Bartholomew Rodrigues

Bartholomew Rodrigues was Anglo-Indian merchant who made his wealth in India dealing in diamonds and other precious stones.

Bartholomew left London in 1683 for Fort St. George, an English headquarters in Madras, the then center of the diamond trade. At first he acted as “interloper”, a trader without permission of trade from the English East India Company (EIC), but in 1684 he was admitted as freeman of the EIC. From Madras he operated widespread commercial transactions in diamonds, precious stones, amber, and coral, and the extent of his trade with Manila, Pegu (Burma), Bengal, and China are documented in the records of the Madras Company up to 1692. Bartholomew was the representative of the “Hebrew merchant colony” in Madras, and as such had served as alderman of the Madras Corporation in 1688. He died in 1692 and was buried in the garden of his house in Mint Street, Madras.