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{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
[[File:James Scurry.jpg|thumb|James Scurry]]
'''James Scurry''' (1766–1822) was a [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] soldier and memoirist. He was held captive by Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan for 10 years (1780–1790) at [[Seringapatam]].<ref name="b">{{harvnb|Bowring|1893
He is known for his memoir ''The captivity, sufferings, and escape of James Scurry, who was detained a prisoner during ten years, in the dominions of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib'' (1824), which relates the sufferings and treatment of the captured English soldiers, [[Mangalorean Catholics]], and other prisoners of war by [[Hyder Ali]] and [[Tipu Sultan]], the rulers of the [[Kingdom of Mysore]] in India.
==Early life and family==
James Scurry was born in [[Devon]]shire, England. His father served in the [[British Army]] and was present at the 1775 [[Battle of Bunker Hill]] early in the [[American Revolutionary War]], where he was promoted to the post of paymaster-sergeant for his bravery. Later, he became the inmate of a [[Greenwich]] [[Psychiatric hospital|mental asylum]] where he died, leaving his widow with James and his sister.<ref name="d">{{harvnb|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|p=
==Capture by Hyder==
In 1780, when Scurry was 14 years old, he set on a voyage from Plymouth Sound on the [[HMS Hannibal (1779)|Hannibal]].<ref>{{harvnb|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|
==Captivity==
As soon as Scurry was captured, he was put in heavy leg-irons and marched into a strong prison.<ref>{{harvnb|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|p=
==Escape from captivity==
Scurry on his own account explains how he escaped from the fort of Chitterdroog ([[Chitradurga]]). Once he tried to escape with some more of his colleagues, but after some distance, returns on fears of being spotted. Again, he escapes in the next try, but this time, they venture into the forest to avoid being detected. They camp in multiple places, and try entering a couple of forts. They finally seek the help of Marathas in a fort, from where they leave for the English encampments in a fort north of Karnataka. He was greeted by an old Scottish colleague, Mr. Little, who was startled to find Scurry and his companions in the ragged uniform of
Scurry left behind his wife and child, a girl. He had grown to love her, and in his memoir describes the immense pain he felt in having to part from them in the night as his battalion was being mustered and his decision of escaping being made.<ref name="mc2"/> After the 10-year captivity ended, James Scurry recounted that he had forgotten how to sit in a chair and use a knife and fork. His English was broken and stilted, having lost all his vernacular idiom. His skin had darkened to the 'swarthy complexion of [[negro]]es', and moreover, he had developed an aversion to wearing European clothes.<ref>{{harvnb|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|p=
==Life after return to England==
After reaching England, Scurry took up many jobs first as a superintendent of a wholesale grocer, and then set up his own grocery business. In 1800, he married once more and had 8 children, of which only one son and one daughter survived. He moved on from his grocery business to join a colliery, and then as a steward for a merchant ship, and then moved back to London in 1816 to work for a coal wharf. His final job was to superintendent a mine, but due to cold weather, he developed severe cold and infection, and died in 1822, at the age of 57. He was buried in Exeter on
==Descriptions of conditions in Srirangapatna==
James mentions the unbearable conditions during his captivity, and also describes the tribulations, and pain he went through during his incarceration. Here are some of his comments
Initiation of prisoners of war including James into
{{cquote|He addressed us in the most endearing, though hypocritical, language, and gave us to understand, that we were to be circumcised, and made Mohammedans of, by the express order of Hyder.}}
Method of killing people who refused to convert or try to escape from prison:
{{cquote|But his most common mode of punishment was, that of drawing to death by the elephant's feet; the manner of which was as follows: the poor wretches (for several were drawn at one time) first had their arms tied behind them, above the elbows, and then a rope put about the small of their legs, which was fastened to the elephant's foot. This being done, the criminals stood with their backs towards the elephant's posteriors, waiting sometimes an hour for an order for their execution. The distance they stood from the beast was about six yards, and the first step the elephant took would throw the poor unfortunates on their faces; thus they would be dragged over rough and smooth ground till dead, and with no faces left}}
Common use of cutting hands, ears and noses as punishment:
{{cquote |About this period, in the year 1785, he seemed more bent on barbarities, than at any other time that I was in his country. It was not unfrequently that two or three hundred noses and ears would be exhibited in the public market, but to whom they belonged we could not learn. We must, however, leave these tragic scenes awhile, and turn to something less horrible.}}
Tipu not honouring prisoner exchange by shifting prisoners from one camp to another or killing them:
{{cquote|Tippoo's force at this time was equal to any, single-handed, in India; but the Company not pressing their demands, or from some other cause, for scurry's captivity which we could not account, our lives were spared. At the expiration of six months, we were again joined, and marched back to the capital, where we were put in a square by ourselves, wondering what they were going to do with us next; our guards, however treated us civilly, which we looked on as a good omen }}
The scheme of threat and punishment to collect revenue from various quarters:
{{cquote|On their arrival, they were sent for by the paymaster- general, who would address them mildly, stating, that he had received information they were worth a certain sum of money, which he named, and that he wanted so much for his master's services. If the proposal was acceded to, all was well, and perhaps he 'would be put in a more lucrative situation ; but a denial, or a supposed prevarication, was sure to be accompanied with the most exquisite tortures. In this process, the first mode was, piquetmg for a given number of hours; then, if this was found of no avail, the addition of scourging, if this also proved ineffectual, needles, fixed in corks, were incessantly applied to their bodies, while still under the scourge. This mode of punishment continued several days;}}
James description of
{{cquote|Its appearance, at about three miles' distance, was calculated to strike every beholder, being distinguished by magnificent buildings and ancient pagodas, the grand resi-dence of their Swarmy, or deity, contrasted the more lofty and splendid monuments lately erected in honour of the Mohammedan faith }}
The systematic rape of girls collected and captured from various parts of his kingdom
{{cquote | We were one day strangely informed, that each of us,
==Account of the Captivity==
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The following is James's first-hand account of the treatment of [[Mangalorean Catholics|Mangalorean Catholic]] captives. Also this is the first time, James mentions that Tipu had converted some of the Hindu temples into prisons or dungeons. The practice of capturing women and passing them on as slaves to officers, and moving some of them to his harem is also mentioned.
