Impey, SIR ELIJAH, born in 1732, was educated at Westminster, brought up to the bar, and sent out to Bengal as the first chief-justice appointed under the Regulating Act of 1773. He landed in Calcutta, 19th October 1774, in company with his brother judges and the three members of council sent out from England under the same act. From the first Impey acted in harmony with the governor-general. Warren Hastings (q.v.); and in the following year presided at the trial of Maharaja Nand Kumar (Nuncomar), charged with forgery. Impey conducted the trial with fairness and patience; the prisoner, however, was found guilty by the jury, after an impartial charge by the chief-justice, who sentenced him to death with the concurrence of a full court. In 1777 Impey was referred to as arbitrator between Hastings and General Clavering when the latter claimed the reversion of the post on Hastings' alleged resignation. Impey pronounced in favour of Hastings; thereby—as the governor-general afterwards acknowledged—saving his fortune, honour, and reputation. In 1779, however, a conflict occurred between the government and the court on a question of jurisdiction, which was only appeased by Impey accepting the chiefship of the Company's courts in addition to his own duties. In 1783 Impey was recalled, and impeached for his conduct in the case of Nuncomar. He was honourably acquitted; Pitt and Dunning and Thurlow all concurred in approving the whole of his conduct. In his retirement he continued to enjoy the friendship of good men. In 1803 he visited Paris, and was for a short time detained by the French government in consequence of the rupture of the peace of Amiens. He died in his house at Newick, near Brighton, 1st October 1809. Impey was a good scholar, both classical and oriental; as a judge he was industrious and free from corruption. His faults were vanity and a tendency to obsequiousness.
See HASTINGS; Life of Sir E. Impey, by his son, E. B. Impey (1846); The Story of Nuncomar, by Sir J. F. Stephen (1885); and Mill's British India.