In October 2024, an ambitious project to catalogue the Maggs Bros. Ltd. archive began. Funded as part of the Unlocking Hidden Collections initiative, the goal is to re-house and catalogue the archive to file level for the first time.

This archive contains the business records of Maggs Bros. Ltd., an antiquarian bookseller founded in the 1850s.  The contents of the collection span over half a century from 1914 to 1979.  The extensive correspondence is a time capsule into the past offering a glimpse into the inner workings of rare books and manuscript sellers.

Letters from Maggs' Continental Correspondence files for 1921

Still operating today from locations in central London, Maggs’ business stretches globally, having built close relationships with other prominent antique booksellers and collectors over many years.  Highlights of the correspondence include letters detailing Maggs’ negotiation on behalf of the British Museum with the Russian government to purchase the Codex Sinaiticus.  The Sinaiticus is one of the earliest Bible manuscripts in the world dated from 350 AD.  The British Museum paid £100,000 for the manuscript in 1932, half of which was funded by public donations.  Arriving in London in 1933, it held the record for the most expensive book sale in recorded history, costing an equivalent of £6,000,000 in 2024.  A digitised version of the Codex Sinaiticus manuscript can be seen here.

The Maggs archive was originally organised into four distinct categories and is catalogued to reflect and preserve this order.

• Correspondence (subdivided into English, American, Continental correspondence, carbon copies of outgoing letters and Correspondence 1932-1978)
• Financial Papers
• Paris House (relating to the business of Maggs Bros. branch in Paris, France)
• Miscellanea

Cash book for 1937, part of the Financial Papers

The correspondence series reveals the loyal customer base of private collectors and public institutions that conducted business with Maggs Bros.  Maggs held the Royal warrant of King George V, King Edward VIII, and King Alfonso XIII of Spain.  They also provided books, autographs and manuscripts to several other royal households, developing a particularly close relationship with King Manuel II of Portugal (1889-1932), whom Maggs aided in publishing a book written by the King about the various rare manuscripts and books that Maggs helped him collect.  King Manuel II’s collection is now held at the Ducal Palace Library at Fundação da Casa de Bragança.

The Ducal Palace Library at Fundação da Casa de Bragança. Livros antigos portuguezes 1489-1600 da bibliotheca de Sua Majestade Fidelissima / descriptos por S.M. el-rei D. Manuel. p.42 Source: Wellcome Collection. 

Other notable past clients encountered in the correspondence series are automobile magnate Henry Ford (1863-1947), escapologist and illusionist Harry Houdini (1874-1926), English conductor Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) and historian and former chief spy for British Army Intelligence C.R. Boxer (1904-2000).  The correspondence series also contains many letters to and from the forger and book collector and T.J. Wise (1859-1937), owner of the Ashley Library, whose books and manuscripts are now held at the British Library.

This blog post marks the project’s halfway point and the completion of cataloguing of the Continental Correspondence (1914-1832) and Carbon Copies files (1924-1932).  Cataloguing of the correspondence for the period 1932-1978, of the financial papers, Paris house files and miscellanea remains ongoing.

Nathan Silver
Modern Archives and Manuscript Cataloguer

Further reading:
A catalogue of Maggs catalogues 1918-1968 (London: Maggs, 1969). [BL, 3079.400000]
Clara Macedo Cabral, The last King of Portugal and Maggs : an Anglo-Portuguese alliance (Caredigon: The Gormer Press, 2015). [BL, YC.2017.b.349]
Benjamin F. Maggs, The delinquent bibliophile. Thomas James Wise and the foundation of the Ashley Library (London: 1965). [BL, 2718.cc.62]

In August 1907 an Industrial Conference was held in the United Provinces over concerns that technical education in India had been neglected, resulting in Indian industries being hampered.

One of the topics discussed at the conference was hand-loom cotton weaving, and suggestions were made for ways of improving it.  The conference concluded that they needed to support and improve the existing cottage-industry of hand-loom weaving and explore the possibility of factory production.

