1. 'Suggesting that the official designation of Mr Rich the Resident at Bussorah should be "Political Agent in Turkish Arabia"'

Description:

Abstract: The item consists of correspondence between the Government of Bombay and the Board of Control regarding the proposed closure of the Residency at Baghdad and the transferal of its responsibilities to the Residency at Bussorah [Basra]. It includes a proposal from Bombay that the position of ‘Political Agent in Turkish Arabia’ should be created to match the increased jurisdiction.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at f 295, and terminates at f 302, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the bottom right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the item also contains an original printed pagination sequence.

2. ‘Expense of presents incurred by Mr Rich the Resident at Bagdad’

Description:

Abstract: This item consists of copies of correspondence and minutes cited in, or enclosed with, letters to and from the Government of Bombay. It concerns the amount spent on presents by the Bagdad [Baghdad] Residency, and includes a statement showing this expenditure since 1798, along with instructions from the Government of Bombay to Claudius James Rich, Resident at Bagdad, to reduce the amount being spent. The item also includes a letter from the Government of Bombay in 1809 instructing Samuel Manesty, the Resident at Bussora [Basra], to limit his spending on presents, and instructions directed to the Bussora Residency in 1812 repeating those given to Rich.The title page (f 266) of the item contains the following references: ‘Political No. 37, Season 1814/15, Draft 20’; and ‘Examiner’s Office, November 1813’.Physical description: Foliation: the foliation sequence for this description (used for referencing) commences at 266, and terminates at 274, as it is part of a larger physical volume; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the bottom right corner of the recto side of each folio.Pagination: the volume also contains an original pagination sequence.

3. 'LETTERS FROM THE RESIDENT BUSSARAH 31. JAN. 1793 TO 21. JUNE 1803 VOL 8'

Description:

