Lot 23 , Brigade and General Orders Book, Bombay, 1 March 1784 – 14 March 1785

° Brigade and General Orders Book, Bombay, 1 March 1784 – 14 March 1785 118 paper folios, most leaves browned, some brittle and with occasional (but not extensive) losses, all repaired, in a buckram binding, 38 x 28cm

Army order book of the East India Company, comprising general orders issued at Bombay between 2 March 1784 and 14 March 1785, compiled in the office of Thomas Marshall, Town Major, and containing orders relating to military administration including notices concerning appointments, movements of troops, postings, promotions, pay, disputes over precedence and sentences of the separate courts martial for European and native troops.

Judging by the recurrent signature of the Town Major, in a hand clearly differentiated from that of the clerk or clerks responsible for the main text, this appears to be the original order book rather than a duplicate.

Each day’s entry begins with the parole or watchword (in English) and corresponding countersign (in Hindi). As well as military orders, byelaws for the administration of Bombay were entered, such as the revocation of the restriction on the native inhabitants of the city on ‘passing in their hackneys at the Church Gate’, on the understanding that the permission did not extend to unlicensed carts.

The context of the entries is the end of the second Anglo-Mysore war (1780-1784), in which the troops of the East India Company fought against Hyder Ali and his son Tipu Sultan and their French allies. The text of the treaty ending the war, signed on 11 March 1784, is copied into the volume; it represents the last occasion when an Indian power was able to dictate terms to the Company. On 24 March is recorded the burial of Lieutenant-Colonel John Campbell (1753-1784), whose epic defence of Mangalore continued from 23 May 1783 until 23 January 1784 and was marked by severe hardships. Campbell was exhausted by his exertions and died of a consumption at Bombay on 23 March 1784. The reduction in the military establishment following the peace was recorded on 9 May 1784, with orders for a series of gun salutes to mark the peace, the king’s birthday and the New Year, including 15 guns for ‘prosperity to Bombay’.

The volume is packed with the names of military personnel, including those of the native troops and their officers, and on folio 29 are set out the names of 50 Company cadets in order of rank. Grants of permission are recorded for men to recover their health by taking a sea voyage, visiting ‘the hotwells’, Surat or China, or by returning to England.

Proficiency in local languages entitled officers to increased pay, and a committee was ordered to meet monthly to examine candidates. On 20 December 1784 detailed regulations for the management of the Sepoy Battalion Hospitals were entered into the book, with rates of pay; the commanders of the battalions were to provide ‘proper native doctors and assistants’ whose pay was to be increased ‘as an encouragement to men or more knowledge and experience to engage in the battalion service’; however pay was to be stopped ‘to prevent the idle and lazy from skulking in the hospital’. These provisions were made in anticipation of the return to Bombay of prisoners captured in the late war; on 31 December they were congratulated by the President of Bombay ‘for that steady attachment they have shown to the service of their honourable employers and their love for their families and native country, which reflects so much honour on them as soldiers and as men. The committee desire that this may be clearly explained not only to the officers but individually to the Sepoys that they may be made fully sensible, their allegiance to the honourable company from which they could not be seduced by all the arts of the Nabob [Tipu Sultan], has justly merited and received the highest approbation of this government.’ The minute also alluded to ‘the unfortunate expedition under the late Brigadier-General [Richard] Matthews, who with his officers was poisoned after surrendering to Tipu. It stressed ‘one important principle of action, where they cannot conquer it will be better and braver to die with arms in their hands than yield, to trust to the mercy of so faithless and barbarous a foe.’

Captain Thomas Marshall was commissioned on 21 June 1784 and served as Town Major of Bengal; he was promoted to lieutenant-general on 4 June 1814 and died on 20 May 1825; he can probably be identified with the Captain Thomas Marshall who married Mrs Mary Bowles, widow, at Bombay on 27 November 1784.

A microfilm of this volume, copied in August 1980 by permission of Peter Burton, is held at the British Library, Asian and African Studies, Mss Photo Eur 180; another volume from the series, also signed by Thomas Marshall and covering 5 May 1786 – 14 January 1788, formed Lot 73 at Bonham’s, 7 June 2011, when it sold for £2040 including premium.
£200-300

Sold for £3,800