In support of the cottage industries, three small demonstration schools were established at Tanda, Moradabad and Saharanpur, which would demonstrate the use of the fly-shuttle weaving loom and teach simpler improved methods of warping.  It was hoped that these would increase production and reduce the intense labour required.

To explore the factory proposal, an ‘Experimental Station or School’ was to be established at Benares.  The station would teach cotton weaving, silk weaving and hosiery making; and the institution would be under the management of a cotton expert appointed as its Principal.

Advertisement for a cotton expert, placed by the India Office in 1911 – IOR/L/PJ/6/1087, file 1694

An advertisement was circulated for the appointment of a cotton expert in which candidates were required to know the latest weaving appliances, and the series of improvements which had marked the progress of hand weaving from old looms to the latest pattern looms.  They were also required to have experience in teaching weaving, spinning and design.

The successful candidate was John Marsden Cook, a cotton weaver from Lancashire who had started working in the cotton mills aged just ten.  Cook had attended technical schools in Darwen, Bury and Manchester earning 1st Class Honours and City & Guilds recognition in Cotton Manufacturing, and Cotton, Silk and Jute Weaving.  As well as working as a weaver at various mills across Lancashire, he had also taught spinning, weaving and design at various technical schools in the region from 1891-1900.

He had previously been employed by the Anglo-Egyptian Supply and Weaving Company in Alexandria as a weaving master and instructor, before moving to the same role with the Egyptian Cotton Mills Company in Cairo.  In 1906 he had moved to Madras as a weaving master for the Anglo-French Textile Company at Pondicherry.

Letter from the Board of Education to the India Office, 11 May 1911, discussing the technical instruction Mr Cook would require prior to his departure for Benares - IOR/L/PJ/6/1087, file 1694

Cook was appointed in May 1911 and was to depart for Benares in September.  First there was specialised training which the India Office felt he required: ball sizing, dressing sizing, and basic Hindustani.

The India Office hired Mr Blumhardt to provide Hindustani language teaching, and it was decided that Cook should have a month’s intensive teaching first, so that he could have time to practise before departing.

For ball sizing he was sent to the Dacca Twist Company Ltd in Swinton, Lancashire, and for dressing sizing to Messrs John Hall Ltd, Hargreaves, Lancashire.

Uncovenanted service death report for John Marsden Cook – IOR/L/AG/34/14A/9, f.445

Sadly John Marsden Cook passed away in Benares in November 1913 having spent just over two years in the role.  As the experimental weaving station was only intended to be a temporary one, it appears to have come to an end on Cook’s death.

Karen Stapley
Curator, India Office Records

Further reading:
IOR/L/PJ/6/1087, file 1694 – Appointment of Mr J.M. Cook as Cotton Expert, Experimental Weaving Station, Benares 1911.
IOR/L/AG/34/14A/9, f.445 – Uncovenanted Service Deaths – John Marsden Cook.

 

On 25 July 1823, East India Company warehouse labourer Charles Richards was brought into the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors in London to receive his discharge from debtors’ prison.  However he was opposed by Mary Ann Richards, widow of his brother Benjamin.  She challenged the schedule of debts.

Morning Herald 26 July 1823 British Newspaper Archive

Benjamin Richards had been the cook on board East Indiaman Marquis of Camden on a voyage to Bombay and China.  The ship’s captain Thomas Larkins told the Court that Benjamin had been ‘deranged’ during the voyage and unable to do his duty.  When the ship arrived back in the Thames, Benjamin had jumped or fallen overboard and drowned.  He was buried on 14 May 1823 at Milton near Gravesend in Kent, aged 38.

Before the ship entered the docks in London, Charles Richards went on board and asked for the slush and fat which was the perquisite of the ship’s cook.  Slush was the floating grease skimmed off boiled meat which could be sold to tallow merchants.  There were fifteen casks worth about £60 or £70 and they were given to Charles on the understanding that he was receiving it for the benefit of Benjamin’s widow Mary Ann.  He sold the slush to Mr Rottenbury of Gravesend.

