Samuel Hough first appears in the records of the East India Company as Master Attendant of Marine at Bombay in the 1730s.  The Marine fleet guarded British shipping on the west coast of India mainly from attack by local pirates but also from other nations at time of war.  His position gave him standing in the community and he must have been a brave officer, as shown by an event in 1748 when he was in command of the Bombay, at anchor at Rajapore.  Some of his crew had been impressed, but on 1 March the remainder mutinied and broke open the arms-chest.  Hough managed to reason with the men, promising safe passage back to England at the first opportunity and after seven hours he took back control.  His promise was honoured by the Government who needed crew to man ships on the return to England at this time of war with France.

An aquatint of a view of Bombay Harbour from the pier up to the Bunder Battery including part of the fort or Citadel. From James Wales, Bombay Views: Twelve Views Of The Island Of Bombay And Its Vicinity Taken In The Years 1791 And 1792. British Library shelfmark X 436. Images Online

Shortly after this, on 19 May 1748, Captain Samuel Hough married Mrs Judith Sclater, a widow with two small daughters.  They had two more daughters (Louisa and Ann) before Judith died in January 1752.  At the end of that year Samuel took all four little girls back to England on the Streatham, disembarking on 7 June 1753.

On 16 March 1754 Samuel Hough married Martha Crichton at St Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury.  She came from a family well established in the East India Company and within a few weeks she sailed off to Bombay.  Her husband captained their voyage on the Hardwicke which was to remain in Bombay as part of the Marine.

They had been joined on the Streatham by Laurence Sulivan and his family, also returning home.  The two men had been friends and business associates and this arrangement continued to their mutual advantage. Back in Bombay Hough acted as an agent holding powers of attorney on behalf of his clients and could provide ways of remitting Indian funds through confidants among his fellow captains, to be deposited with Sulivan in London, on their behalf.

Appointment of Samuel Hough as Superintendent of the Bombay Marine - IOR/E/4/996 p.69 General Letter from Court of Directors to Bombay 5 April 1754

Samuel Hough was appointed Superintendent of the Bombay Marine, the highest ranking officer below the Council members.  It is clear he was greatly respected and his opinion was valued by the Council.  By 1759 he had become one of the Council members but he returned to England on the Harcourt, arriving back on 18 May 1761.  By this time his family had grown - Louisa and Ann were joined by a baby brother William and a sister Elizabeth.

Entry from the journal of the ship Streatham Wednesday 29 November 1752 - IOR/L/MAR/B/605H

Back in London Hough continued his involvement with the East India Company by investing in and managing ships.  He was the second signature on the charterparty agreements for five ships in the 1761/2 season with four more voyages for 1762/3.

Samuel died on 5 September 1764 at Bath.  In his will he left bequests to his three daughters and his son William but also named a ‘natural son Samuel Hough, now a mate on the Latham Indiaman’.  Samuel junior went on to become a sea captain with the East India Company, married in September 1777 but died a year later.

CC-BY
Georgina Green
Independent researcher

Creative Commons Attribution licence

 

The National Lottery is celebrating its 30th anniversary.  To mark this occasion we look at one of the collections acquired with the help of National Lottery funding: the papers of Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, as Viceroy of India 1876-1880.

Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India. Grand Master of the Star of India, c. 1876. From J. Talboys Wheeler, The History of the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi (London, 1877). British Library shelfmark Photo 1054/(2). Images Online

Lytton was born in 1831, son of the writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.  Following his education at Harrow and the University of Bonn, he entered the diplomatic service in 1849.  He spent the first half of his career in various diplomatic posts around Europe and was serving as British Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon when he was appointed Viceroy of India in 1876 by the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.  His term of office would be controversial entailing war in Afghanistan, famine in India and an attempt to tighten British control over the native press.  The collection includes letters from a wide range of people in India and England, as well as correspondence between Lytton and the Secretary of State for India, and British officials and politicians on matters relating to Indian government.  There are also letters to and from members of the British Royal family.

