George Oxenden (governor) - Early Life

Early Life

He was the third son of Sir James Oxenden of Dene, Kent, knight, and of Margaret, daughter of Thomas Nevinson of Eastry, Kent, and was baptised at Wingham on 6 April 1620. He spent his youth in India, and on 24 November 1661 was knighted at Whitehall Palace. At the time the London East India Company had a new charter from Charles II, but the king's marriage to Catherine of Braganza involved the company because the island of Bombay had, under the marriage treaty, been ceded by Portugal to England, and it lay within the company's territories. The court of directors in March 1661 resolved to restore their trade in the East Indies, and appointed, on 19 March 1662, Sir George Oxenden to the post of president and chief director of all their affairs at Surat, and all other their factories in the north parts of India, from Ceylon to the Red Sea. A

Oxenden found on his arrival in India that the company's trade was limited to the presidencies of Surat and Fort St. George, and to the factory at Bantam. The king's troops were coming from England to keep down private trade. Sir George Oxenden was instructed to assist them, and to abstain from embroiling the company with foreign powers. The States-General of Holland were contesting the supremacy of the sea in Asia; English troops arrived, but were unable to obtain the immediate cession of Bombay, and Sir George Oxenden was prevented from assisting them by increased complications. France joined Holland in threatening the company's trade, while the Mogul chieftains showed themselves jealous of English predominance. Aurungzebe, the Mogul emperor, looked for advantage from the superior naval powers.