The Court was told that Mary Ann was in great distress.  She stated that she had married Benjamin seven months before he left on his last voyage.  Her husband had left £10 with Charles who was to give her money as needed.  She had received £3 from Charles in the two years that Benjamin had been absent.  Charles claimed that his brother had owed him £40.

The Court heard evidence of Charles’s financial situation and property.  He earned 18s a week from the East India Company, and let out rooms as lodgings in his house in St George in the East.  Charles and his wife both owned watches and she had five shawls, three from India.

Mr Heath addressed the Court, claiming that Charles had endeavoured, by misrepresentation and fraud, to obtain the perquisites of a poor widow.  He drew attention to the income Charles derived from his position as warehouse labourer, the profits from his lodgers, and other sources of emolument.  Charles should be obliged to pay the debt due to Mary Ann.

The Chief Commissioner ruled that this was a case of persecution, where there ought to have been protection, and of fraud where there should have been pity.  Charles’s villainy ‘was too glaring to be doubted for a moment’.  It was hard to conceive of a case of greater hardship than that of this poor widow.  The Court granted the application made on behalf of Mary Ann that the schedule of debts should be dismissed.  Charles was remanded and he returned to prison.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading;
The British Newspaper Archive has several articles on the Court proceedings of 25 July 1823, with variations to the story e.g.
Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser 26 July 1823
British Press 26 July 1823
Morning Herald 26 July 1823
Morning Chronicle 26 July 1823

Are you a fan of needlework? Then you absolutely must visit Mrs. Evershed’s London emporia.  Step back into the 19th century and explore 7 Hanover Square, 59 South Moulton Street, or 71 Chiltern Street, and marvel at ‘rare old pieces of petit-point, quilting, crewel work, and silk work [which] mingle happily with the modern'.

Enlargement of embroidered bookbinding by Mrs Evershed on Washington Irving’s The keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall - British Library Collins 461

Ellen Evershed, widowed aged 38, was left to raise four young children, yet she thrived.  By 1913, her estate was worth the modern equivalent of £27,900.  What was her secret?  A combination of exquisite embroidery and entrepreneurial genius that could rival even the sharpest minds of today’s ‘Dragons’ Den’.

Ellen Middlebrook Cockcroft (1834-1913) came from a Leeds family of drapers.  The 1851 census records Ellen in the Brighton hosier and draper’s shop of her stepfather Thomas Sturdy.  In 1862, She married Frederick Evershed (1832-1872) from Sussex, a draper who specialised in silk.

The Eversheds owned two shops in central Rugby catering for women and men.  An adroit user of the social media of the day, Ellen advertised new stock in The Rugby Advertiser and in 1866 called for apprentices and ‘improvers’ in millinery and dressmaking, an indication of her success.

The Rugby Advertiser 9 May 1863  alerted Mrs Evershed’s patrons to new stock.  British Newspaper Archive

The Rugby Advertiser 27 January 1866 advertised Evershed's men’s accessories and celebrated flannel shirts. British Newspaper Archive

The Eversheds raised their family in Brighton.  Life was challenging after Frederick’s death but thankfully, the family had domestic and childcare help.  It seems that Ellen was driven. She certainly had her own unique talents on which to base a new future in the capital.

 

Brighton Gazette 6 February 1873 - Ellen vowed to continue the business. British Newspaper Archive

Ellen's unusual occupation in the 1891 Hampstead census was ‘Secretary of the Exhibition of Embroidery’.  She organized competitions for amateur needleworkers and showcased their creations.  While there were few formal rules, one requirement was the use of Pearsall’s threads (which, naturally, were sold by Ellen).  Embroidered book covers were offered as prizes.

The Queen of Saturday 2 February 1895 informed its readers that Mrs Evershed ‘the courteous manager of Messrs Harris' depot for embroideries in old Bond-street’ had opened a shop around the corner.  At the age of 60, she was ready for a new challenge, albeit helped by her daughter Ellen Lucas Evershed.

