The Rev. Philip Mulley of Nilgiris has proved to be a treasure house of information on the subject. He has filled in some more blanks:
ALEXANDER ROAD- Alexander was the progenitor of one of the three Armenian families originally settled at Madras. At the commencement of the wars with Hyder Ali, their business fortunes came to be greatly affected. Subsequently, one branch left for Nagapatnam, and the second one left for Masulipatnam and the third one stayed on at Madraspatnam.
BREITHAUPT ROAD – Christopher Breithaupt in 1798 was the Joint Collector and Surveyor of Madraspatnam. Only after his retirement he became a partner of the firm Parry, Pugh and Breithaupt.
ELLIS ROAD – Francis Ellis was the Second Member of the Governor-in- Council at Madras and lies buried at St.Mary’s church cemetery. Alongwith Charnock and Peachie, he formed the first Council of Calcutta in 1690. In 1692 he shifted to Madras. The “greasy” side of his career in the Company was an extremely different story. The “Dravidian” Ellis was certainly nowhere in the picture in those times.
COX STREET – Col.Cox was a late Commissioner of Police, Madras. He married (1834) a daughter of Rev.Hands of Bellary, a leading missionary of those days.
ISACKE STREET-Both father and son were officers of the Madras Artillery.
They rendered distinguished service since 1779 and were active members of
St.Mary’s church.
JEREMIAH ROAD – John Jeremiah was a prominent lawyer at Madras in the 1760s.
KELLYS – Col.Robert Kelly, fell at the Battle of Arnee, 1790. His kith and kin were said to have had proprietary interests here and at St.Thomas’ Mount.
RITHERDON ROAD – Though born and died in England, Augustus Ritherdon (1823-99) pursued his military career at Secunderabad and Madras and rose to become the Major-General of Madras Staff Corps.
NOBLE STREET – Founder and Commander of the Corps of Horse Artillery, based at the Mount, Lt.Col.John Noble died on July 16,1827 and lies buried at the St.George’s Cathedral Cemetery.
MORSE ROAD – Nicholas Morse was once Governor of Fort.St.George ‘in the East Indies’ and died on May 28, 1772 aged 72 years.
LOCKE STREET – John Locke, was Commander in Madras Roads and hence held a crucial position in the hierarchy of the Company. He died, 1812.
HEATON ROAD – Capt. Samuel Heaton, died in 1708.
COOKE ROAD – Francis Cooke was Assay Master of the ‘Rt.Hon’ble Company’ and also the churchwarden of St.Mary’s church. Died 1712.
BRANSON GARDEN – J.H.Spring Branson was Judge Advocate-General of Madras Army. Died 1897.
WALLACE GARDEN – John Wallace, was the Second Member of the Board of Revenue. Earlier was the first Collector of the united districts of Tanjore and Trichinopoly. Died, 1814.
BAMFORD ROAD – Lt.E.J.Bamford of 25th Regiment, Madras Native Infantry was lost at sea while on regimental duty on his voyage to Rangoon, 1854. He hailed from an old Anglo-Indian family of Madras.
De CASTER MAIN ROAD – Probably incorrect spelling of De Castro, a Portugese personage of those days.
WILLIAMS STREET – after J.A.S.Williams, late Deputy Registrar of the Supreme Court at Madras, died 1812.
I am amazed at the Reverend’s knowledge!
i wish to furnish these informations on madeley road and jones road.
madeley road was named on the memory of contributions of J.W.Madeley(james.welby.madeley) a special engineer madras municipal corporations establishment of organisd water supply and sewerage works.
(as such every body writes madeley as madley. the madeley is place in shroffshire county of u k. the special engineer james.welby .madeley hailed from native of madeley.)- refer 1922 madras book on google book search. this is a intresting book on madras relesed on the occassion of indian science congress held at madras on 1922.
jones road in saida pet and jones tower at redhills lake of madras water supply was named on the memory of contributions on sanitary engineering by J.A.JONES (Joseph.Alfreed.Jones) first sanitary engineer of the Madras presidency.
engineers j.a.jones and j.w.madeley’s contrbutions to the city water supply and sewerage system were the foundation systems of infrastructure with good underpinning and tenets in water and sewerage sectorin madras.
also i wish to furnish one link on sewer history – http://www.sewer history.org to the readers.
N.Meenakshisundram,
Assistant Executive Engineer/CHENNAI METRO WATER BOARD,
meena2neer@yahoo.co.in
I just finished reading City of Djinns by William Dalyrymple. Its an ode to the city of Delhi. Though I don’t like Delhi much (lets say i positively detest the city having lived in Chennai for the better part of my life) but the book made me fall in love with even Delhi. Its so wonderfully written. The attachment and affection which the author has for the city is reflected in his writing.
Having read your blog IMHO if there is one person who can write a similar book on Chennai, it is you Sir. 🙂