Map showing the frontier with Afghanistan 1880 - Mss Eur E218/126

Perhaps not surprisingly, a dominant subject of the papers in the collection is Afghanistan and the Second Anglo-Afghan war.  The rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia, often referred to as the Great Game, was one of the defining aspects of British foreign policy in the mid-19th century.  Lytton had been given the task of securing an alliance with the Amir of Afghanistan Sher Ali Khan who was thought to be too pro-Russian, but on failing in this he opted to order an invasion instead.  The collection contains correspondence, minutes, reports, and notes on relations with the Amir of Afghanistan, future policy, and the frontiers of India, for example:
• Correspondence respecting relations with Afghanistan since the accession of Sher Ali Khan, Jul 1863 to Nov 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/123.
• Minutes and notes by the Viceroy relating to Afghanistan and the frontiers of India, 1876-1880, reference Mss Eur E218/125.
• Correspondence and other papers concerning the attack on the British Embassy at Kabul and subsequent military operations, Sep 1879 to Mar 1880, reference Mss Eur E218/127.

A statement on the Indian Famine of 1877 - Mss Eur E218/136

One of the most controversial aspects of Lytton’s time as Viceroy was his government’s response to the great famine of 1876-1878.  This was caused by drought leading to crop failure, affecting many parts of India, with the death toll estimated at between 6 and 10 million people.  The high mortality rate was in part blamed on the government’s minimal famine relief measures. The collection includes several files on the famine, such as:
• Volume of cuttings from Indian and newspapers concerning the famine, Jul 1877 to Feb 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/134.
• Volume of printed weather reports from each province and of rain telegrams sent to the Private Secretary's Office, Jul 1877 to Jan 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/135.
• The Indian Famine of 1877 being a statement of the measures proposed by the Government of India for the prevention and relief of famines in the future (1878), reference Mss Eur E218/136.

Minute by the Viceroy Lord Lytton on Afghanistan - Mss Eur E218/125

The collection also touches on other aspects of Indian government, such as Indian finances, new legislation, appointments to the Indian Civil Service, and includes two files on attempts to control Indian newspapers and publications:
• Papers concerning the Native Press and the 1878 Vernacular Press Act, 1858-1881, reference Mss Eur E218/146.
• Correspondence between the Secretary of State for India and the Government of India on the control of publications in Oriental languages, 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/147.

Weather Reports for Hyderabad July 1877 - Mss Eur E218/135

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Papers of 1st Earl of Lytton as Viceroy of India 1876-1880, collection reference Mss Eur E218. Deposited on permanent loan by Lady Hermione Cobbold in 1955. Purchased from Lord Cobbold in 2004 with assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Friends of the British Library, The Friends of the National Libraries and The Lord Farringdon Charitable Trust.

A list of the Lytton Papers can be found on The National Archives'  Discovery catalogue: Papers of 1st Earl of Lytton as Viceroy of India 1876-80.

 

For Green Libraries Week 2024 curators at the British Library selected items that address climate and sustainability.  While the climate crisis is an issue we are facing today, historical holdings can help us understand the threats and effects of natural catastrophes better.  Two 15th-century books from the British Library’s incunabula collection provide insights into how people experienced and interpreted such extreme natural events in the Early Modern era.

The Magdalene Flood of 1480 was a devastating disaster that struck the area around the Aare and the Rhine as well as other rivers in the Swiss Mittelland and Upper Rhine region in July 1480.  According to the Bern Chronicle (Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Mss. H.h.l.16), on the Thursday before St Mary Magdalene Feast Day (29 July 1480) it started raining for three days and three nights.  The weather in the weeks before had been extremely hot so that 'glaciers and snowy mountains had warmed'.  The flood caused extensive destruction of buildings and bridges leaving many without a home or their possessions.

