The India Office regularly received requests for help from people stranded in the UK, and often in difficult financial situations, who wished to travel to India, either because it was their home or because they had family living there.  The usual response from the India Office was to decline to help, and examples of such cases have featured on previous Untold Lives blog posts.  However, very occasionally a case arose where government help was given to an individual.

The Strangers’ Home, West India Dock Road, Limehouse from Illustrated London News 28 February 1857 p.194 British Library Images Online

On 14 July 1869, Colonel Hughes, Secretary of The Strangers' Home for Asiatics located in Limehouse in London, wrote to the India Office regarding a man named C W O’Donoghue.  Colonel Hughes described O’Donoghue as ‘country born and native of Calcutta’ who had been admitted into the Home in a state of destitution one week previously.  He had been engaged as compounder and interpreter on the ship Ganges taking Indian emigrants from Calcutta to Demerara in British Guiana -a compounder made up medicines for the ship’s surgeon.  Under his agreement of employment for the voyage, O’Donoghue had requested a return passage not to India but to England, presumably as he expected to find new employment in the UK.  Unfortunately, when in London he failed to find the employment he expected.  With his funds running out, he applied to the Colonial Office, then the India Office, and was referred to the Strangers' Home.  By good fortune, the ship Newcastle was due to leave London for Calcutta with several ‘natives of India’ on board.  Colonel Hughes asked if the Secretary of State for India would consider approving the payment of £20 for O’Donoghue’s ticket, otherwise he feared that ‘his remaining in England will result in destitution and loss of character’.

Sailing ship Newcastle built in 1857 and wrecked in Torres Strait in 1883. Photograph held by John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, and published on Wikimedia Commons.

Colonel Hughes visited the India Office to talk to M E Grant Duff, Under Secretary of State for India, about the case.  Following the meeting, Grant Duff put a note in a Public & Judicial Department file in which he pointed out that the Government of India should be told to grant return passages to Indian ports only, presumably to prevent similar cases from occurring.  He also wrote: ‘I hardly know whether the application should be complied with, but as the cost will only be £20, it will probably be the cheapest way of getting rid of the man’.  The Secretary of State evidently agreed, as a letter was duly sent to Colonel Hughes consenting to this plan.  On 20 July, Colonel Hughes wrote again to the India Office to confirm that passage had been secured for O’Donoghue on the Newcastle which had left the dock that morning.  He enclosed a receipt for the cost of the ticket, and a certificate of his being on board the ship signed by L J Bateman, the Chief Mate.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Case of C W O’Donoghue asking for passage from London to Calcutta, July 1869, reference IOR/L/PJ/2/49 File 7/305.
Bengal Public Letter, No.4 of 1869, regarding the agreement of Compounder & Interpreter, plus four Topazes, engaged to proceed with Indian emigrants to Demerara on board the ship Ganges, 16 January 1869, reference IOR/L/PJ/3/67 p.17.

 

A recent donation to India Office Private Papers is a letter sent in 1796 from Joseph Fowke to his friend Sir Robert Chambers, Chief Justice of Calcutta.  Joseph Fowke was born in Madras in 1716, the son of an East India Company civil servant.  He too served the Company in Madras before becoming a free merchant in India, dealing in diamonds.  Fowke had three sons and three daughters by his two wives, and one illegitimate daughter.  He left India for the last time in 1788, returning to England on board the Princess Royal.

Calcutta Gazette 26 July 1787 British Newspaper Archive

In July 1796 Joseph Fowke believed he was about to die. He wrote to Sir Robert to say farewell.

Joseph Fowke to Sir Robert Chambers, Chief Justice of Calcutta, 8 July 1796 Mss Eur F779

This is the text of his letter -

'Dear Sir Robert
In running over the List of all my old friends and acquaintance I find you among the number I have to take leave off. I send you these my last good wishes for your health and prosperity, and that you may speedily join all your amiable family here and unite them in a firm band to be a mutual happiness to each other to the end of their lives. Having not the smallest hope of my recovery It is a comfort to me to reflect that I have not a single soul of my family left in India, and I heartily wish that none of them may ever find their way thither again. I know of nothing gained by these emigrations, but corrupt morals, a numerous black offspring to discolour our home breed, and Wealth which procures nothing here but splendid insignificancy.
I am faint and can say no more, and so once again Farewell
I am
Dear Sir Robert
Your old friend
Joseph Fowke
8 July 1796'

Joseph Fowke did not die until 16 May 1800.  The effects at his house in New King Street, Bath, were auctioned in July of that year.  His will bequeathed the whole of his estate to Mary Mortimer, daughter of Hans Winthrop Mortimer of Tottenham Court Road, London.

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette 24 July 1800 British Newspaper Archive

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
There are many documents for Joseph Fowke and Sir Robert Chambers and their families in India Office Records and Private Papers – search The National Archives Discovery catalogue. 
Articles by T H Bowyer on Joseph Fowke (1716-1800) and Sir Robert Chambers (1737-1803) in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Will of Joseph Fowke  proved 9 August 1800 - The National Archives PROB 11/1346/104.

 

Given the astonishing range of talents possessed by writer, artist, and designer John Leighton, it’s almost reassuring to know that even he was capable of an occasional oversight.  Can you spot the mistake in his design? Fortunately, it wasn't carried over into the final binding!*

Design for upper cover and spine of Marmion by John Leighton

Trade ticket (used by Leighton’s family workshop) from lower cover of Marmion.

Leighton came from a long line of bookbinders (see binder’s ticket above) who worked in London from 1764 until 1920.  He himself was a prolific cover designer, widely admired for his intricate detail and characteristic humour.

Enlargement of spine of Marmion  - note John Leighton’s intertwined initials beneath the blade.

Although he signed his covers with the initials ‘J L’, he also adopted the pseudonym Luke Limner.  When journalist George Augustus Sala was mistakenly accused of being Limner, he replied that he only wished he had been!

Column written by George Augustus  Sala in Bristol Times and Mirror - Saturday 8 March 1890 p.13. British Newspaper Archive

The Library’s legal deposit copy of this edition of Marmion lacks its original covers, making this acquisition in excellent condition an important addition.  Moreover, the survival of the original drawing for the spine and covers is a rarity.  These were frequently destroyed in the process of creating the brass blocks, used to stamp the design onto cloth or leather.

Leighton’s talents extended well beyond book design.  He served on the 1851 Great Exhibition Commission, designed banknotes, stained glass, and bookplates, and contributed to magazines including The Gentleman’s Magazine, The Graphic, and The Sunbeam.  His own publications showcased his wide-ranging interests, from graphic novels to a pamphlet on the reform of the London Underground system.  His involvement in local government and his attempt to stand as a Liberal Unionist MP suggest a strong social conscience.

One wonders how Leighton’s bohemian leanings would have resonated with the electorate.  A keen observer of fashion, he wrote Madre Natura; or, the Moloch of Fashion, a critique of the frills and furbelows apparently favored by women.  On one occasion, after being stopped by a policeman in Regent Street for wearing women’s clothing, Leighton explained that he was simply conducting research for a new edition of Madre Natura.

Upper cover of recently acquired copy of Scott’s Marmion (shelf mark pending).

*The lettering on the design omits the ‘d’ in ‘field’

P J M Marks
Printed Historical Collections

Further reading;
The Book Cover Designs of John Leighton, F.S.A. by E. M. B. King features photographs of Leighton and some of his covers.
Leighton also appears in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Wikipedia.