Edward Terry

Abstract

Edward Terry was born in 1590 and educated at the Rochester School and Christ Church College, Oxford. In the spring of 1616 he accepted an engagement for a voyage to the Indies as one of the chaplains in the fleet commanded by Captain Benjamin Joseph. On the way out, the commander was slain in an encounter with the Portuguese, but they safely reached India’s western shore on September 25, 1616. Sir Thomas Roe’s chaplain had died a month earlier, and since Terry was well commended, he was engaged for the post. He later joined the ambassador near Ujjain and accompanied him to Mandu, where the Mogul Emperor Jehangir fixed his court until October of that year (1617), when he removed to Ahmedabad. In September 1618, the ambassador ended his stay in the court, resting for a few months in Surat before embarking for England on February 17, 1619. Thus, Terry had only seen a small area of western India—a fact one has to keep in mind while reading his generalizations about the land.