Abstract: The volume contains mainly letters addressed to Lieutenant William Bruce, Resident at Bushire at the time. Bruce was Acting Resident until 1812, but in this volume he is still often referred to as Acting Resident. A few letters are written to James Orton, Assistant Surgeon at Bushire, who took temporary charge of the Residency while Bruce was away from Bushire. The letters are mainly from the Secretaries of the Government of Bombay. Subjects relating directly to the Residency include: accounts; military and marine expenses. Broader themes within the letters include the diplomatic relations with Persia and the Wahabee [Wahhabis], the procurement of sulphur for its use in gunpowder, the silk and horse trades, and the threat of Āl Qāsimī pirates to British trade in the Persian Gulf.Physical description: Foliation: there is an original pagination, written in ink in the top right of each recto and the top left of each verso. It starts on the first letter with 1 and continues until page 213.The volume has been foliated in pencil, circled, in the top right corner of each folio. The numbering begins with the first letter with 1; then 2-94; 95-95a; and then runs through to 138, which is the last number given on the first blank page at the end of the volume. There are seven blank pages at the beginning and three at the end of the volume.Condition: the item has suffered from insect damage and the paper is very fragile in some parts. Some folios are glued and cannot be read.
Abstract: Most of the letters are written by Lieutenant William Bruce, who was the Resident at this time. A handful of letters are written by James Orton, Assistant Surgeon at Bushire, who took temporary charge of the Residency while Bruce was away from Bushire. Subjects relating directly to the Residency include: accounts; stationery; military and marine expenses; and the sending of arms from Bombay to the Court of Persia, via Bushire. Broader themes within the letters include the procurement of sulphur for its use in India, the woollen and silk trades in Persia, and the threat of Āl Qāsimī pirates to British trade in the Persian Gulf.Physical description: 1 volume in one slipcasePagination: This file has an original pagination sequence, which is written in ink, in the top right corner of each recto and the top left corner of each verso. This sequence runs until page 100. A later pagination sequence, which is written in pencil, begins at page 101. This sequence is inconsistent, with many numbers repeated out of sequence.Foliation: The volume has been foliated for referencing purposes by circling numbers in pencil, in the top right corner of each folio. The sequence begins with the first letter, on number 1, and runs through to 138, ending on the inside of the back cover of the volume. This is the sequence that has been used by this catalogue to reference items within the volume.
Abstract: This volume consists of letters written from the Bushire Residency. The first eighty-two items are attributed to William Bruce; the remaining items, with the exception of a few letters written by Bruce from various locations, are written by James Dow, Assistant Surgeon at the Bushire Residency, who was in charge of the Residency during William Bruce's absence. Most of the letters are written to representatives of the Government of Bombay, with the most common recipients being John Wedderburn (Accountant General, Civil Auditor and Military Accountant), Richard Morgan (Secretary to the Marine Board), Francis Warden (Chief Secretary to the Government) and Mountstuart Elphinstone (President and Governor in Council, Bombay). In addition, a significant number of letters are addressed to army officers, including Major General Sir William Grant Keir and Captain Thomas Perronet Thompson. Many of the letters to Bombay concern the routine sending of bills and receipts relating to expenses (the most common of which being supplies for East India Company ships) incurred by the Residency. Other subjects covered in the volume include: William Bruce joining HMS
Edenon her voyage along the Arab coast in search of Wahhābī boats; news and speculation regarding Ḥusayn ‘Alī Mīrzā's plans to launch an attack against Bahrain; relations between Arab chieftains following the General Treaty with the Arab Tribes of the Persian Gulf of 1820; details of the Residency complying with requests for funds or supplies for the British troops stationed at Ra's al-Khaymah, and later, at Qeshm; details of a treaty between the Imam of Muscat (Sa‘īd bin Sultān Āl Sa‘īd) and the Shaikhs of Bahrain, as relayed to Bruce by Rahma bin Jabir; the death of a crew member of the
Elizacountry ship and the subsequent investigation into the treatment received on board that ship; presents sent by His Highness Ebrāhim Khan, Governor of Kermān, to Mountstuart Elphinstone, Governor of Bombay; the death, on 10 November 1821, of Dr Andrew Jukes, Political Agent in Persia.Physical description: Pagination: There is a pagination sequence, which is written in pencil in the top right corners of the rectos and in the top left corners of the versos. It runs from 1 to 175.Foliation: There is a foliation sequence, which is circled in pencil, in the top right corner of the recto of each folio. It begins on the first folio after the front cover, on number 2, and ends on the inside of the back cover on number 95. This is the sequence used by this catalogue to reference items within the file.