MRP: 11th January 1665/66, Letter from William Blake to Sir GO, Ballasore

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11th January 1665/66, Letter from William Blake to Sir GO, Ballasore

BL, Add. MS. XX,XXX ff. 56-58

Editorial history

13/01/12, CSG: Created page






Abstract & context


William Blake had been in the East Indies since at least 1650,[1] and appears to have had his service extended in 1657, when his father, a woollen draper of the same name, gave security for him. At that time he was described in the Court Minutes as "a factor at the Bay."[2]

In the period following the expiry of the English East India Company monopoly he, Thomas Hopkins (another East India Company factor), and others, were owners of the Unity, a ship involved in private trade to Jeffenapatan in Ceilon from Bengal, Hughli, and Ballasore.[3]

William Blake wrote to Sir George Oxenden from Ballasore in January 1665/66.[4] In an earlier letter, dated October 31st, 1662, and sent from Merschlepatam, Blake had detailed his unsuccessful attempts to travel to the Bay of Bengal to take up his appointment as chief of the four factories in the Bay (Hughly, Ballasore, Cassambazar, and Pattana).[5] He had also written from the Hughli factory in October 1665.[6]

He was chief of the Bay of Bengal factories from the date of his commission (January 31st, 1661/62, till his removal, probably in early 1669, under investigation for alleged multiple miscarriages.

Ballasore is a coastal town in north-east India, lying on the Bay of Bengal. In modern India it is an important city in the state of Orissa, known also as Baleshwar. The English settlement was first established in 1642.[7]


In this letter William Blake XXXX.



Suggested links


31st October 1662, Letter from William Blake to Sir GO, Merschlepatam
21st October 1665, Letter from William Blake to Sir GO, Hugly

See Ballasore
See Hughly
See Mechlepatam



To do


(1) Complete the transcription

(2) Check whether will proved 1683 ((and associated inventory) is just possibly a match to the letter writer

- PROB 11/373 Drax 52-101 Will of William Blake of Lambeth, Surrey 19 July 1683
- PROB 4/7192 Blake, William, of Lambeth, Surrey 1683 19 July



Transcription


This transcription has not been completed

[BL, Add. MS. XX,XXX ff. 56-58]

Mentions a packet sent to "my ffather & M:r Papillion"

William Blake's wife appears to be with him in Ballasore

"I am sorry to understand M:r Lambtons remaines to bee small, and pretenders to it soo many, that I am like to loose all his debts to mee, but being soo shall wave further insisting om that subiect.."

Mentions could not send ships last year to Persia "but made a Maldiva voyage"



Notes

William Blake's father, woollen draper, 1657


"William Black, woollen draper, and the father of William Black, a factor at the bay, are accepted as securities for the latter."[8]



William Blake, Thomas Hopkins, private trade in the Unity, 1657 & 1658


"William Blake, Thomas Hopkins, and others, were owners of the ship Unity; which said ship being at Jeffenapatan in the island of Ceilon in the Indies, the said Thomas Hopkins, and William Jourdan master of the said ship, hired a certain vessel, called a champan, being of the burden of sixty tons, and loaded on board of the said vessel and the said ship Unity, at or near Bengal, Hughes (sic), and Ballasore, in the parts of the East, several goods and merchandizes to be carried and transported for Jeffenapatan aforesaid. And the said two vessels accordingly sailed away, and arrived at Jeffenapatan in January, 1657, and were in the factory discharged and all unladen (except 80 bales of saltpetre, and six mauns of opium); and while the said vessels were at Jeffenapatan aforesaid, there came news, that a fleet of Dutch ships had taken three Portugal frigats at Jufficurre, and also the island Manar; and on the twenty-sixth of February, 1657, there came to Jeffenapatan from Manar a Dutch army in small vessels, and besieged the same (the fleet, that brought the army, being commanded by general Richloof, and one captain Vanderlaine)....."[9]

- William Blake and Thomas Hopkins appear to have been in the East Indies in the late 1650s, and engaged in permitted private trade during the period in which the monopoly of the English East India Company had expired[10]



William Blake, Bengal, ca. 1650 - ca. 1669


"In 1650 the factories of Balasor and Hughli were united, and on the 14th of December of tliat year instructions were issued, signed by Captain John
Brookhaven, appointing "Mr. James Bridgman Chief, Mr. Edward Stephens second, William Blake and Ffrancis Tayler assistants in the ffactories of Ballasor and Hukely for the honble. English East India Company" (0. C, 2186).

