"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٣‎٦] (١٧٨٢/١٣٩١)

1767-68.
Mr. French's
estate, 1768.
Case of Mr.
Skipp, 1768-
69.
deposited by Haji Yusuf at Basrah, and in reply he was informed that
they would be handed to the Mutasallim, if desired, but that the Agent
and Council could not themselves undertake the responsibility of forward
ing them to Baghdad. Eventually Mr. Garden obtained an order for
the sale of Haji Yusufg property; but the Mutasallim represented that
on account of the demands of Janissaries and other creditors upon the
estate, it would be impossible to find purchasers for the houses, lands,
etc., of which it consisted in the ordinary way, and that it would be
better if they were put up for sale as the property of the East India
Company. The Agent agreed to this suggestion on condition that
the Hujjats or title deeds should first be delivered over to him j and
the Mutasallim then had recourse to fresh evasions, alleging that
the title deeds were u old, and few or none remaining and suggesting
that the Agent should find the purchasers first, when certificates in
the Sultan's name would be furnished, superior in validity to any
Hujjats.
In June 1766 the Kehiyah, on arriving from Baghdad to take com
mand of the Turkish expedition against the Ka'ab, promised that
within 20 or 30 days of the final defeat of the enemy he would settle
the entire debt by separating the lands among the sons and oblig
ing them to pay off the whole in proportion" ; and though the condi
tion on which the promise depended was not fulfilled, repayment
had begun in earnest bv April 1767.
For some time afterwards instalments seem to have been regularly
received, and after the beginning of 1768 the case ceased to be men
tioned, presumably because the claim had been settled.
From instructions given by the Bombay Government to the Agent
at Basrah in 1768, it would seem that proceedings still continued in
regard to the estate of Mr. French, the former Kesident, who had
died at Basrah so long before as 1737, and that persons having claims
were now advised to make application to the East India Company
in London.
In October 1768, on his return from a mission to Shiraz, described
in the history of the Persian Coast, Mr, Skipp, who had originally
been sent to Basrah as book-keeper in 1764, was suspended by the
Agent and Council there for breach of trust and breach of orders in
his capacity of "Warehouse-keeper and AccomptantIt was
apparently alleged that he had b^en guilty of dishonesty in the disposal
of home shalloons " at a low price jointly with Mr. Wrench, a former
Agent, and also in the sale of some cloth but the Government of