Editing Streynsham Master (section)

{{Short description|British colonial administrator in Madras (1640–1724)}}
{{Other uses|Streynsham Master (Royal Navy officer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2013}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name        = Sir Streynsham Master
| image       = File:Charles d' Agar (1669-1723) (attributed to) - Sir Streynsham Master - NPG 6107 - National Portrait Gallery.jpg
| office      = [[List of colonial governors and presidents of Madras Presidency|Agent of Madras]]
| term_start  = 27 January 1678
| term_end    = 3 July 1681
| lieutenant  = 
| predecessor = [[Sir William Langhorne, 1st Baronet|Sir William Langhorne]]
| successor   = [[William Gyfford]]
| birth_date  = 28 October 1640
| birth_place = [[Langdon, Kent]], England
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1724|4|28|1640|10|28|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Lancashire]], England
| party       = 
| spouse      = Elizabeth Leigh
| children    = 3
| occupation  = Colonial administrator
| signature   = Streynsham Master signature.JPG
}}

'''Sir Streynsham Master''' (28 October 1640 – 28 April 1724) was an English colonial administrator who was one of the 17th-century pioneers of the [[English colonial empire|English]] [[East India Company]]. He served as the Agent of [[Madras]] from 27 January 1678 to 3 July 1681, and is credited with having introduced the first administrative reforms in the Madras Government. He banned [[Sati (practice)|sati]] and prohibited the burning of a Hindu widow in 1680 in what is the first official British response to sati.<ref name="Hawley1994">{{cite book|author=John Stratton Hawley|title=Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w_VbHItKQjYC&pg=PA72|accessdate=3 May 2018|date=8 September 1994|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-536022-6|pages=72–}}</ref><ref name="Muthiah2008">{{cite book|author=S. Muthiah|title=Madras, Chennai: A 400-year Record of the First City of Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbR_LLkqdI8C&pg=PA444|accessdate=3 May 2018|year=2008|publisher=Palaniappa Brothers|isbn=978-81-8379-468-8|pages=444–}}</ref><ref name="Ruthnaswamy1939">{{cite book|author=Mariadas Ruthnaswamy|title=Some Influences that Made the British Administrative System in India|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.260073|accessdate=3 May 2018|year=1939|publisher=Luzac & Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.260073/page/n627 617]}}</ref><ref name="Stern2012">{{cite book|author=Philip J. Stern|title=The Company-State: Corporate Sovereignty and the Early Modern Foundations of the British Empire in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MpAVDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA95|accessdate=3 May 2018|date=29 November 2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-993036-4|pages=95–}}</ref> He made English the sole official language and language of court in the [[Madras Presidency]], replacing the
[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], Tamil and [[Malayalam]] languages.<ref>{{cite book|title=Criminal Justice India Series: Tamil Nadu, 2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S3f4sNPHuMgC&pg=PA224|year=2002|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-7764-519-4|pages=224–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Landmarks in Indian legal and constitutional history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sEtQAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=4 May 2018|year=1975|page=46|last1 = Kulshreshtha|first1 = Visheshwar Dayal}}</ref>

Returning to [[England]], in 1692 he bought the [[Codnor Castle]] estate and for the rest of his life divided his time between [[Derbyshire]] and [[London]].