James Grant Duff James Grant Duff ( 1789 – 1858 ) was a British soldier , and historian from Scotland who was active in British India . Early life . He was the eldest son of John Grant of Kincardine O ' Neil and Margaret Miln Duff of Eden , who died 20 August 1824 , was born in the town of Banff on 8 July 1789 . His father having died about 1799 , his mother moved to Aberdeen , where he went to school , and to the Marischal College . Military career . Duff was to become a civil servant of the East India Company , but being impatient at the prospect of delay in obtaining a post he accepted a cadetship in 1805 and sailed for Bombay . After completing the cadet training in Bombay , he joined the Bombay grenadiers . In 1808 , Duff participated as an ensign in the storming of Maliah , a fortified stronghold of freebooter s , where he displayed bravery . At an unusually early age he became adjutant to his regiment and Persian interpreter , and was even more influential in it than this position indicated . While still a lieutenant he attracted the attention of Mountstuart Elphinstone , then resident of Poona , and became , along with Henry Pottinger , his assistant and devoted friend . He was particularly successful in understanding the native character , and in discovering the mean between too rapid reform and too great deference to native prejudice and immobility . During the long operations against the Peishwa Bajee Rao , terminating in his overthrow , Grant took a considerable part , both in a civil and in a military capacity , holding now the rank of captain in his regiment . Upon the settlement of the country he was appointed in 1818 to the important office of resident of Sattara . His instructions are contained in a letter of Elphinstone " s , dated 8 April 1818 , and his remuneration was fixed at two thousand rupees per month , with allowances of fifteen hundred rupees per month , and in addition his office establishment . Here , in the heart of a warlike province , the centre of the Mahratta confederacy , with but one European companion and a body of native infantry , he succeeded in maintaining himself . By proclamation 11 April 1818 , Elphinstone made over to Grant full powers for the arrangement of the affairs of Sattara . Pertab Sing the rajah was rescued from his captivity by the peishwa , after the battle of Ashteh February 1819 , and restored to the throne under the tutelage of Grant . By treaty 25 September 1819 , Grant was to administer the country in the rajah ' s name till 1822 , and then transfer it to him and his officers when they should prove fit for the task . Grant carefully impressed upon the rajah that any intercourse with other princes , except such as the treaty provided for , would be punished with annexation of his territory , and trained him so successfully in habits of business that Pertab Sing , having improved greatly under his care , was made direct ruler of Sattara in 1822 ; but under Grant ' s successor , General Briggs , his behaviour was unsatisfactory . During this time , Grant concluded the treaties with the Sattara jaghiredars , " viz " . 22 April 1820 , the Punt Sucheo , the Punt Prithee Nidhee , the Duflaykur , and the Deshmook of Phultun , and 3 July 1820 , the Rajah of Akulkote and the Sheikh Waekur ( as the names are given by Aitcheson ) . The arrangements which he prescribed both for the etiquette of the Durbar and for the management of the revenue remained as he left them for many years . Return to Scotland . After five years the anxiety and toil broke down his health , and compelled his return to Scotland , where he occupied himself in completing his " History of the Mahrattas " , the materials for which he had long been collecting with great diligence and under peculiarly favourable opportunities , through his access to state papers , and family and temple archives , and his personal acquaintance with the Mahratta chiefs ( see in Colebrooke , " Life of Elphinstone " , several letters to and from Grant ) . It was published in 1826 and was translated into the major languages of Western India and made required reading for Indian students during the British Raj . About 1825 he succeeded to the estate of Eden , and taking the additional name of Duff settled there , improving the property . In 1850 his wife , Jane Catharine Ainslie ( only daughter of Sir Whitelaw Ainslie , an eminent physician and author of the " Materia Medica Indica " ) , whom he married in 1825 , succeeded to an estate in Fifeshire belonging to her mother " s family , whereupon he took the further name of Cuninghame . Family . He died on 23 September 1858 , leaving a daughter and two sons , of whom the elder , Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff , M . P . for the Elgin Burghs , Under - Secretary for India 1868 – 1874 , and Under - Secretary for the Colonies 1880 – 1881 , and Governor of Madras Presidency 1881 – 1886 .