Balasor was at first the head-quarters of the Company's Bengal factories. Mr. Bridgman appears to have gone away some time in 1653, for, on the 17th August of that year, Mr. Powle Waldegrave, writing from Balasor to Surat, referred in his letter to Mr. Bridgman's departure (0. C, 2336), and in a letter to the Court of the 28th December 1654 (O.C., 2435) Mr. Waldegrave remarked, — "Mr. Bridgman, when he left Hugly (upon what reasons other than sinister) cannot be imagined," &c. It would thus appear that Mr. Bridgman left somewhat suddenly, and that on his departure Mr. Waldegrave assumed charge.

In a despatch dated 27th February 1657, the Court of Directors, addressing "our Agent and Factors at Hughly," stated, — " We have made some good progress as to the settling of our several ffactories in all parts of India, and have concluded to reduce all ffactories, both to the northwards and southwards, Persia and the Bay to be subordinate to our Presidencie, which we shall settle in Surratt. Wee have likewise resolved to establish 4 Agencies, viz., one at Fort St. George, one in Bantam, a third in Persia, and the other at Hughly, which last place, being your Residence, it most necessarlie requires your knowledge of what we have determined in relation thereunto, which is as followeth, viz., — At Hughly we doe appoint Mr. George Gawton to be our Agent, &c. At Ballasore, Mr. Thomas Hopkins is appointed Chiefe, &c. At Cassambazar, Mr. John Kenn for Chief, &c. At Pattana, Mr. Eichard Chamberlain, Chief, &c. These are the 4 ffactories which we determined shall be settled in the Bay of Bengala, and that they shall be accomptablo and subordinate to the agencie of Hughly, &c."

In a subsequent despatch of the 27th March 1658, the
Court stated : —

"Some alteration since our last by the ' Love,' we have made in the settlement of our fFactors within your agencie and subordinates, ffirst we have and doe appoint Mr. Jonathan Trevisa to be second to Mr. George Gawton in our Agencie at Hughly. And in case of Mr. Gawton's decease to succeede and be our Agent."

It is uncertain when Mr. Gawton arrived, and how long he acted as Agent at Hughly. There are no vi no letters extant from him in that capacity, but a letter from Fort St. George to Bengal, of the 11th September 1658 (0. C, 2665), stated that Mr. Trevisa was then on his way to succeed Mr. Gawton in the Hughly Agency.

In a despatch of the 6th February 1660-61, the Court, in a letter addressed to "Our Factors at Hughly and in the Bay of Bengali," stated, — "This is only to advise you that wee, upon serious debate and consideration, have now thought fitt, and concluded, to reduce the Agency which we had constituted in y:e Bay, under the power and government of our Agents and Counsell at Ffort St. George, &c." Mr. Trevisa, it appears, continued to act as Chief in Bengal until succeeded by Mr. William Blake, who, by a Commission dated the 31st January 1661-62, was appointed "to bee Chiefe in the management of our affaires in our ffactories in the Bay of Bengala, all which ffactories we have subordinated to the Agencie at Ffort St. George, &c." He was further instructed, "At your arrivall at Hughly wee hereby give you power to call Mr. Jonathan Trevisa, and all other our servants, to accompt for all actions which hath passed since their being in the Bay."

Mr. Blake probably arrived at Hughly as Chief about the end of March 1663, but there is nothing to fix the exact date, and he seems to have continued in office for about six years, for in a despatch from the Court to "Our Chief e and Factors at Hughly," of the 24th Januarie 1667-68, there appears the following passage: — "Wee take notice that Mr. Wm. Blake makes it his request to returne to England by the next ships, wherein we doe comply with his desire. And doe hereby appoint Mr. Shem Bridges to succeed him, and to take the place of Chief e in the Bay at the time when Mr. Blake shall imbarque for England. And in case of the decease of Mr. Bridges then wee doe appoint Mr. Henry Powell to be Chief e, &c."

