services as Darogha at the Residency, and in consideration of his
negotiations between the King and the British Government or the East India
Company.

From the information collected at Lucknow it appears that he was known as
Mir Londoni, 'the London gentleman', and that he was appointed
Safir, or Attaché, at the court of King Ghazi-ud-din Haidar,
who conferred upon him the title of Maslaha-ud-daula, 'Counsellor of
State'. By another account he held the post of Mir Munshi, head
native clerk or secretary to the British Resident.

One of the most influential personages in the court of Oudh during this
period was that stormy petrel of politics, Nawab Hakim Mehndi. He
had been the right-hand man of the Nawab Sa'adat Ali, and on the
accession of his son Ghazi-ud-din Haidar in 1814 he was dismissed on
the ground that he had incited the King to protest against interference in
Oudh affairs by the Resident, Colonel Baillie. The King at the last moment
became frightened at the prospect of an open rupture with the Resident.
Nawab Hakim Mehndi was deprived of all his public offices and of
much of his property, and he was imprisoned for a time. On his release he
retired into British territory, and in 1824 he was living in magnificent
style at Fatehgarh. In that year Bishop Heber visited Lucknow and received
a courteous letter from the Nawab inviting him to his house at
Fatehgarh. He gave the Bishop an assurance 'that he had an English
housekeeper, who knew perfectly well how to do the honours of his
establishment to gentlemen of her own nation. (She is, in fact, a singular
female, who became the wife of one of the Hindustani professors at
Hertford, now the Hukeem's dewan,[2] and bears, I believe, a very
respectable character.)' The authoress makes no reference to Hakim
Mehndi, nor to the fact that she and her husband were in his employment.