{{cquote|Now followed the fate of the poor<ref>{{harvnb|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|p=
No doubt many of them survived the downfall of Tippu and I should have been proud to hear that the Company had done something for those brave unfortunate men, and particularly so as all their miseries originated from an English general. The prison from whence the Malabar Christians were brought to have their noses and ears cut off for refusing their daughters when Tippu demanded them for his seraglio was a horrid dismal hole which we named the Bull, as there was an image, considerably larger than life, of that animal on that building, which was originally designed for a Hindoo place of worship, but by Tippu converted into a dungeon. This prison we frequently passed and expected sooner or later to occupy some part of it. Very few who were so unfortunate to be confined here, escaped with less punishment than the loss of their nose and ears. The Chambars by whom the operation was performed are held in abhorrence by the Mahomedans, and, on that account they were consigned<ref name="scu105"/> to this office; and such was their brutality that they frequently cut, (or sawed rather), the upper lip off with the nose leaving the poor unfortunate wretch a pitiable object, to spin out a most miserable existence, being always sent to Tippu's arsenals to hard labour on a scanty allowance.<ref>{{harvnb|Scurry|Whiteway|1824|p=
==Musings of
{{cquote| Since our arrival in England, we have ofttimes heard him extolled for a brave prince ; but those who have thus stated, we presume, know little of hira. That he was a coward, we could easily demonstrate, and that he was a tyrant, equal, if not superior, to a Domitian, a Caligula, a Nero, or even Nabis the tyrant of Sparta, is a fact of which we had ocular demonstration. For vigorously defending his country against any power on earth, I give him credit, and for using every exertion in expelling all its invaders ; but this should have been done without those unheard-of cruelities, which were interwoven in his very nature;—but he is gone, and I proceed.}}
Scurry also contrasted the practises of Tipu with those of the European powers and his reputation among Europeans in India who knew him:
{{ cquote | It is not among the customs of European nations to war with the dead, otherwise the remains of such a tyrant, whose peculiar aversion towards, and inveterate cruelty exercised on, the English, whenever they were so unfortunate as to become subject to his tyranny, might have been treated with indignity. The rooted and barbarous antipathy which he manifested against his prisoners in a former war, seems to have accompanied him to the last. About twenty unhappy stragglers from our army had fallen into his hands in the course of our march, among whom was a little drummer-boy of the Scotch brigade; all these he ordered to be put to death. Even his small motley band of French auxiliaries, execrate his memory as a most cruel tyrant, and represent, with bitter imprecations, the ignominy and hardships to which he subjected them. }}
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|last=Bowring
|first=Lewin B.
|title=
|url=http://www.greatest-battles.webs.com/MysoreWars/MysoreWars.htm
|year=1893
|publisher=IDARAH-I ADABIYAT-I DELLI
|isbn=978-81-206-1299-0
|access-date=16 May 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817114702/http://greatest-battles.webs.com/MysoreWars/MysoreWars.htm
|archive-date=17 August 2011
|url-status=dead
}}
*{{cite book
|title=Sarasvati's Children: A History of the Mangalorean Christians
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*{{cite book
|year=1824
|
|title=The Captivity, Sufferings, and Escape of James Scurry, who was Detained a Prisoner During Ten Years, in the Dominions of Hyder Ali and Tippoo Saib
|publisher=H. Fisher
|url=https://archive.org/details/captivitysuffer00whitgoog
|accessdate=18 January 2009
}}
{{refend}}
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[[Category:1766 births]]
[[Category:1822 deaths]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Royal Navy sailors]]
[[Category:British prisoners of war]]
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