Detail from the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle showing the Middle Bridge in Basel.  Liber chronicarum [German] Das Buch der Croniken und Geschichten. Tr: Georg Alt. Nuremberg : Anton Koberger, for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister, 23 Dec. 1493 (is00309000). London, British Library (IC.7458)

Hieronymus Brilinger (1469-1537) recollects that 'people standing on the bridge [in Basel] could easily wash their hands in the Rhine'.  Looking at the city panorama in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), one of the most significant examples of 15th-century printing, puts this quote into perspective: we can spot the bridge in question and imagine the rising water, which eventually flooded large parts of the city centre.  Environmental historians are able to use historical sources like these to reconstruct previous floods and to better prevent similar catastrophic events today.  Literary texts, too, bear witness to the effects of catastrophic events.  In Varia Carmina (1489), a collection of Latin poetry by Sebastian Brant, contains a poem about the 1480 flood: ‘De diluvio aquarum intimatio ad ecclesiam Basiliensem Anno domini. 1480’.  It is an emotive appeal to Neptune, the Roman god of freshwater and the sea, asking him to 'stay in the depths of his kingdom'. 'You force the animals of the sea to visit the mountains – and the whales of Proteus (a sea god) have to graze in beech forests'.  Using references to classical mythology, it is not a realistic account of the flood but instead uses literary features typical for learned humanist literature.

Opening in Sebastian Brant’s poetry collection showing the start of ‘De diluvio aquarum intimatio ad ecclesiam Basiliensem Anno domini. 1480’. Brant, Sebastian: Varia carmina. Add: Johann Bergmann. Basel : Johann Bergmann, de Olpe, 1 May [14]98 (ib01099000). London, British Library (IA.37949).

Alyssa Steiner
Curator, Printed Heritage Collections

Further reading:
Christian Pfister and Oliver Wetter: Das Jahrtausendhochwasser von 1480 an Aare und Rhein, in: Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte 04/11, pp. 41–49.

 

In October I had the pleasure of attending the Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in India and the Caribbean Symposium at the V&A Museum.  This event focused on exploring the cultural and textile history of 18th-century Madras textiles, their production in South India, and their interwoven link with the Caribbean.

Madras Handkerchief made by Sooboo Chetty, c.1855. V&A, 4968(IS)

The Connecting Threads project is a collaboration among various specialists, aiming to amplify the voices and contributions of Indian weavers and African Caribbean consumers who have adopted Madras as part of their heritage, shifting the narrative away from colonial and Western markets.  The project’s accompanying website, Connecting Threads, supports this initiative.  With born-digital scholarship, the project aims to democratise research, reach a wider audience, and address Open Access data issues by making their resources freely available globally.  They also hope to influence the development of AI knowledge about Madras textiles, promoting a less Eurocentric view of its visual history.

The Programme
The programme featured 14 speakers from various backgrounds and specialisms, including curators, professors, historians, craftspeople, artists, and business owners.  Throughout the day, we viewed microscope-enhanced images of 18th-century and modern Madras handkerchiefs, analysed by the research team and a Chennai master weaver.  There were lectures on their production and how different caste groups, sexes, and religions may have worn them.  For example, Muslim groups were noted in inscriptions from 1538 for their specific weaving techniques (source: Uthra Rajagopal, scholar and curator).  There was some discussion into trade by the English East India Company and other European traders, and the appropriation of designs to be reproduced in Britain.

A Company painting titled ‘A Weaver and his wife’, c.1800. V&A, AL.8940N

Caribbean experts and scholars gave excellent talks and demonstrations on the trade and cultural use of Madras, particularly by enslaved or low-income groups.  The usage is complex, but the talks generally emphasized Madras’s positive context—its power in Caribbean island identity and, amusingly, the historical use of head wraps as flirtatious signifiers of availability.

