Average demand of the portions of the Begam’s              Rs. 
Territory in the Meerut district .    .    .    .     5.86.650
Average collections   .     .    .    .    .    .     5.67.211
Balances .     .      .     .    .    .    .    .       19.439

’Ruin was impending, when the Begam’s death in January, 1836, and the consequent lapse of the estate to the British, induced the cultivators to return to their homes.’

Details of the Begam’s military forces are given in N.W.P.  Gazetteer, vol. iii, p. 295.  For the last thirty years of her life the Begam had no need for the large force (3,371 officers and men, with 44 guns) which she maintained.  In her excessive expenditure on a superfluous army, in her niggardly provision for civil administration, and in her merciless rack-renting, she followed the evil example of the ordinary native prince, and was superior only in the unusual ability with which she worked an unsound and oppressive System.  She left L700,000.  The population of Sardhana town has risen from 3,313 in 1881 to 9,242 in 1911.

34 Zafaryab Khan died in 1802 or 1803.  His son-in-law, Colonel Dyce, was employed in the Begam’s service.  ’The issue of this marriage was:  (l) David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who married Mary Anne, daughter of Viscount St. Vincent, by whom he had no issue.  He died in Paris in July, 1851.  In August, 1867, his body was conveyed to Sardhana and buried in the cathedral. (2) A daughter, who married Captain Rose Troup. (3) A daughter, who married Paul Salaroli, now Marquis of Briona.  The present owner of Sardhana is the Honourable Mary Anne Forester, the widow of David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, and the successful claimant in the suit against Government which has recently been decided in her favour.’ (N.W.P.  Gazetteer, vol. iii (1875), p. 296.) This lady, in 1862, married George Cecil-Weld, third Baron Forester, who died without issue in 1886. (Burke’s Peerage.) Lady Forester died on March 7, 1893.

35.  In the original edition these statistics are given in words.  Figures have been used in this edition as being more readily grasped.  The amounts stated by the author are approximate round sums.  More accurate details are given in N.W.P.  Gazetteer, vol. iii (1875), p. 295.  The Begam also subscribed liberally to Hindoo and Muhammadan institutions.  Her contemporary, Colonel Skinner, was equally impartial, and is said to have built a mosque and a temple, as well as the church at Delhi.

The Cathedral at Sardhana was built in 1822.  St. John’s College is intended to train Indians as priests, There are, or were recently, about 250 native Christians at Sardhana, partly the descendants of the converts who followed their mistress in change of faith.  ’The Roman Catholic priests work hard for their little colony, and are greatly revered and respected.  At St. John’s College some of the boys are instructed for the priesthood, and others taught to read and write the Nagari and Urdu