Edward Terry (author)

Edward Terry (1590–1660) was an English chaplain at the English embassy to the Great Mogul and an author who wrote about the Mogul empire and South Asian cuisine.

History

In 1616, the British East India Company appointed Terry as one of its fleet chaplains for a trip to India. While en route in the Indian Ocean, the fleet engaged and destroyed a Portuguese carrack. Terry later described this battle in his work, A Voyage to East-India.

When Terry arrived in India, Sir Thomas Row, the English ambassador, asked Terry to become the new chaplain for the English embassy. Terry's predecessor had just recently died. Terry spent the next two and half years with Row as they followed the Mogul court around what is today Gujarat, India and Bihar, India.

After returning to England, Terry served as rector of the Church at Great Greenford, in Middlesex, England until his death in 1660.

Published work

Terry wrote A Voyage to East-India[1] as an expanded version of a manuscript that was first published in Purchas his Pilgrimes in 1625.

What distinguished Voyage was Terry's detailed descriptions of the different ethnic groups in the region, including their cultures, languages, and religious beliefs. Terry was one of the first writers to describe Indian-style vegetarianism to Early Modern England.[2] Given that Terry only visited two regions of the Indian Subcontinent, much of his commentary was probably based on other research.

Voyage was a popular work in England that was later translated into other languages. It was included in the Travels of Pietro della Valle.[3]

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References
  1. Edward Terry (1655). A voyage to East-India wherein some things are taken notice of, in our passage thither, but many more in our abode there, within that rich and most spacious empire of the Great Mogul: mixt with some Parallel Observations and Inferences upon the Story, to profit as well as delight the Reader. London: J. Martin, and J. Allestrye, at the Bell in St. Pauls Chutch-Yard.
  2. Thirsk, Joan (2007). Food in Early Modern England: Phases, Fads, Fashions, 1500-1760. London & New York: Hambledon Continuum. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-1852855383.
  3. Page 271 in Ram Chandra Prasad (1980). "Chapter IX: Edward Terry (1616-1619)". Early English Travellers in India. Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 257–308. ISBN 9788120824652.

Bibliography
  • Edward Terry (1660). A Character of His most Sacred Majesty King Charles the IId. London.
  • Edward Terry (1689). The Character of His Royal Highness, William Henry, Prince of Orange. London. (William Henry, Prince of Orange later reigned as William III of England)
  • Edward Terry (1649). The Merchants and Mariners Preservation and Thanksgiving: Or, Thankfulnesse Returned, for Mercies. London.
  • Edward Terry (1646). Pseudeleutheria. Or Lawlesse Liberty. London. (For the title word, see Eleutheria)


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