The Gentlewoman 3 April 1897 advertised the new designs and twice weekly classes available at Mrs Evershed’s new shop. British Newspaper Archive

 

The Queen 19 March 1904 . Mrs Evershed’s work basket featured ribbon work, a new decorative technique.  British Newspaper Archive

The shops sold an astonishing variety of traditional and modern needlework sundries.  Patrons were encouraged to embroider everything which could be embroidered including ordinary curtains, cushions, work baskets etc' and the surprising, for example ‘Natty coats for dogs’ (sorry, no images!).  Other items for sale included ‘artistic furniture,’ which combined ‘ease with tastefulness in designs’ and copperware made by Newlyn fishermen, inspired by the contemporary Arts and Crafts movement.

Weldon’s needlework old and new Needle Art Series no 9, p 5 illustrated the historic patterns available at Evershed’s

The Queen published a regular column headed ‘The Work-Table' which provided advice upon knotty (sometimes literally!) needlework problems.  Frequently answers relied upon the expertise of Mrs Evershed and her staff.

It is a testament to Ellen’s business acumen that all levels of customer’s ability were addressed and monetised.  Less skillful embroiderers could avail themselves of a service ‘to stretch to shape needlework tapestry that has pulled crookedly in working'.

Ellen saw potential everywhere. Church furnishings provided an obvious source of work, but lest non-religious customers felt overlooked, her trade ticket reminded customers of her versatility.

Trade ticket for Mrs Evershed from Washington Irving’s The keeping of Christmas at Bracebridge Hall - British Library Collins 461

Stock was frequently refreshed.  Imports from Italy, France and even New Zealand provided constant temptation.  Evershed’s was not the only embroidery retailer in London.  There was much competition but The Queen’s estimation of Ellen as ‘the best in needlework’ has much justification.  The shop was still operating in 1945, but appears to have closed before daughter Ellen Lucas's death in 1949. 

Assurance that Evershed's was still in business - The Queen 21 March 1945 British Newspaper Archive

P J M Marks
Curator, bookbindings, Printed Heritage Collections

Further reading:
Florence Sophie Davson ‘The revival of art needlework and embroidery’ in The Girls’ Own Paper pp.798-799
Weldon’s Needlework Old and New series number 9. 
British Newspaper Archive

 

 

In a previous blog, I described how a volume of 17th century Surat records belonging to the Government of Bombay travelled backwards and forwards between India and London and was subsequently lost at sea in the wreck of the SS Oceana.

Just weeks later, on 15 April 1912, RMS Titanic famously sank in the waters of the North Atlantic, with the loss of over 1500 lives.  Many notable books, paintings and artefacts were on board (including the ‘Titanic Omar’.  But so too were fourteen Sanskrit manuscripts belonging to the Governmental Library, Deccan College Poona (Pune).  These were on loan from the Government of Bombay and were en-route from the India Office in London to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.  They had been borrowed by Franklin Edgerton, a budding Sanskrit scholar working under Professor Maurice Bloomfield.

In May 1911, Edgerton wrote to the India Office Library in London requesting assistance in locating and examining all copies of the Vikramacaritra, including those in India, for a critical study of the work.  The Library was a hub for the loan of manuscript materials, particularly those in Persian, Arabic, and South Asian languages.  It facilitated and arranged access to manuscripts in its own collections, to the Government of India’s collections, and to collections in European institutions, with the recipients being a wide range of academics and interested persons worldwide.

Letter forwarding manuscripts from Bombay to London February 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

 

List of Sanskrit manuscripts to be loaned with values February 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

The fourteen Sanskrit manuscripts were formally requested from Bombay and were despatched to the India Office Library in London to administer the loan, arriving in March 1912.  As was usual practice, Edgerton paid a bond for the ‘value’ of the manuscripts, said to be Rs 303.  The Library Committee proposed that Edgerton should only have three manuscripts in his possession at any one time, and the manuscripts were only to be loaned until 31 December 1912.  Unfortunately, that did not mean staggering their despatch.  They were parcelled up and sent via the forwarding agents Carter, Paterson & Co on 1 April, and placed aboard Titanic.

