Papers of Sir John Malcolm relating to India and Persia

Title:

Papers of Sir John Malcolm relating to India and Persia

Date:

1796/1832

Description:

Abstract: The volume chiefly comprises letters to Malcolm during the periods 1796, 1801-02, 1807-15, and 1830-32, when Malcolm served in either a military or administrative capacity for the East India Company in India and on diplomatic missions to Persia [Iran] (1808 and 1810), and when he was in England between 1812 and 1815.The papers stamped 1-98 relate to official business, and personal and private matters (of both the correspondent and Malcolm). Most of the correspondents were employees of the East India Company. The papers notably cover:British diplomatic missions in Persia [Iran], the role of Malcolm, Sir Harford Jones and Sir Gore Ouseley (at various times Envoys on Missions or Ambassadors to the Court of the King of Persia [Fath-‘Ali Shāh Qājār] in Tehran)The Russo-Persian War (1804-13), campaigns led by Persian Crown Prince Abbas MirzaPersian relations with France and the Napoleonic Wars in EuropeAdministrative and personnel matters relating to the Indian Civil Service and military appointments, including requests (memorials) for Malcolm’s assistance, support, introduction, or recommendation (in career, legal and financial matters)Matters of finance and accounts, including salaries and allowances in the Indian colonial servicesState of affairs and news and events in various parts of India, notably Mysore and Madras [Chennai], including numerous complaints of officers in the Madras Army concerning its management and administration and lack of career progression opportunities (there was a mutiny of British officers of the Madras Army in 1809).The last group of documents, commencing with document stamped number 99, relate to the case of Moro Ragonath, which was the immediate cause of the quarrel between the Government of Bombay, under General Sir John Malcolm, and Sir John Grant, the Chief Justice of HM Supreme Court of Bombay, regarding the Court’s jurisdiction (see The Life and Correspondence of Major-General Sir John Malcolm, GCB... by John William Kaye, Volume II, p 507 et seq.). The documents, dated 18 July-c 30 September 1828, (folios 339-457) comprise:Malcolm’s ‘Notes of what past (sic) regarding the arrest or summons and taking away of Moro Ragonath a Minor Chief of the (left blank) class of the privileged orders in the Deccan’ (document 99)Correspondence between Malcolm, Mr John A Dunlop, Agent for Sirdars at Poona [Pune]; Sir Edward West; Richard Mills, Acting Collector and Magistrate, Poona; John Bax, Secretary with the Governor, Political Department; John Warden, Deputy Agent; Sir Thomas Bradford, Acting Resident; William Newnham, Chief Secretary; James Dewar, Acting Advocate-General; E C Morgan; J P Le Geyt; J W Brown, solicitor; F Leggatt, Deputy Sheriff, Bombay; A C Ferrier (Prothonotary); Thomas Jefferies, solicitor; H Rowe, Clerk of the CrownCopies and extracts of Magistrate’s Court and Supreme Court case documents including depositions, orders and witness statements.The letters stamped 1-98 are listed below in alphabetical order by surname. They are originals and are addressed to Malcolm unless otherwise stated. The ranks and positions of correspondents have been added where they were possible to ascertain. Subject information has been added before folio numbers (in a few cases this has been transcribed from the index at the front of the volume).Peter Abbott, British Consul at Beyrout [Beirut, Lebanon], to John Bedwell, Foreign Office, London, 9 June 1830, enclosing his report for Lord Aberdeen (one of HM’s Principal Secretaries of State), on trade, communications, industry, etc., on the country between Beyrout and the Persian Gulf, notably covering Bagdad [Baghdad], Damascus and Palmyra routes. (Referred to as ‘Report on Asia Minor’ in the index) (ff 298-304)John Adam, administrator, East India Company, 29 March 1809, Persian Missions (ff 111-117)Lieutenant-Colonel David Barr, Bombay Army, 10 April 1831 (ff 316-317)General Brathwaite (the letter is incomplete and lacks the correspondent’s signature. ‘? General Braithwaite’ has been annotated in pencil probably around 