Letters from Sir Harford Jones, Envoy to Persia [Iran], to the Secret Committee [‎310v] (620/956)

Content

Copies of dispatches from Sir Harford Jones, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary A diplomatic representative who ranks below an ambassador. The term can be shortened to 'envoy'. to the Persian Court, to the Secret Committee Pre-1784, the Committee responsible for protecting East India Company shipping. Post-1784, its main role was to transmit communications between the Board of Control and the Company's Indian governments on matters requiring secrecy. of the East India Company, in London. Dispatches are sent from Bombay [Mumbai], Schyras [Shiraz], Teehran [Tehran, also written Tahran in the present volume], Tabreze [Tabriz, also referred to as Tauris in the present volume], and Sultania [Soltaniyeh] and his letters relate to his diplomatic mission to the Persian Court. Some of the correspondence constitutes an outline of, and defence against, charges made by the Governor-General at Fort William, Lord Minto [Gilbert Elliot Murray Kynynmound, 1st Earl of Minto], against Jones’s conduct during his mission, including letters from British and Persian [Iranian] officials in support of his case. Other matters connected to the mission are also discussed, such as: its scale and style; its successes; the treaty (Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, 12 March 1809) and subsidy (paid by Britain to Persia) that resulted from it; and the difficulties caused by the simultaneous of Brigadier-General John Malcolm, East India Company Envoy to Persia.

Other matters covered include:

• Relations between the Ottoman Empire and Persia
• News from Europe, particularly in connection to the Napoleonic Wars
• The Russo-Persian War, including unsuccessful attempts to negotiate an armistice
• Intelligence regarding Captain William George Keith Elphinstone’s mission to Caboul [Kabul]
• French influence in Persia and the presence of French diplomatic agents in the region
• The appearance of Jean Robbio, a French agent, in Muscat and Bushire [Būshehr], and the seizure of his correspondence in September 1810 (folios 329-336)
• The potential for trade with Persia, including a memorandum on the subject written by Jones (folios 65-66)
• Routine matters relating to finance and personnel.

Some of the papers are included as enclosures to Jones’s dispatches. The correspondents include: John Malcolm; Lord Minto; Robert Dundas, President of the Board of Control Formally known as the Board of Commissioners for the Affairs of India, it was established by an Act of Parliament in 1784 to supervise the activities of the East India Company. for India; Robert Adair, Ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, Constantinople; George Canning (and his successors, Earl Henry Bathurst and Marquess Richard Colley Wellesley), Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs; Hajee Mahammed Hossein Khan [Hajji Muhammad Hossein Isfahani], Persian Minister; Meerza Mahammed Sheffea [Mirza Mohammed Shafi Mazanderani], Grand Vizier of Persia; Meerza Bozurg [Mirza 'Isa Khan Farahani], Minister to the Crown Prince of Persia; Fath Ali Shah [Fatḥ ʻAlī Shāh], Shah of Persia; Charles Pasley, Political Agent A mid-ranking political representative (equivalent to a Consul) from the diplomatic corps of the Government of India or one of its subordinate provincial governments, in charge of a Political Agency. of the Governor-General of the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. of Fort William and Assistant to Brigadier-General John Malcolm; Askar Khan Afshar, Persian Ambassador to Paris; Abbas Meerza ['Abbās Mīrza Qājār], Crown Prince of Persia; Stephen Babington, Assistant-in-Charge, Bushire [Būshehr]; Claudius James Rich, Resident at Bagdad [Baghdad]; Henry Rudland, Resident and Agent at Mocha.

Extent and format

1 item (478 folios)

Written in

English and French in Latin script

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