Letter informing the India Office of the loss of manuscripts on the Titanic April 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

The India Office was informed of the loss on 17 April.  The Librarian Frederick William Thomas was phlegmatic in telling the Library Committee: ‘The loss is regrettable, but it cannot be said that the Mss were exposed to any greater risk when despatched to America than when en-route from Bombay.  The work contained in the 14 manuscripts was by no means a rare one, & it has been edited in print’.  The India Office had insured the parcel and received £20 in compensation, which was passed to the Government of Bombay.

Librarian FW Thomas's report of the loss to the Library Committee May 1912 IOR/L/R/9/9

Franklin Edgerton went on to borrow more manuscripts and finally published his two volume work Vikrama's Adventures; or, the Thirty-two Tales of the Throne (Cambridge Mass; 1926).  In the preface to the first volume he acknowledged both the assistance of the India Office Library, Librarian FW Thomas, and the loss of the Sanskrit manuscripts: ‘This terrible disaster deprived me of materials which would unquestionably have proved a great enrichment of the sources at my disposal for the edition; yet I cannot but recognise that my personal loss is small in comparison with the permanent loss of this large collection of manuscripts...’.

Lesley Shapland
Archivist & Provenance Researcher
India Office Records

Further reading:
Papers regarding loans to Dr Edgerton, including details of the loss of Sanskrit manuscripts on the Titanic can be found in IOR/L/R/9/9, L135/13: Library Committee Papers, 1913.

 

A recent blog post showcased the journal of the East India Company ship Rochester written by Captain Francis Stanes in 1709-1712.  Stanes illustrated his journal of the voyage to China with accomplished drawings of birds, fishes and shorelines.  The British Library holds another journal for that voyage, kept by the ship’s purser Joseph White.  This is not remarkable for its beauty.  At the front and back are pages of scribbles including East India Company balemarks, and the ‘signatures’ of Jeffery Stanes, the owner of the Rochester, and of third mate Robert Gardner.

Pages from Joseph White's journal IOR/L/MAR/B/ 137C

However, White’s journal provides extra information about the voyage.  As purser, he was responsible for the sale before the mast of the effects of men who had died or who had deserted leaving their possessions behind.

White listed six sales, stating what was sold, the buyers, and the prices paid.  Apart from clothes and personal property, the lists show items which the mariners probably hoped to sell or exchange in Asia, and goods acquired during the voyage.

Page from White's journal showing sale before the mast of John Tillington's property IOR/L/MAR/B/ 137

James Johnson, sailor, was killed on 3 March 1709/10 when working at the top of the main mast.  The sale of his belongings raised a total of £6 19s 0d – clothing; a flute and a flute book; paper; looking glasses; buttons and thread; combs and cases; buckle; a bed; and a silken rug.  Johnson also had £10 18s 0d in cash.  His will left everything to his ‘trusty friend’ Sarah Churchman of Ratcliffe.

Robert Sheppard, first mate, died on 16 March 1709/10 soon after leaving England.  He was buried at sea with eight guns ‘as customary’.  His extensive array of possessions were sold for a total of £80 9s 0d: large quantities of clothing; navigational instruments and books; pairs of pistols; swords; a punch bowl; tin cases for storing papers; several Gloucestershire cheeses; lime juice; cordial water; tobacco; French brandy; rum; ‘English spirits’; beer; and wine.  Sheppard left everything to his wife Elizabeth in his will.

Lawrence Lucrany, a cook, deserted at Batavia on 12 July 1710.  The sale of his bedding and clothing raised £4 15s 0d.  The money owed to Lucrany was paid to his wife Winifred.

John Tillington was a black man who was servant to Robert Sheppard.  He drowned on 27 August 1710, having fallen overboard ‘being in liquor’.  Apart from clothing, his belongings included thread; three razors; seven pairs of scissors; a looking glass; soap and tobacco; and a variety of coins – English, Dutch, ducatoons, rupees and ‘royales' .  A total of £12 18s 10d was collected.

