Josias Du Pre


Josias Du Pre was a London merchant, a director of the East India Company and Governor of Madras.

Life

Du Pre was born in South Carolina, the son of Cornelius Dupre. He joined the civil service of the East India Company in 1752, as a factor, and rose through a succession of positions. He spent a period in England in the 1760s, and married there. He purchased the Wilton Park Estate near Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire from the Basil family in 1760, or around 1770.
Du Pre was Governor of Madras from 1770 to 1773. He was mostly preoccupied with the construction of fortifications there. His authority was circumscribed: Eyre Coote, the military commander, and Sir John Lindsay who had overall command in the East Indies, left him little room in which to operate.
Once back in England he commissioned Richard Jupp to build a mansion at Wilton Park. Known as the "White House", it was completed in 1779.
Du Pre at the end of his life became a Fellow of the Royal Society, owing the honour to his appointment two decades earlier of Alexander Dalrymple as his deputy.
He died at Wilton Park in 1780.

Family

He married Rebecca Alexander, daughter of Nathaniel Alexander and sister of James Alexander, 1st Earl of Caledon, another nabob: Du Pre Alexander, 2nd Earl of Caledon, son of the first Earl, was named after Josias.
Of the children of Josias and Rebecca:
Josias Du Pre's sister Esther married Paul Porcher, and was mother of the MP Josias Du Pré Porcher.