetery, although it appears that his heart was later buried with the begum in Sardhana, as stipulated in his will. He left the bulk of his £500,000 estate under the management of the EIC to create a college for Indians in Sardhana, and also bequeathed £1,000 each to the Company’s directors to encourage them to support the will.58Fisher, ‘Sombre, David Ochterlony Dyce’; Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 297-8. His will also included legacies for some of his British supporters. A ‘vitriolic litigation’ against the will by his wife and brothers-in-law, centred on his insanity, eventually succeeded in 1856.59Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 321-2; The Times, 2, 3 July 1856. Legal wranglings over Dyce Sombre’s will were said to have cost £36,000: The Times, 4 Dec. 1856. They also inherited his claims against the EIC with regard to the begum’s property, finally settled in 1873, when a compensation payment of £163,318 7s. was made for the seizure of the Sardhana army’s equipment.60Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 324. No compensation was, however, paid for the annexation of Badshahpur, which although ruled by the privy council to be illegal, was deemed to be an irreversible political action. Dyce Sombre’s wife, who had remarried Weld Forester, MP for Wenlock, 1828-74, in December 1862, made various charitable donations in Sardhana before her death in 1893.61Fisher, Dyce Sombre, 325. Mary Anne left estate valued at £570,000, around half of which was bequeathed to charity and the other half to her second husband’s family: Ibid.; Leeds Mercury, 8 June 1893. Material relating to Dyce Sombre is held by the Public Record Office, Kew, and the British Library’s India Office collection.