Exquisite handmade dolls were displayed to the attendees, a real example of the integrated nature of Madras in Caribbean culture.  These dolls, currently held at the Bristol Museum, were made in the 1780s by Rebecca Ahmuty Snagg, a domestic enslaved woman in Grenada who died a free woman.  They were likely crafted for the children of the family that bought Rebecca, and they feature Madras head coverings, emulating the real-life articles worn by black Caribbean women at the time.

One of three of the Rebecca Ahmuty Snagg dolls, currently held at the Bristol Museum Collections - photograph by author

The conference was an insightful addition in the ongoing initiative to decolonise and diversify our collections.  This line of research is gaining momentum, with frequent discussions at the British Library on how to rethink our catalogues to promote a more diverse and inclusive narrative.

Maddy Clark
India Office Records

Further information about the Connecting Threads project can be found on their resource website and the V&A website.
Connecting Threads
Connecting Threads: Fashioning Madras in India and the Caribbean

 

A recent acquisition to the India Office Private Papers has now been catalogued and is available for researchers to view in the British Library’s Asian and African Studies reading room.  The collection consists of the papers of Leo Cayley Robertson (1891-1964), Barrister, Indian Civil Service 1938-1947, District and Sessions Judge, Burma 1945-1947.

Extract from Map of Western Yunnan - Survey of India 1927 Mss Eur F771/1 f.125

Leo Robertson was born on 19 June 1891.  His family had a long association with Burma; his great grandfather was a master mariner who traded from Moulmein and Rangoon, and his father was an engineer with the Burma Public Works Department.  Leo was educated at St Joseph’s College in Darjeeling, then in France and London, and finally at Queen’s College, Cambridge graduating in Moral and Mental Science in 1912.  He then studied metaphysics, before embarking on a career in law.  Leo returned to Burma in 1920, joining the Board of Philosophical Studies at the University of Rangoon.  He also began practising at the Bar in the High Court at Rangoon. 

Letter of recommendation on behalf of Leo Robertson addressed to Walter Booth-Graveley, Chief Secretary to the Government of Burma,13 October 1933 Mss Eur F771/1 f.116

In 1938, Leo joined the Indian Civil Service in Burma, working in the Chief Secretary’s Office and in the Civil Affairs Service, before being appointed a District and Session Judge.  Leo retired from the ICS in 1947 and returned to England.  He died in 1964.

Letter from Chief Secretary's Office Maymyo about Robertson's proposed trek, 22 March 1935 Mss Eur F771/1 f.117

In 1935, Leo made a trek through the Chinese province of Yunnan accompanied by his uncle Andrew Hazlewood, and the collection contains his file of papers on the trip.  This contains his original handwritten diary, with notes and correspondence related to gaining permission to travel in the area.  They left Rangoon on 1 April 1935, and travelled to Bhamo where they collected two riding ponies and ten mules to carry their camp equipment and provisions for the trip.  Their trek then took them through Western Yunnan to Tengyueh and Yongchang, crossing back into Burma at Malipa.  They stayed for three days as guests of Mr Stark-Toller, British Consul at Tengyueh, and at times needed a Chinese military escort who were engaged in suppressing banditry.  On arrival at Tetang, the headquarters of the local Administration, they were given a public reception and the whole town turned out to meet them.  Leo described his appearance as ‘disgracefully unkempt and travel-stained and having grown a rakish-looking beard during the journey, might well have been taken for a brigand of sorts’.

Extract from Leo Robertson's Burma diary 12 April 1942 Mss Eur F771/2 f.22

In 1942, Japanese forces invaded Burma and rapidly swept through the country.  Leo kept a diary during this period, and a typescript copy survives.  It covers the events from 15 February to 9 May, including Robertson's evacuation from Burma.  The collection also includes three letters by Andrew Hazlewood during January 1942 from Rangoon where he was employed as an Insurance Assessor, in which he gives news of other family members being evacuated from Burma and describes the deteriorating situation in Rangoon owing to increased air raid alerts warning of Japanese bombing of the city.