Abstract: The volume chiefly comprises letters to the Secret Committee of the Court of Directors of the East India Company from the Resident and Factor at Bussora [Basra], Samuel Manesty. The letters are dated 31 January 1793-21 June 1803 and the date each letter was received is recorded on the back of it.From 31 January 1793 to 2 August 1794 (ff 1-38), many letters are also signed by Harford Jones, who acted as Assistant Resident and co-Factor up to 1794. Between 3 January and 25 September 1796 (ff 51-192) there are letters which overlap with Manesty’s, written by [George] Nathan Crowe and Peter LeMessurier [Le Mesurier], who were appointed to run the Bussora Residency and Factory following the suspension from office of Manesty by the Court of Directors on 1 January 1796. The suspension was in connection with Manesty’s dispute with the Ottoman authorities originating in 1791, which had led him to remove the Residency to Grain [Kuwait] in 1793. Manesty had actually re-established himself in Bussora by September 1795, before Crow and LeMessurier arrived from Bombay [Mumbai], and he was officially reinstated in July 1796. However, Crow and LeMessurier only transferred back control of the Residency when they received orders to return to Bombay in September 1796.Letters dated 31 January to 27 April 1793 are written from Maghil [Al Maqal] ‘near Bussora’. Manesty left the city at the end of April 1793 and from 18 July 1793 to 5 March 1795 he writes from Grain (ff 2-43). From 9 October 1795 (f 45), following Manesty’s return in the previous month, his letters are written from Maghil or Bussora.The enclosures Manesty refers to are mostly not included in the volume, although his letters regularly incorporate extracts of his communications to the President in Council, Political Department [Bombay] and the Governor-General in Council [Bengal]. Manesty occasionally writes to individual members of the Court of Directors, lobbying for an increase in his pay and allowances and lamenting his pecuniary difficulties and unsettled claims upon the Company (see ff 356-359, ff 478-482, and ff 524-525).The letters concern matters including:The re-establishment of the Bussora Residency, notably Manesty’s detailed account, dated 28 August 1796 (ff 80-184), of his negotiations between February and October 1795 with the Bacha [Pāshā] of Bagdat [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā of Baghdad] for the restoration of the Factory and Residency at Bussora and re-establishment of relations. The negotiations were via their respective mediators, Coja Cawork Doud [Khawājah Kevork Dāwūd], the Company’s ‘broker and linguist’ (f 82) at the Bussora Residency, and the Mussaleem of Bussora [Mutasallim, Ottoman Governor of Basra]. The account details Manesty’s dispute with the Ottoman authorities, which developed following the murder in Bussora of a wealthy Jewish merchant in March 1791, the arrest of an Armenian subject, protracted sectarian clashes between Jews and Christians in Bussora, and the Ottoman authorities’ rebuttal of Manesty’s claims that Armenians came under British protectionManesty’s objections to Crow and LeMessurier, regarding control of the Bussora Residency and Factory in 1796The movement of, and events concerning, Company ships and private merchant vessels trading to, from and via Bussora, and the conveyance and landing of their cargoes, notably woollens imported to Bushire [Bushehr] and Bussora from BengalThe marine conveyance, via Bussora, of mail packets (official Despatches to and from to the Court of Directors in London and British government in India, and other mail), including: routes taken; delays; lost or missing items; and packets captured or stolenThe overland transmission of mail packets, via Aleppo, notably matters concerning: routes; security; couriers; and Manesty’s communications with the Company’s agents at Aleppo, including Louisa Abbott, who took on duties of the Agent (f 368) following the death of her husband Robert Abbott in 1799 until the appointment of John BarkerManesty’s management of the Residency and Factory, including: communications with the British embassy at Constantinople [Istanbul] and relations with Peter Tooke, Company Agent there; increasingly fractious relations with Harford Jones (appointed first Company Resident in Bagdat in September 1798) notably over the latter’s official status; and relations with the Ottoman authorities in Bussora and BagdatVarious events, and Manesty’s activities, within Ottoman territory and the seas between Bussora and India, in relation to the wars with France [French Revolutionary Wars 1792-1802], notably: the monitoring of French ships, and intelligence communications with British naval officers; surveillance of French emissaries such as Abbé Beauchamp [Pierre-Joseph de Beauchamp]; efforts to combat French influence in the Ottoman Empire and Persia [Iran], especially after the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 headed by General Buonaparte [Napoleon Bonaparte]; the activities of John Lewis Reinaud (former Assistant Resident at Bussora) to influence the Bacha of Bagdat against the French; Manesty’s highlighting of the potential threat to British dominance in India and recommendation that an English military force be despatched to protect British interests; the defeat of French forces by a British fleet at the Battle of the Nile, August 1798; the unsuccessful French siege of St Jean d’Acre 1799 [Akko or Acre]; the British fleet and army sent against the French in Egypt, March 1801; and the Convention for the Evacuation of Egypt and the Definitive Treaty of Peace between Britain and France [Treaty of Amiens, signed 25 March 1802]Affairs in the Persian Gulph [Gulf], notably trade relations with Muscat and efforts to avert the establishment of a French presence there, and Manesty’s proposals for stationing intelligence officers at Muscat and Bushire (f 373)Internal Turkish Arabia [Ottoman Iraq] affairs, including: political conflicts; relations with local tribes; and the Bagdat Bacha’s expeditions against the Whahabee Shaik [Wahhābī Shaikh] Abdul Aziz [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin Muḥammad Āl Sa‘ūd, Emir of Diriyah]Intelligence relating to the Company’s campaign in India against Tippoo Sultan [Tīpū Sulṭān, Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore], including reports of Tippoo’s defeat in May 1799 (f 406)The spread of plague in Ottoman Turkey from 1800 and Manesty’s actions in July 1802 to secure the British establishment at Bussora and preserve communications and trade between India and Europe following the arrival of plague at Bagdat, including requisition of the Teignmouthas a floating Factory and removal of Bussora Factory staff to Maghil (ff 556-606)Harford Jones’s deteriorating relations with the Bacha of Bagdat in July 1801, and Manesty’s apparent efforts to restore the British reputation and the position of the Bagdat Residency (ff 498-516)The death of the Bacha of Bagdat (f 568) in 1802 and arrangements for his successor, Ali Bacha [‘Alī Pāshā]Manesty’s temporary embarkation of the Bussora establishment on the Furyin June 1803, following a rupture with the Ottoman authorities [he does not elaborate, however the incident arose over the apparent ‘violation’ of the ‘honour’ of an allegedly Egyptian Christian woman] (ff 606-607).Physical description: The foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 608; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto side of each folio.The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the leading and ending flyleaves.The sequence contains one foliation anomaly, f 16a.