Mr. Blake however, before he left, appears so to have acted as to have caused charges to be preferred against him, for, on the 20th November 1668, the Court wrote
both to Fort St. George and to Hughly, — " Wee having had information of soe many miscarriages of Mr. Wm. Blake . . . require you to make a strict inquisition into them, &c." The result of these inquiries appears to have been the removal of Mr. Blake from his position, when he was succeeded by Mr. Shem Bridges as Chief about March 1669."[11]

Danvers lists "Mr. William Blake" as the chief of the factories of Bengal, appointed on January 31st, 1662, and dismissed and replaced by "Mr. Shem Bridges" on January 24, 1668/69.[12]



William Blake, 1674


"[?1674] William Blake's covenants, bonds, and security to be given up, also the indenture tripartite made between the Company, Blake, ..."[13]



Possible primary sources

TNA


Secondary sources mention a Francis Blake of Highgate, and a son of Francis Blake, William Blake, woollen draper of Covent Garden.

- "About the year 1685, one William Blake, a woollen-draper in Maiden-Lane, Covent Garden, set on foot a scheme for establishing an hospital at Highgate, for the education and maintenance of about 40 fatherless boys and girls. The boys to be taught the art of painting, gardening, casting accounts, and navigation, or put forth to some good handicraft trade, and to wear an uniform of blue lined with yellow. The girls to be taught to read, write, sew, starch, raise paste, and dress, that they might be fit for any good service. [An accompany ing footnote states: (fn. 96: In the first page of the book quoted beneath, it is said that they were all to be natives of Hornsey, Highgate, or Hampstead; but a note elsewhere says, they might come from any place, and be either French or English.)]"[14]

See:

PROB 4/18466 Blake, William, of [illeg.] 1663 31 Jan.
PROB 4/7192 Blake, William, of Lambeth, Surrey 1683 19 July

PROB 11/373 Drax 52-101 Will of William Blake of Lambeth, Surrey 19 July 1683
PROB 11/402 Dyke 173-213 Will of Robert Blake, Woollen Draper of Saint Pauls Covent Garden, Middlesex 20 November 1690

PROB 11/414 Coker 47-90 Will of Francis Blake of Highgate, Middlesex 28 March 1693
  1. Frederick Charles Danvers, Bengal, its chiefs, agents, and governors (?London, 1888), p. 7
  2. 'A court of committees for the New General Stock, December 29, 1657,' in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A Calendar of the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1655-1659 (Oxford, 1916), p. 205. The index to this calendar confirms that William Black is the same as William Blake, who is mentioned elsewhere in this calendar at the Bay
  3. 'An account of the depredations committed by the Dutch upon the English; delivered to the Dutch embassador by the committee, 11. Octob. 1659.' in Thomas Birch (ed.), A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe ...: 1658 to 1660, vol. 7 (London, 1742), pp. 759-760
  4. 11th January 1665/66, Letter from William Blake to Sir GO, Ballasore
  5. 31st October 1662, Letter from William Blake to Sir GO, Merschlepatam
  6. 21st October 1665, Letter from William Blake to Sir GO, Hugly
  7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balasore, viewed 13/01/12
  8. 'A court of committees for the New General Stock, December 29, 1657,' in Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A Calendar of the Court Minutes of the East India Company, 1655-1659 (Oxford, 1916), p. 205. The index to this calendar confirms that William Black is the same as William Blake, who is mentioned elsewhere in this calendar at the Bay
  9. 'An account of the depredations committed by the Dutch upon the English; delivered to the Dutch embassador by the committee, 11. Octob. 1659.' in Thomas Birch (ed.), A Collection of the State Papers of John Thurloe ...: 1658 to 1660, vol. 7 (London, 1742), pp. 759-760
  10. Blake and Hopkins are mentioned on a tourist website for Cossimbazar, though without a primary reference, receiving a letter from the EEIC in 1657 telling them of the new charter for the EEIC and the dispatch of the Blackamore (http://murshidabad.net/history/places-topic-places-zone-two.htm, viewed 17/01/12)
  11. Frederick Charles Danvers, Bengal, its chiefs, agents, and governors (?London, 1888), pp. 6-9
  12. Frederick Charles Danvers, Bengal, its chiefs, agents, and governors (?London, 1888), p. 4
  13. XXXX, Ethel Bruce Sainsbury (ed.), A calendar of the court minutes, etc., of the East India company, 1674-1676 (Oxford, 1935), p. 118
  14. Daniel Lysons, 'Hornsey', The Environs of London: volume 3: County of Middlesex (1795), pp. 46-78. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45432 Date accessed: 17 January 2012