1900-1920s), 5 February 1802 (ff 20-21)John Briggs, Board of Commissioners, Government of Mysore, 7 May 1832, anarchical state of affairs in Mysore (ff 329-330)George Buchan, Chief Secretary to the Governor of Madras, 1 May-21 August 1808, Persian Missions (ff 73-78, 85-88, 98-103)M D Cadell, 5 November 1832 (the first page contains an account, written in a different hand, of a mutiny in the Bangalore troops) (ff 335-336)Lieutenant-Colonel John Carfrae (the signature is illegible and the name has been written in pencil adjacent to it probably around 1900-1920s), 15 March 1831, regarding the Court of Directors case against him for alleged financial misdemeanours in past paymaster posts in India (ff 310-314)John Chamier, Fort St George, 23 April and 12 June 1802 (ff 37-39, 46-47)Lieutenant Charles Christie, 16 October 1810-12 October 1812, Russo-Persian War and British military involvement in support of the Persian King, and British diplomatic missions (ff 170-173, 193-196, 235-236) (Christie commanded Persian infantry during the war and died during fighting in Azerbaijan on 31 October 1812)Colonel Barry Close (later General), East India Company, 1 April 1809-12 March 1810, recall of Malcolm’s Mission to Tehran, trouble with officers at Haiderabad [Hyderabad], operations against ‘Meer Chan’ [Amir Khan] near Nagpur (ff 119-120, 141-144, 151-160)Arthur Henry Cole, East India Company (later Resident in Mysore 1812-27), 23 March 1808 (ff 71-72)Dr John Cormick, British physician to Crown Prince Abbas Mirza of Persia, 24 September 1811-3 December 1814, news from Europe on war with Napoleon; Persian affairs, Russo-Persian War including accounts of military actions (ff 237-244), intelligence on Sir Harford Jones’s and Sir Gore Ouseley’s movements, news relating to Napoleon Bounapart [Bonaparte], the armistice and treaty between Persia and Russia, Ouseley’s trip to St Petersburg to negotiate on forfeited Persian territories (ff 178-180, 181-182, 183-186, 187-190, 203-205, 206-209, 218-221, 226-244, 261-263, 266-267)Framjee Cowasjee [Framji Cowasji Banaji, Parsi landowner and businessman], 31 November 1831 (ff 318-321)Note by J M Dickinson on Colonel Gilbert's appointment, no date, c 1831 (f 309)Colonel J Doveton, 18 June and 13 July 1809, Madras Army troubles (ff 123-124, 129-130)Jonathan Duncan, Governor or Bombay, 11 June 1802 (ff 42-44)Neil Benjamin Edmonstone, Chief Secretary to the Government of India, 27 January and 14 October 1811, including criticism of Sir Harford Jones and his level of competency (ff 174-177, 210-213)H Ellis, 22 August 1814, Journey to Persia, Sir Harford Jones, and Sir Gore Ouseley in St Petersburg (ff 264-265)Mountstuart Elphinstone, Resident at Poona, 23 December 1814, Gurkha and Pindari campaigns, death of General Robert Rollo Gillespie on 31 October 1814 (Anglo-Nepalese War) (ff 272-283)William Erskine, first Secretary of the Literary Society of Bombay, to John Leyden, Scottish Indologist, 15 July 1808, on Malcolm’s Mission to Persia, praise for Malcolm, and stinging criticism of Sir Harford Jones’s capabilities (ff 93-95)Lieutenant E Frederick, Bombay Army, 19 March 1811, his geographical sketch of Koordistan [Kurdistan] (ff 183-186)Enclosure in missing letter from a Mr Grant, no date, c 1810 (f 169)R B Gregory, Indian Army in Nepaul, [Nepal], 17 December 1805, duplicate letter (ff 296-297)[Dr?] William Ingledew, in Mysore, 29 March 1814, including Tippoo [Tipu] Sultan ‘Tiger of Mysore’ (ff 256-260)George Johnstone, Resident at Lucknow, 12 August and 26 October 1796 (ff 10-17)Sir Harford Jones, extract of a letter to Jafir Ali Khan, Native Agent employed by the East India Company, at Tauris [Tabriz], 27 November 1810, regarding his rejection of Jones’s offer to procure for him the appointment of Agent to England. (This letter is not in the index) (f 216)Lord Lake (General Gerard, 1st Viscount Lake), 13 July 1802 (ff 54-55)Writ issued to Stephen Langrish, in an action regarding property at Portsmouth, c 1828 (the date is obscured within the volume’s binding) (f 337) (See also: Morgan)J Leith, at Madras, 3 March 1802 (ff 22-29)J Little, 4 April and 19 May 1832, Bombay news, gossip and sundry matters (ff 326-328, 331-332)J