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This portrait of the Governor of Madras, Sir Streynsham Master, was likely completed by Loggan on Master’s return from India in 1672. There may have been more than one reason for commissioning such a portrait. Firstly, Masters was awarded a gold medal by the East India Company in recognition of his gallant defence of Surat from the attacks of the Maratha leader Shivaji in October 1670. Secondly, in 1674, he married Diana, daughter of Sir Thomas Bendyshe and purchased the estate of Wallett's Court, near Dover. There was little, however, to detain him in England after his new wife died that same year and he returned to India when he was appointed to succeed Sir William Langhorne as agent and governor of Fort St George (Madras). Master sailed for India on 8 January 1676 and arrived at Fort St George on 7 July.

Master was fifteen when he first travelled to India and by the age of twenty, he was appointed factor (agent) by the East India Company. Shortly after his appointment as Governor of Madras he established the first English church in India.[1] He also greatly impacted the commercial prowess of the IEC by implementing a new system of book-keeping. His inspection of the company’s factories or trading posts continued to improve the fortunes of the IEC, but Master also looked after his own wealth. He traded privately, amassing a fortune in diamonds which caused great resentment and eventually led to his dismissal in 1681. After a year in which he remained in India, he returned to England a rich man.

The decade which followed Master’s return to England was marred by lawsuits filed by the IEC. He also married for the second time in 1690 to Elizabeth Legh and the couple had three children (the eldest, Anne, married Gilbert, fourth Earl of Coventry).

In 1698 Master’s was appointed one of the directors of the ‘new’ or ‘English’ East India Company, and on 14 December of that year—at which time Master happened to be chairman of the court of directors—he was knighted by King William at Kensington Palace. Sir Streynsham Master died on 28 April 1724 at New Hall in Lancashire and was buried in a chapel of Macclesfield church.

This plumbago, drawn during Master’s first triumphant visit home to England after his success in India, shows a relatively modest man. His later portraits, dating from the 1790s, are more impressive and extravagant, including an oil portrait now in the National Portrait Gallery, London, attributed to Charles D'Agar and dating to 1714 (NPG 6107).

[1] The Anglican church of St Mary in the Fort.