Volume 1

Materials towards a statistical account of the town and island of Bombay in three volumes.

  • Bombay Presidency
Date:
1893-1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materials towards a statistical account of the town and island of Bombay in three volumes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    112/522 page 94
    Chapter I. History. Court’s Orders, 1684. Capt. Keigwin Burrenders, 1684. [Historical 94 BOMBAY TOWN factories as in our garrisons, that our General and Council may countenance and prefer such as in adversity stood faithful true and zealous to our interest, and may discountenance and debase all those they found false cold or as we usually say hollow-hearted towards our interest. We persuade ourselves that you will find upon this ship’s arrival in all our commanders officers and seamen a more hearty vigorous and active spirit for the ruining of all interlopers and their adherents than you have formerly discovered in them, it being manifest now to all unbiased men that it is not this Company only that such ill-minded men wound but the honour and interest of their King and country. If Bombay be again in our possession, we would have you pursue all those methods for its improvement and security that we advised you in our last year’s and in the former years’ letters, by such steps and graduations as you shall find most advisable for our service. To this purpose let extracts of all those letters of what relates to Bombay be written out that our General may take them with him thither and read them in our Council of Bombay, that all our Council there may take notice of them, and by bearing the purport of them in their minds, may be always thinking of the most proper means conducing to those ends.^ In all their reports on the revolt the President and Council at Surat ascribed it to the instigation of the interlopers and to the rest- less disposition of the soldiery. After Sir Thomas Grantham’s arri- val at Surat, the I6th October 1684,^ the first subject of deliberation between Mr. Child the Surat President and his Council, Dr. St. John^ ^ Court to the President and Council at Surat, 3rd October 1684, Public Depart- ment, Letters from the Court, Vol. I of 1681 -1685, 97. ’ ^ Before they wereavvare of the revolt, the Company had fitted out a large ship, the Charles the Second, carrying between 60 and 70 guns, under the command of Sir Thomas Grantham, who was also invested with a King’s Commission, and to have a vote in the Council at Surat, while at the port. The o])ject of this equipment was to recover if possible the English Factory at Bantam ; or if that should be found impracticable, to proceed to the Gulf of Persia, and there, by the appearance of force, to endeavour to re-establish the Company’s rights at Gombroon. Bruce’s Annals, II. 639 - 540. ^ Dr. St. John arrived at Surat as Judge Advocate under the Commission from His Majesty on the 16th September 1684. His Commission was published and the Court erected in the King’s name at Surat on the 17th September 1684. To give it greater autliority to overawe the revolters at Bombay, they were informed that their case would come under the cognizance of a King’s Judge, and be tried in a more summary manner (whatever might be the result of the revolt) than if their conduct should become matter of judicial investigation and decision in England. On this occasion Dr. St. John drew up a very able report, which he addressed to the King and Council on the general state of the Company’s affairs and the parti- cular causes of the revolt at Bombay. On the first of these subjects he represented that the aggressions of the Portuguese and Dutch had been so great and so long continued, that it was impossible the English trade could continue in India for three years, unless His Majesty should adopt effectual measures for restraining their proceedings, and protecting his rights, and those of his subjects, in the East Indies. On the second, that is on the revolt at Bombay, after an attentive examination of the conduct of President Child wdio during the twenty-five years he had been in India, had maintained a steady loyalty to his king and country, and an uninterrupted probity and activity in his administration of the Company’s affairs, Dr. St. John stated that the rebellion of Bombay had arisen from the depredations and crimes of the interlopers, with whom Captain Keigwin was intimately connected, whom he termed the “ Oliver
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