The death of Sir John Child in February 1690 created a vacuum in power within the company's hierarchy in India, and no officer initially succeeded Child. In January 1691, the Company directors resolved to appoint Gainsborough to act as the first member of council at the different settlements in India.James Talboys Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time: Being a History of the Presidency from the First Foundation, J. Higginbotham, 1861, p.249 In February, he was knighted, and given the official title of ‘supervisor-commissary-general and chief governor' and set sail for India in March. The following year he was made ‘captain-general and commander-in-chief’ based at Madras.John Holland Rose, Arthur Percival Newton, Ernest Alfred Benians, Henry Dodwell, The Cambridge History of the British Empire, Volume 1, CUP Archive, 1929, p.102 He arrived at Fort St. George on 5 December 1692. His first instructions from the directors were to proceed with the construction of a steeple at a church at Fort George and to enlarge the town into a quadrangle.James Talboys Wheeler, Madras in the Olden Time: Being a History of the Presidency from the First Foundation, J. Higginbotham, 1861, p.249 He thereafter began investigating the quarrel between the late governor, Elihu Yale, and his council. In June 1693 he went to Fort St. David, and after a short stay there returned by land to Madras in July.
