Abraham Shipman was an Englishman

Kingdom of England

The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...

 appointed as governor of Bombay during the period of the Honourable East India Company. He assumed the office in March 1662 and died in office in October 1664, but did not gain possession of Bombay.

On 19 March 1662, Shipman was appointed the first Governor and General of the city of Bombay, and his fleet arrived there in about September or October of 1662. On being asked to hand over Bombay and Salsette to the English, the Portuguese governor contended that the island of Bombay had alone been ceded, and on the ground of some alleged irregularity in the form of the letters patent

Letters patent

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...

, he refused to give up even Bombay. The Viceroy

Viceroy

A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...

 of Portuguese India

Portuguese India

The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...

 declined to interfere, and Shipman was prevented from landing in Bombay. He died on the island of Anjediva in North Canara in October 1664.