Robert Atherton CCS, JP (1801 - 1855) was a 19th-century British colonial official in British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) for more than 25 years. After a career in the Royal Navy, he held various administrative and judicial roles in the Northern Province. He was appointed as Assistant to the Government Agent, Eastern Province, in 1835, 1839, and 1845; Assistant to the Government Agent, Northern Province, in 1836, and acted as District Judge, Batticaloa in 1841. Justice of the Peace (JP), Eastern Province (1848–1855).[1] [2] [3] [4]
Atherton was born in Walton on the Hill, Liverpool on 8 December 1801, the fourth son of Colonel John Joseph Atherton (1761–1809), Second Lancashire Regiment of Fencible Light Dragoons, of Walton Hall, Liverpool and of Street Court, Herefordshire.[5] [6] [3]
His father was a serving officer in the court of King George III, and for many years was the Personal aide-de-camp (A.D.C) to the monarch. His father had a distinguished military career and had been taken as a prisoner of war during the French Directory, and subsequently released on parole in Valenciennes during 1796.[7] [8] [3]
His parents married in St John the Baptist Church, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1796, although some sources suggest they took their nuptials in France.[9] His mother was Marianne Mitford, the eldest daughter of Bertram Mitford of Mitford Old Manor House.[10]
Atherton was christened in Walton on the Hill, Liverpool a year after his birth on 17 December 1802. His ancient paternal family home, Walton Hall, Liverpool was sold two years later after multiple generations of occupancy.[11] Street Court, a manor in Kingsland, Herefordshire became his new home in a rural setting.[12] Shortly before his eighth birthday, his military father died.[13]
When coming of age, Atherton did not purchase his commission as an officer in his father's regiment, instead he joined the Royal Navy, in the footsteps of his elder brother, Bertram Mitford Atherton. [14] [15]
Atherton served in the Royal Navy under Captain Frederick Marryat on board the HMS Larne(1814), a 20-gun sixth rate small warship in the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–1825), and was honourably mentioned for bravery in Captain Marryat's despatches. He was also honourably mentioned in both the despatches of Captain Thomas Alexander and Captain Henry Ducie Chads, who both served as commanders of HMS Alligator (1821).[16] [17] [18]
As a purser, Atherton was the officer responsible for all administrative duties and ship's supplies, such as food and drink, clothing, bedding and candles. Pursers received no payout and were entitled to profits made through their business activities.[3]
As a commissioned officer in the Ceylon Civil Service, he initially performed the duties of District officer. He is recorded to have held the appointment of Superintendent, Sitting Magistrate, and Fiscal of Delft from 5 December 1825. While holding the appointment of Superintendent of Delft Island, he married at Kayts, on 24 April 1826.
Atherton went on to serve as the Assistant Collector of Customs, Jaffna from 1 January 1831; Assistant to the Government Agent, Eastern Province from 1 November 1835; Assistant to the Government Agent in the Northern Province from 1 March 1836; Assistant Government Agent Eastern Province February 1839; Acting District Judge, Batticaloa in 1841; Assistant to the Government Agent at Batticaloa from 16 September 1845.[3]
In 1833 the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission created the Legislative Council of Ceylon, the first step towards a representative government on the island. Initially it consisted of 16 members: the British Governor, the five appointed members of the Executive Council of Ceylon (the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney General, the Auditor-General, the Treasurer and the General Officer Commanding), four other government officials (including the Government Agents of the Western and Central provinces) and six appointed unofficial members (three Europeans, one Sinhalese, one Tamil and one Burgher). Atherton was one of the first Acting Government Agents m(A.G.A.) to be appointed by the Governor. Two years later, in a judicial capacity, Atherton outlined elements of the legal system of British Ceylon. It was titled “Thasawalamy”, and this legal publication of 1835 acknowledged the laws and customs of the Malabars of Jaffna.[19] [20]
During 1841, the Colombo Observer published a letter to the editor where an unnamed individual vented their frustration towards the colonial administration of James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie, the seventh Governor of Ceylon, criticising Atherton's legal credentials, by stating Nevertheless, for 29 years, he dutifully served in the British Colonial administration on the island in a variety of roles. In his early years on the island he had served in the Ceylon Rifles.