In the 1950s, Leo worked on a profile of Frank Kingdom-Ward (1885-1958), botanist, explorer and plant collector, for The Observer.  The collection contains some papers related to this including a draft of the profile, along with notes and correspondence, and a copy of an article by Kingdom-Ward 'Caught in the Assam-Tibet Earthquake' in National Geographic Magazine (1952).

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading: Papers of Leo Cayley Robertson (1891-1964), Barrister, Indian Civil Service 1938-1947, District and Sessions Judge, Burma 1945-1947, Mss Eur F771 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room at the British Library.

In the foyer of the staff entrance to the St Pancras site of the British Library is a memorial tablet commemorating 142 librarians who died during the First World War.  It was unveiled at the British Museum 100 years ago this month.

Memorial tablet at the British Library commemorating 142 librarians who died during the First World War

The memorial to ‘the British librarians fallen in the War’ was commissioned by the Library Association in 1923 and consists of a framed set of five oak panels with incised and gilded lettering.  It was made by Messrs Harry Hems & Sons of Exeter and was originally placed in the corridor leading to the main reading room of the British Museum.

The Library Association had started gathering information on British and Empire librarians who died on active service during the war itself.  A roll of honour was published as a supplement to the Library Association Record in March 1923, its preamble hoping that the printed roll would be superseded by another one, ‘necessarily briefer, but more monumental, in some appropriate public space’.  The contract with Harry Hems & Sons for the new memorial was awarded in early 1924.

‘Librarians’ Memorial’ - Newspaper article from the Western Morning News, 28 April 1924, p. 5. British Newspaper Archive

A week or so before it was unveiled at the British Museum, the Librarians’ Memorial was the subject of a short article published in the Shields Daily News.  The local interest concerned the two members of staff from the public libraries at South Shields and Tynemouth who were commemorated on the memorial: 270013 Sergeant Reginald Maurice Daniel of the Northumberland Hussars; and Second Lieutenant Richard Harold Urwin Potts of the 1/2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment.

‘Librarians’ Memorial’ - Newspaper article from the Shields Daily News, 9 October 1924, p. 2. British Newspaper Archive

The memorial was unveiled on 24 October 1924 by Sir Frederic George Kenyon, Director and Principal Librarian of the British Museum.  A short account of the ceremony was published in the Shields Daily News a few days afterwards.

 

‘Librarians Memorial: unveiling ceremony at the British Museum’ - Newspaper article from the Shields Daily News, 27 October 1924, p. 5. British Newspaper Archive

More names were added to the memorial after its unveiling, bringing the total number commemorated to 142.  Of these, 130 (ca. 92.5%) had previously worked for organisations based in the UK, nine in Australia, two in South Africa, and one in Ireland.

The Librarians' Memorial remained at the British Museum until 1998, when it was moved to the new St Pancras site of the British Library.  It remains a prominent feature there in the foyer of the staff entrance on Midland Road.

Michael Day
Digital Preservation Research and Services Lead

Further reading:
Graham Jefcoate, 'Roll of honour: the Librarians’ War Memorial and professional identity', Library History, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1996, pp. 171-182 (£)
Lynn Young, 'Valete fratres - Librarians and the First World War', Untold lives blog (13 November 2011) 
'The Librarians' Roll of Honour', Library Association Record, March 1923, supplement.

 

Launched on 22 October 2014, the Qatar Digital Library (QDL) was developed as part of a longstanding partnership between the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar National Library, and the British Library.  The partnership includes the digitisation of a wide range of material from the British Library’s collections, aimed at improving understanding of the modern history of the Gulf, Arabic cultural heritage, and the Islamic world.

Following on from parts 1 and 2, in this concluding part, members of the team of experts working on the QDL reflect once more on memorable material that they and former colleagues have encountered during the last decade.

