What can be known about the life of Elizabeth Sharaf un-Nisa is limited by lack of documentation about her life in both English and Persian language histories. Indirectly, the more well-documented life of Gerard Gustavus Ducarel offers some evidence of her connection to influential circles of Mughal and Company governance.
Gerard Gustavus Ducarel’s arrival in India in 1765 coincided with the consolidation of British power in Calcutta. Ducarel stayed at the home of Robert Clive, who also returned to India in that year to secure what was for an Englishman an unprecedented privilege: a firman, or order, from Shah Alam of the Mughal Empire allowing the East India Company taxation rights for Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha. What followed was a period of rapid administrative reform, where Clive (and as a result, Ducarel) worked in favor of a Company structure that sat parallel to Mughal governance. Clive left India in 1767, after which time Ducarel lived with other administrators in Murshidabad and Calcutta before being appointed the first Company Superintendent of Purnea.
Although many preferred an experienced administrator for the Purnea appointment, remarkably, after only five years in India, Ducarel was chosen. Sir Francis Sykes, in an attempt to avoid the compromising of his private interests in Bengal after he resigned his post of Resident at the Durbar in 1769, strategized for the appointment of three of his assistants – Redfearn, Ducarel, and Rooke – to districts to “be a check upon” the officers of Muhammad Reza Khan. Ducarel was a favorite of Francis Sykes’ replacement to the Residency at the Durbar, Richard Becher. This arrangement was not unwelcome to Reza Khan, the administrative head of the Mughal government; Ducarel had a particularly close relationship with Reza Khan and his brother Muhammad Ali Khan. Due to his close association with Clive, Verelst, Sykes, and Reza Khan during his residence at Murshidabad, Ducarel became an acceptable choice to everyone for the highly lucrative position of first supervisor of Purnea. Once settled in Purnea, he may have sought to consolidate his relationship with local notables in his choice of “Indian wife.”
Reza Khan and his brother Muhammad Ali Khan were both on good terms with Ducarel. Ducarel and Reza Khan not only worked together frequently on shared business interests, but were also friends. After Ducarel and Sharaf un-Nisa returned to England Reza Khan sent a personal letter in Persian to Gerard Gustavus, expressing his feelings in effusive, affectionate language. For a man known to rarely reveal his emotions in correspondence, Reza Khan’s letter was remarkable in its fervor, even tenderness, indicating an uncommon connection to Ducarel. Reza Khan had several connections to Purnea, including his uncle Aqa Muhammad Naqi Khan, who had lived in the district since the time of the faujdari of Khadim Husain Khan. It is possible that Sharaf un-Nisa had some connection to the family of Syed Muhammad Ali Khan, the brother of Reza Khan the Naib Diwan for the Empire from 1765-1770, who had been the Faujdar of Purnea from 1668-1771. Muhammad Ali Khan, following his dismissal from service, had returned to Purnea in his retirement, probably because he had family in the area. While it is important to emphasize that the identity of Sharaf un-Nisa’s father is not yet known, it is possible that there is some familial link to the extended family of Reza Khan.
Abdul Majed Khan, The Transition in Bengal, 1767-75: A Study of Saiyid Muhammad Reza Khan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Calendar of Persian Correspondence: 1781-5 . Vol. VI. Calcutta, 1911, Entry number 1091, p. 351.
Robert Clive Letters in Persian, 1756-177. National Library of Wales. Reference number 71589-1CR-09. Accessed via British Online Archives.
Sair Mutaqherin , Volume III, p. 87; “Preface,” Calendars of Persian Correspondence: Vol. IV, 1772-5. Calcutta: 1911.
Proceedings of the Committee of Circuit at Rangpur, Dinajpur, Purnea, and Rajmahal, Vols V, VI, VII, and VIII. 16 December 1772 to 18 February 1773. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot, 1927, 111. Bodleian Library, Oxford.