Although Atherton was initially based in the Northern Province, from 1835 he performed the role of Acting Government Agent in the Eastern Province, relocating with his family to Batticaloa. He returned to the Northern Province the following year, before making Batticaloa his primary residence. Vol XXIII of the Journal of the Dutch Burgher Union of Ceylon (July 1933) describes Batticaloa during the early years of the British administration (pages 15–17):
Atherton was Acting Government Agent during the cyclone of 1845, which hit Batticaloa and its environs. Coconut plantations and many acres were destroyed, however his home Burleigh House would survive for another 120 years, until it was severely damaged a century later by the cyclone of 1978.[21]
Atherton was the first to recognise that the abolishment of the practice of Rājākariya by the British administration had an adverse effect on paddy fields. Although the colonial government had good intentions, cultivation and production dramatically decreased due to improper maintenance of the ancient irrigation system. It would take until the 1860s (a few years after Atherton's untimely death) to rectify and restore the region to its previous position as "granary of the east".[22]
Atherton was widely respected in his work for the colonial administration. The 5th Colonial Secretary, Sir James Emerson Tennent stated in his work published in 1859 that Atherton, as Acting Government Agent, in conjunction with Wesleyan Methodist Missionaries, had attempted to civilise the Veddas. During 1838 "cottages were built for them their own district, rice land assigned to them, wells dug, coconuts planted, two communities were speedily settled in Vippmmadvo." A school was founded and two other settlements formed in Oomany and Villlengelavelly. However the enterprise was soon abandoned owing to the misconduct of some of the teachers. “But” continues Tennent, "the good effects of even this temporary experiment were apparent; not one of the Veddas returned to his cave and savage habits".[23]
When he visited Atherton in Batticaloa during 1848, Tennent saw on the esplanade, in front of Government House, the remains of what had formerly been a Dutch garden, with a reservoir in the centre, abounding with tortoises.
Atherton is also mentioned in the Memorials of James Chapman, the first bishop of Colombo. For a number of decades the Eastern Province was considered too remote, with limited access and communication. However, Reverend Chapman travelled from Colombo to Batticaloa, via Badulla on horseback in February 1850. Upon arriving on the outskirts of Batticaloa, Atherton as Government Agent, rowed him and two catechists along the lagoon in his canoe the last three miles to his Government Agents residence.[24]
Outside of his Ceylon Civil Service commitment, Atherton also undertook private enterprise, and established the Atherton family as successful planters, proprietors of a number of coconut estates.
Atherton died at the age of 54 in Trincomalee in 1855, while in service, acting as the Government Agent of the Eastern Province.[3]
His young wife, Eleanor Toler Burleigh (1810–1893), was the fourth daughter of the late Dr. George Burleigh M.D. and at the time was fifteen years old.[3] George Burleigh, a former surgeon of the 2nd Ceylon Regiment, who had previously served under Lord Howe. His brides’ late father was a Methodist minister who had died in Jaffna, 16 days prior to their wedding day. The wedding ceremony took place in Kayts on 24 April 1826 in the presence his new mother in law, Rebecca Burleigh of Jaffna and Eleanor's siblings.[3]
John, his eldest son, died three days in after his birth during 1828 and is buried in the compound of the Kayts Resthouse, where a monument still stands in his memory.[3] Kayts is a village on Velanai Island, off the coast of the Jaffna Peninsula in northern Ceylon. Four healthy children followed.[3]
His second son, Robert (1829–1894) was at one time a Lieutenant in the Ceylon Rifles Regiment. In his later days he was the Batticaloa correspondent of the Ceylon Examiner and contributed exhaustively to that paper not only prose articles, but also topical verses, as well as exhaustive descriptions of the habits and use of vegetables within regional cuisine.[3] [25]
The third son, Edward Newnham (1831–1907), began his career in the Ceylon Civil Service in 1851, obtaining a Writership in 1853, and retired in 1883 after 32 years’ residence without a break on the island. He relocated to England and died in Weymouth in 1907. At the time of his father's death he was a writer to the Government Agent in Jaffna.[26] [3]
The eldest daughter was Eleanor Burleigh Atherton (1833–1893), who married Dr James Cornish Sortain M.D.on 24 July 1854 in Batticaloa. Sortain was a well known planter, medical man and philanthropist, and was much respected by the people of Batticaloa, since he was intimately connected with the first systematic cultivation of the coconuts in the early 1840s.[3]
The youngest daughter, Marinanne Mitford Atherton Massie (unknown-1879) married Robert Massie C.C.S. Marianne died at the age of 43 in 1879 and was placed to rest alongside him. Massie married a sister of his deceased wife.[3]
Atherton died on 23 June 1855 and was put to rest in the burial ground on the Esplanade in Trincomalee, now referred to as St. Stephen's Church Cemetery. His marble headstone has been restored and is in close proximity to that of Rear Admiral Charles John Austin (1779–1852), the brother of the novelist, Jane Austin who died at sea of cholera prior to Atherton. The circumstances of Atherton’s death in service of the crown are unknown. His tombstone reads:
On the 27 June 1855, the Sunday Examiner of Ceylon reported [27]
His two sons were also widely respected by the people of Batticaloa that they were spoken of generally by the local community as "Bob Pillai" and "Ned Pillai". Pillai meaning "Child of King" (Prince) in Tamil.
His wife, Eleanor, survived him until 24 July 1893, when, at the age of 83 and after a continuous residence of 52 years at Batticaloa, she met with her death as a result of a carriage accident and is buried in the old cemetery, Batticaloa. Eleanor was referred to as the widow of Rodney Atherton, Ceylon Civil Service.[28] [3] Several other historical documents have erroneously referred to him as Rodney, instead of Robert.