MRP: 24th March 1662/63, Letter from William Isaacson to Sir GO, London

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24th March 1662/63, Letter from William Isaacson to Sir GO, London

BL, Add. MS. XX,XXX, ff. 46-47

Editorial history

22/05/09, CSG: Completed transcription
13/12/11, CSG: Created page & posted transcription to wiki






Abstract & context


William Isaacson wrote a letter to Sir George Oxenden dated March 24th, 1662/63, sent from London.

The writer, William Isaacson, referred to a "Mr. fflyer," who had died in Persia, and to his brother. Isaacson may be referring to Stephen Flower, who wrote a letter to Sir George Oxenden from Gombroon, dated February 2nd, 1662/63.

Isaacson wrote in a familiar manner of John Lambton in Surat, which suggests that Issacson himself my be a former servant of the English East India Company in Surat.

William Isaacson may have been the former Surat minister, who in 1647 had moved to Fort St George. If so, he would have known Sir George Oxenden well, having been in India since at least the early/mid 1640s, and having been in Surat with a much younger George Oxenden.[1]

There may have been an Anthony Issacson connected with Smyrna



Suggested links


See 2nd February 1662/63, Letter from Steven Flower to Sir GO, Gombroone



To do


(1) Check transcription against physical manuscript in BL



Transcription


This transcription has been completed, but needs to be checked

[BL, Add. MS. XX,XXX, ff. 46-47]

[CSG, 22/05/09 – TRANSCRIPTION IS COMPLETE]

[f.46]

Right Worp:ll & ev:r hon:d S:r

My ill Success w:ch I had y:e last yeare by M:r Aungeir[2] discourages me this yeare from Troubling your Worp: besides I know not what returnes I may have, for y:t w:ch safely Arrived in yo:r hands w:ch makes me not Soe forward to Adventure as I should be in regard I have had soe bad from y:e Coast y:e pris’ of Diamonds being much higher than when I came from there but I hope for bett:r newes this yeare from Surratt.

S:r y:e Inclosed are fromm one M:r fflyer[3] whose Broth:r[4] dyed in psia Somew:t was left in M:r Mathew Gray’s[5] hands w:ch he Advised his bro:r of; It seemes M:r Flyer hath made meanes w:th y:e Comp:a y:t what lyes in Surr:tt (belonging to him now) may be putt into theire hands to pay him ?here when they shall know what y:e Amo:t wilbe, he desires yo:r Worp: s Assistance & to y:t and hath sent y:e enclosed; Newes I send none because M:r Buckridge[6] hath Undertaken to send all y:t may be gratefull to you, As for my Old Freind M:r John Lambton[7] I have writt soe often to him yett received not a line from him y:t I thincke he is Angrey now I am resolved to try whether I cann Extract a lre from him by my Silence; S:r I shall not further Trouble you at present, w:th my humble

[f. 47]

Service presented, I take leave to Subscribe my Selfe

London March y:e 24:th 1662/3

Yo:r Worp:es most Oblig:d Serv:t
Will:m Isaason [could be Isacson, but really looks like "Isaason"!]



Notes

William Isaacson


"At Masulipatam: Thomas Peniston (100l.), Henry Olton (150l.), William Methwold (30l.), William Netlam (18l.), William Gurney (20l.), and William Isaacson (20l.) In Bengal: Robert Hatch (80l.) and George Travell (XXl.)..."[8]
- Rather strangely, EFI 42-45, p. 196 refers to a Rev. William Isaacson” on a ship with Henry Tyrell signing a letter referenced in a FN

"If Mr. William Isaacson had bin desirous to have stayed in this countrey, wee should have .."[9]

"The Protestants were without a chaplain until the arrival in 1647 of William Isaacson from Surat, the factory to which Fort St. George had become subordinate two years earlier. While Isaacson was still resident chaplain at the fort, Father Ephrem was kidnapped in 1649 by Portuguese agents and carried off to Goa. Isaacson was succeeded at the fort by Robert Winchester in 1650, but he left in the following year and its Protestants were again without a chaplain...The return of Isaacson in 1654 with several chaplains brought an end to the ecumenical atmosphere at the fort. English soldiers, most of them who were Protestants, had contracted alliances with Luso-Asian women who were often Catholics..."[10]



Possible primary sources

  1. XXXX, Asia in the Making of Europe: A Century of Advance. Book 2, South Asia (Chicago, 1998), p. 286
  2. Gerald Aungier
  3. Ralph Flyer. See 20th March 1662/63, Letter from Ralph Flyer to Sir GO, London
  4. Edward Flyer
  5. Mathew Gray was XXXX
  6. Nicholas Buckeridge
  7. John Lambton, the Surat warehouseman
  8. EFI, 42-45, p. 132
  9. EFI 61-64, p. 32
  10. XXXX, Asia in the Making of Europe: A Century of Advance. Book 2, South Asia (Chicago, 1998), p. 286