'LETTERS FROM THE RESIDENT BUSSARAH 31. JAN. 1793 TO 21. JUNE 1803 VOL 8' [‎47v] (109/1234)

Content

The volume chiefly comprises letters 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 Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. of the East India Company from the Resident and Factor at Bussora [Basra], Samuel Manesty. The letters are dated 31 January 1793-21 June 1803 and the date each letter was received is recorded on the back of it.

From 31 January 1793 to 2 August 1794 (ff 1-38), many letters are also signed by Harford Jones, who acted as Assistant Resident and co-Factor up to 1794. Between 3 January and 25 September 1796 (ff 51-192) there are letters which overlap with Manesty’s, written by [George] Nathan Crowe and Peter LeMessurier [Le Mesurier], who were appointed to run the Bussora Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and Factory An East India Company trading post. following the suspension from office of Manesty by the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. on 1 January 1796. The suspension was in connection with Manesty’s dispute with the Ottoman authorities originating in 1791, which had led him to remove the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. to Grain [Kuwait] in 1793. Manesty had actually re-established himself in Bussora by September 1795, before Crow and LeMessurier arrived from Bombay [Mumbai], and he was officially reinstated in July 1796. However, Crow and LeMessurier only transferred back control of the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. when they received orders to return to Bombay in September 1796.

Letters dated 31 January to 27 April 1793 are written from Maghil [Al Maqal] ‘near Bussora’. Manesty left the city at the end of April 1793 and from 18 July 1793 to 5 March 1795 he writes from Grain (ff 2-43). From 9 October 1795 (f 45), following Manesty’s return in the previous month, his letters are written from Maghil or Bussora.

The enclosures Manesty refers to are mostly not included in the volume, although his letters regularly incorporate extracts of his communications to the President in Council, Political Department [Bombay] and the Governor-General in Council [Bengal]. Manesty occasionally writes to individual members of the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. , lobbying for an increase in his pay and allowances and lamenting his pecuniary difficulties and unsettled claims upon the Company (see ff 356-359, ff 478-482, and ff 524-525).

The letters concern matters including:

