India Office Records early 18th century, and eventually came to hold large swaths of land in the subcontinent. In the mid-18th century, the Company began to undertake a governmental role in large parts of India, in order to organize the nascent colony to better facilitate trade. In an effort to increase its own involvement in the administration of India, the British Government passed Pitt's India Act in 1784, which established the Board of Control to direct the East India Company in its governing role. In 1858, in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government abolished the East India Company's
Colony of British Columbia (1858–1866) Moody family, only 22 men and 8 wives returned to England, while the rest, 130 sappers, elected to remain in BC. Scott contends that the departure of the Engineers "doomed" the development of the settlement and the fruition of Lord Lytton's dream. Chartres Brew replaced Moody as land commissioner. Douglas's successor was Frederick Seymour, who came to the colony with twenty years of colonial experience in Van Diemen's Land, the British West Indies, and British Honduras. The creation of an assembly and Seymour's appointment in April 1864 signalled a new era for the colony, now out of the shadow of