'Spectator'; Henry, an artist, and one daughter, all now (1912) living.
There are three painted portraits of Strachey at Sutton Court, one by Samuel Laurence [q. v.] and two by his son, Mr. Henry Strachey.
Strachey published:
- 'A Commentary on the Marriage Service,' 1843, 24 mo.
- 'Shakespeare's Hamlet: an Attempt to find a Key to a great Moral Problem,' 1848.
- 'Hebrew Politics in the Time of Sargon and Sennacherib: an Inquiry into the Meaning of the Prophecies of Isaiah,' 1853, revised and enlarged as 'Jewish History and Politics,' 1874, bringing the prophecies into connection with what is known from other sources as to the Jewish kingdom, and discussing the questions of their unity, arrangement, authorship, &c.
- 'Miracles and Science,' 1854.
- 'Politics Ancient and Modern,' with F. D. Maurice, in 'Tracts for Priests,' 1861.
- 'Talk at a Country House,' 1895, originally published in the 'Atlantic Monthly,' largely autobiographical in thought though not in circumstance, the 'Squire' being the author and his interlocutor 'Forster,'
Sir Edward used to say, representing his ideas in his younger days. He also edited Malory's 'Morte d'Arthur' (1868, 1891) for the Globe edition; contributed to Richard Garnett's edition of Peacock's works, vol. x., 'Recollections' of the author. Peacock having been a colleague of Strachey's father at the India House, and wrote an introduction to Edward Lear's 'Nonsense Songs' (1895, 4to).
[Private information; Sir F. Maurice's Life of F. D. Maurice, 1884. For Sir Edward's father see Carlyle's Reminiscences, ed. Froude, 1881; Sir E. Colebrooke's Life of Mountstuart Elphinstone, 1884.]
STRACHEY, Sir JOHN (1823–1907), Anglo-Indian administrator, born in London on 5 June 1823, was fifth son of Edward Strachey by his wife Julia, youngest daughter of Major-General William Kirkpatrick [q. v.]. Sir Edward Strachey [q. v. Suppl. II] and Sir Richard Strachey [q. v. Suppl. II] were elder brothers.
After being educated at a private school at Totteridge, John entered Haileybury in 1840, among his contemporaries being Sir E. Clive Bayley, Sir George Campbell [q. v. Suppl. I], Sir Alexander Arbuthnot [q. v. Suppl. II], W. S. Seton-Karr, and Robert Needham Cust [q. v. Suppl. II]. He was one of the editors of the 'Haileybury Observer,' to which he contributed a vindication of Shakespeare, described as 'displaying a considerable mastery of Coleridge's writings.' He passed out second on the list for Bengal in 1842, having won prizes for classics and English and also the medal for history and political economy. Literature and art were always among his interests.
Appointed to the North West Provinces, he divided his first years of service between the plains of Rohilkhand and the neighbouring hills of Kumaon. At the outbreak of the Mutiny he was absent on furlough in England. Hitherto he had served as an ordinary district officer, without any of the chances that are open to those at headquarters. But after his return to India he was selected for a series of special appointments. Lord Canning nominated him in 1861 president of a commission to inquire into a great epidemic of cholera; and Lord Lawrence made him in 1864 president of the permanent sanitary commission then formed as a result of the report of a royal commission on the health of the army in India. Meanwhile, in 1862, he had been judicial commissioner, or chief judge, in the newly constituted Central Provinces. Lord Lawrence formed so high an opinion of him as to appoint him in 1866 to be chief commissioner of Oudh, at a time when the question of tenant-right there was rousing heated controversy. Strachey succeeded in persuading the taluqdars or landlords to accept a compromise, afterwards enacted by the legislative council, though his private views would have granted much larger privileges to the tenant class. In 1868 he became a member of the governor-general's council, and held office throughout Lord Mayo's viceroyalty. When the news of Lord Mayo's assassination first reached Calcutta in Feb. 1872, he acted for a fortnight as governor-general. With the legal member of the council. Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, he formed an enduring friendship (cf. Leslie Stephen, Life of Sir J. F. Stephen, pp. 245 seq.). In 1874 Strachey was appointed lieutenant-governor of the North West Provinces but he vacated the post in 1876, when Lord Lytton persuaded him to enter the governor-general's council for a second time as finance member.
His lieutenant-governorship of the North West Provinces was too brief to leave a permanent mark, but the measures associated with his name include the creation of a department of agriculture and commerce; a new system of village accounts, by which the record is written up annually