Lumsden, at Calcutta [Kolkata], 13 May 1811 (ff 191-192)John Macdonald Kinneir, Madras Infantry (formerly attached to Malcolm’s 1808-09 Persian Mission), 9 and 23 March 1813, his stay in Sweden and account of ‘Bernadotte’ [Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte then de facto Regent of Sweden] (ff 248-250)Sir James Mackintosh, Recorder of Bombay and founder of Bombay Literary Society, 17 May 1808-2 December 1809, Madras Army troubles, views on Persian Mission, Lord Minto and Sir Harford Jones (ff 79-84, 145-150)Colonel William Macleod, Madras Army, 10 July 1809, Madras Army troubles (ff 125-128)Captain James MacMurdo, 9 June 1810, experiences in Kathiawar, surveying routes via Rhadunpoor [Radhanpur] and Jhodpoor [Jodhpur] (ff 161-168)G M MacNeill, 25 May 1832, regarding his removal from post at Bushire (ff 333-334)Charles Malcolm (brother of John Malcolm), 17 October 1830 and 31 December 1831 (ff 305, 322-325)Unsigned letter from Malcolm to the Earl of Buckinghamshire, 21 January 1815, regarding eligibility to apply for the KCB, citing his military experiences in 1803 and 1805 (ff 284-285)Writ issued to J Morgan in an action regarding property at Portsmouth, c 1828 (the date is obscured within the volume’s binding) (f 338) (See also: Langrish)A Munro, East India Company, 22 June 1802 (ff 48-49)Captain John Noble, 18 June 1809, Madras Army troubles (ff 121-122)Sir Gore Ouseley, HM Ambassador to Persia, 29 May-30 December 1811, Persian Missions, journey through and conditions in Persia, activities of Sir Harford Jones. Includes copy of Ouseley’s letter to Lord Wellesley (f 222), 30 December 1811, concerning Malcolm being presented with the Star of the Order of the Sun and Lion by the Persian King (ff 197-202, 222-225)Admiral Peter Rainier, 8 August 1802, Superiority of Trincomalee, Ceylon [Sri Lanka] as a Naval Station (ff 58-60)Hugh Scott, 19 July 1809, Madras Army troubles (ff 131-134)Lieutenant-Colonel William Scott, Resident at Lucknow, 4 August 1801 and 29 July 1802 (ff 18-19, 56-57)J Stewart, 27 November 1810 (ff 214-215)A Stock, 23 January 1831, soliciting Malcolm’s advice regarding his recent appointment to command troops in the service of the King of Persia (ff 307-308)R Strachey, 26 March 1809, account of the Mission to Shah Shuja [Shah Shuja-ul-Mulk, Afghan Ruler] at Peshawar, led by Mountstuart Elphinstone, British Envoy to the Court of Kabul, Afghanistan, including journey and terrain, the Royal Court, meeting with and description of the King, Shuja’s financial needs and political aims in Afghanistan (ff 106-110)Colonel A W Taylor, 27 July and 1 August 1809, Madras Army troubles (ff 135-140)John Peter Wade, Bengal Medical Service, 4 July 1802, his geographical account of Assam (published as An Account of Assamin 1927) (ff 50-53)Francis Warden, 11 December 1814, his private views on Sir Evan Nepean, Governor of Bombay (ff 268-271)Colonel Mark Wilks, 5 April 1802-25 October 1808, news and events in Madras and Mysore, historical account of Fort St George, Madras, arrangements for his Residency when he leaves Mysore. Includes copy of a letter from Malcolm to Wilks 5 April 1802 (f 30) (ff 30-36, 40-41, 61-64, 65-70, 89-92, 96-97, 104-105)J Young, 25 February 1815, includes reference to the Nepal War [Anglo-Nepalese War 1814-16] (ff 286-295)Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the inside front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 460; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the original pagination sequence dating from the 1920s is also present in parallel between folios 10 and 457; these numbers are also written in pencil, but are not circled. This sequence correlates to the description found in Samuel Charles Hill's Catalogue of the Home Miscellaneous Series of the India Office Records(London: HMSO, for the India Office, 1927).

Language:

English

Type:

Archival file

Type (Narrower):

Other Texts

Type (Broader):

Text

Subject:

'Abbās Mīrzā Qājār
Indian Civil Service

Geographic region:

Mysore

Rights:

غير معروف

Identifier:

81055/vdc_100000000222.0x000229_ar
81055/vdc_100000000222.0x000229_en
IOR/H/736
IOR/H/736

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