James Beversham, coxswain, died at sea on 5 April 1712 during the return voyage.  He had acquired ivory fans; lacquer ware; ‘nicknax’; cups, saucers, bowls, and plates; Chinese pictures; canisters of tea; nutmegs; cloves.; a five-gallon keg of soy; and pieces of flowered silk.  These were sold together with his clothing and eighteen reading books, raising £52 1s 6d.  Beversham’s will left his entire estate to his wife Mary.

David Perismore, Captain Stane’s servant, died at sea on 9 April 1712.  His sale brought in £12 1s 0d and included clothing; a sword; eighteen old reading books; a flute, a razor; and a few items seemingly brought from Asia – China pots and silk garters.

Purser Joseph White must have died soon after the Rochester returned to England. His wages were paid to his father Richard on 27 November 1713.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
Journal of the Rochester written by Joseph White IOR/L/MAR/B/ 137C.
Ledger for the Rochester IOR/L/MAR/B/137D(1).
Receipt book for wages earned on the Rochester IOR/L/MAR/B/137D(2).
Will of James Johnson, dated 22 November 1709, proved 27 September 1712 - The National Archives PROB 11/528/444.
Will of Robert Sheppard, dated 3 February 1703/04, proved 30 September 1710 – The National Archives PROB 11/518/53.
Will of James Beversham, dated 20 August 1708, proved 1 December 1712 – The National Archives PROB 11/530/101. His widow Mary married Thomas Weston at Shadwell on 6 January 1712/13.

 

A newly catalogued India Office Private Papers collection is now available to view in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.  It consists of the large journal collection and private papers of William Coldstream (1841-1929), Indian Civil Servant, and his son Sir John Coldstream (1877–1954), also of the Civil Service.

William Coldstream was born in 1841 in South Leith, Midlothian, Scotland to John Coldstream (1806–1863), a Scottish physician, and to Margaret Dryborough Menzies (1812-1871).  He achieved his BA at Edinburgh University and was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service after open competitive examination in 1860.  Coldstream maintained an academic curiosity throughout his life, as he was the author of several academic papers on agriculture, as well as editor to Sir William Muir's work Records of the Intelligence Department of The Government of the North-west Provinces of India During the Mutiny of 1857.  For much of his career he was a District Commissioner in the Punjab, of which his experience is well documented in his journals.

Notebook pages showing journal entries, names of some acquaintances in Persian, and pen and ink studies of Benares streets. Mss Eur F590/2/1, pp.94-5.

The 40 journals in this collection provide a fascinating insight into his life and duties, as well as detailed records, reports, and illustrations of towns and villages.  This includes census data, notes, and illustrations of Indian individuals and groups, agriculture and arboriculture, weather and local animal life, to name just a few.  These notebooks are also inclusive of Coldstream’s personal interests, such as Indian Christian missionary works, Indian artwork promotion, Indian social reform, and Indian students in Britain.  Many of the notebooks were written during his retirement in London (1894-1927) and these display a continued close personal, academic, and official connection with the Punjab, particularly with missionary groups such as the Zenana Bible and Medical Mission.  Coldstream continued to hold a leading and respected position within what he described as ‘Anglo-Indian’ groups and felt a strong kinship with the Punjab and its people.  He appeared to take great pride in helping Indian students adapt to Britain, inviting them to his home, to join him at Church, and to social events, although there is a clear desire to dispel anti-colonial British thought among the young students, particularly following the First World War.

Notebook pages showing journal entries, a pressed ‘gadfly’ specimen, and a drawing of a religious ‘chariot’ from the annual procession ‘Rath Yatra’, as part of the festival Kullu Dussehra held in the Kullu Valley, Himachal Pradesh. Mss Eur F590/2/11, pp.172-3.