• The re-establishment of the Bussora Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , notably Manesty’s detailed account, dated 28 August 1796 (ff 80-184), of his negotiations between February and October 1795 with the Bacha [Pāshā] of Bagdat [Büyük Sulaymān Pāshā of Baghdad] for the restoration of the Factory An East India Company trading post. and Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. at Bussora and re-establishment of relations. The negotiations were via their respective mediators, Coja Cawork Doud [Khawājah Kevork Dāwūd], the Company’s ‘broker and linguist’ (f 82) at the Bussora Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. , and the Mussaleem During the eighteenth century this was the third most powerful official in Ottoman Iraq (after the Pasha and the Kiya). The title was given specifically to the Governor of Basra. of Bussora [ Mutasallim During the eighteenth century this was the third most powerful official in Ottoman Iraq (after the Pasha and the Kiya). The title was given specifically to the Governor of Basra. , Ottoman Governor of Basra]. The account details Manesty’s dispute with the Ottoman authorities, which developed following the murder in Bussora of a wealthy Jewish merchant in March 1791, the arrest of an Armenian subject, protracted sectarian clashes between Jews and Christians in Bussora, and the Ottoman authorities’ rebuttal of Manesty’s claims that Armenians came under British protection
• Manesty’s objections to Crow and LeMessurier, regarding control of the Bussora Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and Factory An East India Company trading post. in 1796
• The movement of, and events concerning, Company ships and private merchant vessels trading to, from and via Bussora, and the conveyance and landing of their cargoes, notably woollens imported to Bushire [Bushehr] and Bussora from Bengal
• The marine conveyance, via Bussora, of mail packets (official Despatches to and from to the Court of Directors The London-based directors of the East India Company who dealt with the daily conduct of the Company's affairs. in London and British government in India, and other mail), including: routes taken; delays; lost or missing items; and packets captured or stolen
• The overland transmission of mail packets, via Aleppo, notably matters concerning: routes; security; couriers; and Manesty’s communications with the Company’s agents at Aleppo, including Louisa Abbott, who took on duties of the Agent (f 368) following the death of her husband Robert Abbott in 1799 until the appointment of John Barker
• Manesty’s management of the Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. and Factory An East India Company trading post. , including: communications with the British embassy at Constantinople [Istanbul] and relations with Peter Tooke, Company Agent there; increasingly fractious relations with Harford Jones (appointed first Company Resident in Bagdat in September 1798) notably over the latter’s official status; and relations with the Ottoman authorities in Bussora and Bagdat
• Various events, and Manesty’s activities, within Ottoman territory and the seas between Bussora and India, in relation to the wars with France [French Revolutionary Wars 1792-1802], notably: the monitoring of French ships, and intelligence communications with British naval officers; surveillance of French emissaries such as Abbé Beauchamp [Pierre-Joseph de Beauchamp]; efforts to combat French influence in the Ottoman Empire and Persia [Iran], especially after the French invasion of Egypt in 1798 headed by General Buonaparte [Napoleon Bonaparte]; the activities of John Lewis Reinaud (former Assistant Resident at Bussora) to influence the Bacha of Bagdat against the French; Manesty’s highlighting of the potential threat to British dominance in India and recommendation that an English military force be despatched to protect British interests; the defeat of French forces by a British fleet at the Battle of the Nile, August 1798; the unsuccessful French siege of St Jean d’Acre 1799 [Akko or Acre]; the British fleet and army sent against the French in Egypt, March 1801; and the Convention for the Evacuation of Egypt and the Definitive Treaty of Peace between Britain and France [Treaty of Amiens, signed 25 March 1802]
• Affairs in the Persian Gulph [Gulf], notably trade relations with Muscat and efforts to avert the establishment of a French presence there, and Manesty’s proposals for stationing intelligence officers at Muscat and Bushire (f 373)
• Internal Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. [Ottoman Iraq] affairs, including: political conflicts; relations with local tribes; and the Bagdat Bacha’s expeditions against the Whahabee Shaik [ Wahhābī A follower of the Islamic reform movement known as Wahhabism; also used to refer to the people and territories ruled by the Al-Saud family. Shaikh] Abdul Aziz [‘Abd al-‘Azīz bin Muḥammad Āl Sa‘ūd, Emir of Diriyah]
• Intelligence relating to the Company’s campaign in India against Tippoo Sultan [Tīpū Sulṭān, Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore], including reports of Tippoo’s defeat in May 1799 (f 406)
• The spread of plague in Ottoman Turkey from 1800 and Manesty’s actions in July 1802 to secure the British establishment at Bussora and preserve communications and trade between India and Europe following the arrival of plague at Bagdat, including requisition of the Teignmouth as a floating Factory An East India Company trading post. and removal of Bussora Factory An East India Company trading post. staff to Maghil (ff 556-606)
• Harford Jones’s deteriorating relations with the Bacha of Bagdat in July 1801, and Manesty’s apparent efforts to restore the British reputation and the position of the Bagdat Residency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, established in the provinces and regions considered part of, or under the influence of, British India. (ff 498-516)
• The death of the Bacha of Bagdat (f 568) in 1802 and arrangements for his successor, Ali Bacha [‘Alī Pāshā]
• Manesty’s temporary embarkation of the Bussora establishment on the Fury in June 1803, following a rupture with the Ottoman authorities [he does not elaborate, however the incident arose over the apparent ‘violation’ of the ‘honour’ of an allegedly Egyptian Christian woman] (ff 606-607).

Extent and format

1 volume (609 folios)

Arrangement

The papers are arranged in chronological order from the front to the rear of the volume.

Physical characteristics

The foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the first folio with 1 and terminates at the last folio with 608; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.

The foliation sequence does not include the front and back covers, nor does it include the leading and ending flyleaves.

The sequence contains one foliation anomaly, f 16a.

Written in

English in Latin script

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