4. Letter from Lord Elgin to Harford Jones

Description:

Abstract: A copy of a letter from Lord Elgin, HM Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, to Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], sent from Constantinople [Istanbul] and dated 3 August 1801.The letter concerns a dispute between Jones and the Pashaw [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad], admonishing Jones for some aspects of his conduct but agreeing with Jones’s speculation that the dispute was provoked by French agents. Elgin also stresses the need for the Bagdad Residency's privileges to be established in law.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)

5. Letter from Lord Elgin to Harford Jones

Description:

Abstract: A copy of a letter from Lord Elgin, HM Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, to Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], sent from Constantinople [Istanbul] and dated 31 July 1801.Elgin undertakes to reply to correspondence concerning a dispute between Jones and the Pashaw [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] at a later date and expresses faith in Jones’s abilities.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)

6. Letter from Sulayman Pasha to Harford Jones

Description:

Abstract: English and Farsi copies of a note from Suleiman Pashaw [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad] to Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], received by Jones on 20 October 1801.The Pashaw dismisses accusations against Jones (see IOR/L/PS/9/76/163) as groundless and affirms renewed trust in and esteem for Jones.Physical description: 1 item (1 folio)

7. Letter from Samuel Manesty to Ali Pasha

Description:

Abstract: A translation of a letter from Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], to the Bacha [‘Alī Pāshā al-Kahyah, Governor of Baghdad], dated 12 October 1804.The letter concerns a dispute between Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdat [Baghdad], and Coja Johannes Rafail Babick [Khawājah Hovhannes Rafael Babik, Armenian merchant in Trieste] arising from the commission charged by Jones to execute the estate of Babick’s late brother, Coja Stephen Rafail Babik [Khawājah Stepan Rafael Babik, Armenian merchant in Baghdad].A Farsi version of this letter is catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/361.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)

8. Letter from Samuel Manesty to Harford Jones

Description:

Abstract: A copy of a letter from Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], to Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdat [Baghdad], sent from a camp near Bagdat and dated 11 October 1804.The letter concerns a dispute between Jones and Coja Johannes Rafail Babick [Khawājah Hovhannes Rafael Babik, Armenian merchant in Trieste] arising from the commission charged by Jones to execute the estate of Babick’s late brother, Coja Stephen Rafail Babik [Khawājah Stepan Rafael Babik, Armenian merchant in Baghdad]. Manesty asks Jones for an explanation.A duplicate of this letter can be found in IOR/L/PS/9/76/366.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)

9. Letter from Samuel Manesty to Harford Jones

Description:

Abstract: A copy of a letter from Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], to Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdad [Baghdad], sent from Bussora and dated 12 September 1801.The letter answers Jones’s objections to Manesty’s conduct during a dispute between Jones and the Bashaw [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā, Governor of Baghdad]. The letter also concerns the transit of mail, forwarding packets from India.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)

10. Letter from Samuel Manesty to Harford Jones

Description:

Abstract: A copy of a letter from Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], to Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdat [Baghdad], sent from a camp near Bagdat and dated 14 October 1804.The letter concerns a dispute between Jones and Coja Johannes Rafail Babick [Khawājah Hovhannes Rafael Babik, Armenian merchant in Trieste] arising from the commission charged by Jones to execute the estate of Babick’s late brother, Coja Stephen Rafail Babik [Khawājah Stepan Rafael Babik, Armenian merchant in Baghdad]. Manesty criticises Jones’s conduct.A duplicate of this letter can be found in IOR/L/PS/9/76/366.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)

11. Letter from Ali Pasha to Samuel Manesty

Description:

Abstract: A translation of a note from the Bacha [‘Alī Pāshā al-Kahyah, Governor of Baghdad] to Samuel Manesty, Resident in Bussora [Basra], dated 10 October 1804.The Bacha complains of the conduct of Harford Jones, Resident in Bagdat [Baghdad], in particular concerning the commission charged by Jones to execute the estate of Coja Stephen Rafail Babik [Khawājah Stepan Rafael Babik, Armenian merchant in Baghdad], and asks for Manesty’s advice.A Farsi version of this document is catalogued as IOR/L/PS/9/76/346.Physical description: 1 item (2 folios)