Also included in this collection are a small selection of papers of his son, Sir John Coldstream (1877–1954), who followed his father’s footsteps into the India Civil Service.  John, usually referred to as ‘Jack’, served as a High Court Judge in Lahore 1925-1937, and then Chief Minister of Kapurthala state.  During the First World War Jack for a time worked as an Indian mail censor, and in this collection there are his reports of 1914-1915, with extracts of Indian letters.  These letters provide an insight, although a greatly filtered one, of Indian soldiers' daily lives and inner thoughts.  Additional items in this collection include various family papers, correspondence, photographs, and memorabilia of the Coldstream family.

Maddy Clark
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Collection of William Coldstream (1841-1929), Mss Eur F590- a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Reading Room.

 

The India Office often borrowed documents from India for administrative purposes and frequently sent out manuscripts from its Library to scholars across the world for academic research.  Until the middle of the 20th century, there was little alternative to transporting documents by ship.  As we shall see from this and a subsequent post, 1912 was a particularly bad year for both the Government of Bombay and the India Office for losing records and manuscripts at sea.

Wreck of the Oceana from Illustrated London News 23 March 1912 Image © Illustrated London News Group, created courtesy of The British Library Board - British Newspaper Archive

On 16 March 1912, the SS Oceana was wrecked off Beachy Head on the Sussex coast after a collision with the Pisagua.  Tragically, seventeen people lost their lives when a lifeboat capsized.  The Oceana was heading for India on the run from Tilbury to Bombay and on board was the Surat Factory Inwards Letterbook, 1646-47, which was being returned to the Government of Bombay.  Part of a series of records charting the earliest years of the East India Company in Surat, it had been sent to London in November 1911 at the behest of Registrar William Foster.  Foster was working on a series of calendars of early records, published as The English Factories in India (1911 onwards).

It was the Surat volume’s second trip to London, having been previously sent by the Government of Bombay for conservation work due to its fragile state.  The volume was conserved and rebound at the Public Records Office in Chancery Lane in 1901-02 with eleven other volumes of ‘ancient records’ from Bombay.  The conservation work cost the Government of Bombay £74 10 shillings, above the original estimate of £68.  Before the volumes were finally returned to India in 1905, copies of anything not in the collection in London were made, primarily by Miss Ethel Bruce Sainsbury, who was employed by the Record Department for her archival and palaeographical skills.  For the publication though, Foster was keen to check the original against the copy, and requested the volume be borrowed again.  It is perhaps ironic that the conserved state of the volume made the loan less of a concern.

The shipping and loss of the Surat Letter Book - IOR/L/R/6/333 (R1910/12)

Foster reported the loss to Bombay on 5 July 1912.  He had hoped that as he had requested special care should be taken of the Surat volume, P&O - the owners of the Oceana – might have placed it in the ship’s safe, which was subsequently salvaged along with the ship’s cargo of gold and silver ingots.  When the safe was opened however, the Surat volume was not to be found.  All Foster could do was to send a typed copy of the transcript to Bombay as recompense.  Meanwhile, Foster’s annotated copy of the Surat Inwards Letter Book 1646-1647 survives in the India Office Records as IOR/G/36/102A.

Surat Letter Book 1646-1647 first page of typescript  IOR/G/36/102A

Lesley Shapland
Archivist & Provenance Researcher
India Office Records

Further reading:
Details regarding the conservation, copying and return of Surat Letter Book and other volumes from Bombay can be found in IOR/L/R/6/220 (R923/01), IOR/L/R/6/224 (R1566/01), IOR/L/R/6/231 (R1122/02), and IOR/L/R/6/265 (R440/05).

Details regarding Foster’s loan of the Surat Letter Book and its subsequent loss can be found in IOR/L/R/6/333 (R1910/12).

Ethel Bruce Sainsbury, daughter of Assistant Keeper of the Public Records William Noel Sainsbury, was employed by the India Office Record Department from 1899.  Her contribution to the work of the Department, including transcription, calendaring and publication can be traced through William Foster’s Departmental Annual Reports in the series IOR/L/R/6 & IOR/L/R/7.