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Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy is the name used by the Jejeebhoy Baronets of Bombay who head the Parsi-Indian family of Jejeebhoy.

Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 1st Baronet of Bombay in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom (and heirs)

The original Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (1783-1859) was born in Bombay (Mumbai) of poor but respectable parentage, and was orphaned in his teens. He entered the merchant service and built up a great fortune. He was knighted in 1842 and awarded a baronetcy in 1858, being the first British subject in India to be so honoured.

Since it is the British tradition that surnames are inherited, but the Parsi tradition that each new generation takes its own name, special arrangements were introduced for Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy's descendents to change their names to his own on coming into the baronetcy.

The title subsequently passed to the following members of the family:

  • Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 2nd Baronet (1811-1877) was born Cursetjee Jeejeebhoy, son of the first baronet.
  • Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 3rd Baronet (1851-1898) was born Menekjee Cursatjee, and was the eldest son of the second baronet.
  • Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 4th Baronet (1853-1908) was born Cowasjee Cursatjee, a younger son of the second baronet.
  • Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 5th Baronet (1878-1931) was born Rustomjee Cowasjee Cursatjee, son of the fourth baronet.
  • Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 6th Baronet (1909-1968) was born Cowasjee Jeejebhoy, son of the fifth baronet.
  • Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 7th Baronet (1913-2006) was born Maneckjee Jamsetjee, son of Jamsetjee Cursetjee, a younger son of the second baronet.
  • Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, 8th Baronet (born 1957) was born Rustomjee Maneckjee, son of the seventh baronet.

Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and the Wold Newton Universe

According to Jules Verne in his novel Around the World in Eighty Days (set in 1872), Princess Aouda (daughter of a wealthy Bombay merchant) was related to both a Sir Jamsetjee JeJeebhoy and to the baronet's cousin Jeejeeh, a merchant of Hong Kong. In Tarzan Alive,&nbsp Philip José Farmer gave Aouda's surname as 'Jejeebhoy'. Elsewhere, he stated that Mowgli's father, a humble woodcutter, was a relative of a Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy who later adopted Mowgli who in turn came into the title. This seems inconsistent with the family history, and is perhaps a fictional element of his novella The Adventure of the Three Madmen (a rewrite of The Adventure of the Peerless Peer with Mowgli replacing Tarzan.

Wold Newton researcher Dennis Power, following the theories of David Vincent, Jr, has identified Mowgli's actual mother as Jaya Clayton, sister of a Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. Jaya had married John Clayton, Lord Staveley in 1883, but died in the tiger attack that was thought to have claimed their son as well. The dates at least suggest her brother would have been the fourth baronet, the former Cowasjee Cursatjee.


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