• The power of OCR – IOR/R/15/1/381 and IOR/R/15/1/720

Excerpt from an administration report of the Persian Gulf, 1945 – IOR/R/15/1/720, f. 92r

The application of OCR to digitised records just before the QDL’s launch in 2014 enabled a response to a query from a geology professor at the University of Baluchistan, Pakistan, who was looking to find archival material on the 1945 Makran tsunami, as part of UNESCO commemorations on the tenth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

• A foretelling of US post-war dominance in the Gulf – IOR/L/PS/12/2124

A minute paper by Isaiah Berlin, dated 5 January 1944 (not 1943, as stated in this copy) – IOR/L/PS/12/2124, f. 36r

As a cataloguer – and no doubt as a researcher too – when reading official government papers, it is rare to find something so candid and revealing on a single piece of paper.  Most often, things are implied rather than stated explicitly, across hundreds of pages and throughout dozens of files and volumes.  Inside this India Office Political and Secret Department file is one of those rare finds: a copy of a minute paper by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who at the time was working in the British Embassy in Washington DC.  Writing in January 1944, Berlin reports on having seen an extract from a secret report by the United States War Department, which outlined the long-term strategic interests of the US in Saudi Arabia and recommended that ‘no effort should be spared to develop close relations with King Ibn Saud’.  British officials responded with extreme scepticism; however, in just a few years, the US replaced Britain as Saudi Arabia’s key western sponsor and protector, and soon become the predominant imperialist power in the region.

• Sources on Palestine – 306.37.C.18

Excerpt from an English translation of The Oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century – 306.37.C.18, pp. 39-40

The description of Palestine pictured above comes from an 1800 English translation of The Oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, which was written in 977 CE.  At a time when Palestinian history and lived experience is denied and devalued more than ever, brushed over with colonial myths about ‘making the desert bloom’, this account (one of many sources on Palestine that feature on the QDL), with its descriptions of ‘all the hills of Palestine ... covered with trees’ and ‘much fruit, olives, and figs’, constitutes evidence of a flourishing Palestine from more than a millennium ago.

• The mystery of the Roebuck, and the importance of cross-referencing – IOR/L/MAR/A/XXIX and IOR/L/MAR/A/XXX

Inscription at the start of a journal kept by Henry Crosby – IOR/L/MAR/A/XXIX, f. 7v

Within the records of the India Office’s Marine Department (IOR/L/MAR) are two ship journals, IOR/L/MAR/A/XXIX and IOR/L/MAR/A/XXX, which appear to assert that a ship named the Roebuck was in two different places at once. How was this mystery solved? By assiduous cross-referencing.

IOR Cataloguing Team, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

 

An additional 200 digitised items from the India Office Records have been made available online, as part of the library's recovery from last year's cyber-attack.

They are accessible on the interim Digitised Manuscripts webpage, and can be found on pages 2 and 3.

These items were digitised as part of the India Office Medical Archives project, and cover a range of record groups over the 19th and early 20th century: collections of the Board of Control (IOR/F/4), the Military Department (IOR/L/MIL/17), the Political and Judicial Department (IOR/L/PJ/3), selections from Official Publications (IOR/V/23) and Statistical Serials (IOR/V/14).

A wide range of topics are covered:

• Hospitals and other medical institutions
• Quarantine
• Vaccination
• Medical topography
• Diseases including smallpox, malaria, cholera, and plague
• Medical education
• Sanitation

Map detail from IOR/L/MIL/17/5/4316, A Medico-topographical account of the Erinpura Regiment, 1907. iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100076102254.0x000001 

Also included are two volumes of Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's original manuscript notes on Gangetic Fishes, Mss Eur E70 A and B.

Mss Eur E70 A, f85v. iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100101225532.0x000001 

Information on where to access online catalogue records and other resources can be found in our previous blog posts:

Digitised India Office Records currently available online

India Office catalogue records added to Discovery platforms

Interim ways of working with the India Office Records and Private Papers