MRP: 29th March 1662/63, Letter from Nicholas Bix to Sir GO, London

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29th March 1662/63, Letter from Nicholas Bix to Sir GO, London

BL, Add. MS. XX,XXX, f. 66

Editorial history

02/06/09, CSG: Completed transcription
14/12/11, CSG: Created page & posted transcription to wiki






Abstract & context


Nicholas Bix, a former servant of the English East India Company, wrote on March 29th, 1662/63, from Upper Shadwell, to Sir George Oxenden about preferment both for his son and for an acquaintance.

Bix had been at the Armagon and Bantam factories in the late 1620s and early 1630s. He referred in his letter to many troubles which have assailed him of late. Sometime after this letter he received forty shillings from the Company poor box, described as "fallen to decay and a prisoner."[1]

His problems extended by the 1670s to his domestic arrangements. Bix had been made a pensioner of the Company's almshouse at Poplar, but his wife was ordered "to depart from the lodging assigned to her husband and not to return under any pretence."[2]

It is possible that Sir George Oxenden knew Bix from encounters out in the East Indies. Certainly he knew him well enough to have visited Bix, together with Sir George Smith, at Bix' home in Upper Shadwell, before Oxenden departed for Surat.



Suggested links




To do


(1) Check transcription against physical manuscript in BL



Transcription


This transcription has been completed, but needs to be checked

[BL, MS. XX,XXX, f. 66]

Hon:d S:r

Ay yo:r last being at my house accompanyed w:th S:r Geo: Smith,[3] Etc:a I then suplicated you in behalfe of á sonne of myne to wat upon you, but I was then to late, where upon S:r Geo: Smith was pleased then to promise by y:e next fleete to lend his assistance in effecting my request yett not with standing wee are more frustrated & y:o:r poore Country man an old acquaintance forced to patience, I have sent him w:th a good ffreind for a yeares voyage, & then will once more attempt to send him for India and if God please to Blesse yo:a w:th life I doubt not of yo:e Good assistance and love I will not dispare thought many troubles of late have assailed mee Hono:d S:r the beare force of my acquaintance by name M:r John Godart[4] who hath beene some voyages in India á very Ingenious honest young man & of á good family if it may please yo:e favoure to Countenance him according to his pts & Deportm:t either for Shipp or ?Shorare you will oblidge yo:e poore Serv:t If I have degressed from yo:e at[xx but - ?] title or worth pray excuse my old Age or Rather weaknesse who once was as active in India as some who but now devoted to bee


LH SIDE BOTTOM OF LETTER

Upper Shadwell[5] [XX] a ??garrist y:e ??Grow Church
March y:e 29:th 1662:

RH SIDE BOTTOM OF LETTER

Yo:r Worp:s most humble
Serv:t
Nicholas Bix



Notes

Nicholas Bix


Nicholas Bix and Thomas Grove were sent to the English East India Company factory in Armagon as assistants under Mr. Thomas Johnson, in the 1624-29 period.[6] Bix returned to England from Bantam in 1632.[7]

Hence Nicholas Bix refers at the end of his letter to Sir George Oxenden to his "old age", but having once been "as active in India as some who are but now devoted to bee"



East Indies


"Nicholas Bix entertained as an underfactor for seven years, at 30l. per annum for the first two years, rising afterwards 10l. per year."[8]

"But the factors could league together for defrauding the company. Upon his return to India in 1626, George Willoughby informed the Company of a 'notorious abuse' committed by certain factors, namely George Muschampe, and Nicholas Bix in the South and George Clement in the North who had confederated together and concluded a common agreement to carry on private trade among themselves ' to the exceeding loss and prejudice ..."[9]

"This was Nicholas Bix, who had been a merchant in the Company's service, and had at one time held the responsible post of Chief at Masulipatam. Being old (seventy-four) and without means, he was admitted to the Hospital on April ..."[10]



Bix family name


No Nicholas Bix PRC wills, but interesting to see: PROB 11/310 Juxon 1–51 Will of David Bix, Lieutenant Colonel of Barbados, West Indies 21 February 1663



Possible primary sources

  1. William Thomas Otwell (ed.), A calendar of the court minutes, etc., of the East India Company: 1664-1667), vol. 7 (Oxford, 19XX), p. 87
  2. W.T. Ottewill (ed.), A calendar of the court minutes, etc., of the East India Company, 1673-1679 (Oxford, 1938), p. 220
  3. Sir George Smith, London merchant
  4. John Godart was XXXX. See Missing faces
  5. "Shadwell, like Wapping, was a hamlet of Stepney, till 1669, when it was separated by an Act of Parliament" (Walter Thornbury, Edward Walford, Old and New London: The city ancient and modern, vol. 2 (London, 1881), p. 137)
  6. EFI 24-29, p. 146
  7. "1632: Jan. 30. Bantam...Nicholas Bix goes home on this ship by license from the President and Council" (W. Noel Sainsbury (ed.), 'East Indies: January 1632', Calendar of State Papers Colonial, East Indies and Persia, vol. 8: 1630-1634 (XXXX, 1892), pp. 239-252. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=71444 Date accessed: 14 December 2011)
  8. William Noel Sainsbury (ed.), Calendar of state papers: Colonial series: East Indies...XXXX-XXXX, vol. 4 (XXXX, 1969), p. 214
  9. K. N. Chaudhuri, The English East India Company: the study of an early joint-stock company, 1600-1640, vol. 1 (XXXX, 1965), p. 87
  10. William Foster, John Company (London, 1926), p. ?