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The establishment of the East India Company Residency at Baghdād, 1798–1806

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

M. E. Yapp
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Extract

The establishment of a British political agent at Baghdad marked an important shift in British policy in the area of the Persian Gulf. It underlined the changing interest from trade to politics, the recognition of the strategic problem of Indian defence, and the assertion by the British Government in India of a policy towards the Ottoman Empire which was in contrast to that of the Government in England. During the period of office of the first Resident, Harford Jones, these changes were but dimly perceived through the fog of personal feuds which surrounded him. None the less these feuds did ultimately reflect significant divisions about policy.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , June 1967 , pp. 323 - 336
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1967

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References

1 The principal documentary sources for British relations with Iraq in this period are as follows. In the India Office Library the Bombay Political and Secret Proceedings (BPSP) contain the correspondence of the Residents at Basra and Baghdad. They should be supplemented by two other series, Factory Records Persia and the Persian Gulf (FRP) and Secret Letters Received (Various) (SLV), which contain the Residents' letters to the authorities in London. The Foreign Office documents in the Public Record Office, FO 78, Turkey, are disappointing for Baghdād. The ambassadors reported only a small part of their correspondence with the Residents. Few of the collections of private papers of English statesmen of this period contain any reference to Baghdād. One of the most important sources, however, consists of the papers of that inveterate correspondent, Sir Harford Jones Brydges, the first Resident at Baghdād. These papers are in the National Library of Wales in the Kentchurch Court (KC) and Boultibrooke Collections. Of the published sources few of the contemporary European travellers throw any light on the subject of this paper. Jones himself, in his Brief history of the Wahauby, London, 1834, relies too much on a failing memory. A list of these sources may be found in S. H. Longrigg, Four centuries of modern Iraq, Oxford, 1925, 327–45.

2 For the early relations of the EIC with Iraq see Précis, containing information in regard to the first connection of the Honourable East India Company with Turkish Arabia, Calcutta, 1874.

3 Jones to James Willis (pte.), 9 Jan. 1803, KC, 9214.

4 Manesty: Writer, November 1779; Assistant at Baṣra, 1781; Resident at Baṣra, 1784–1810.

5 Manesty to Secret Committee, 28 Aug. 1796, SLV, 8.

6 G. N. Crow to F. Warden, 31 Mar. 1806, BPSP, Range 382, Vol. 17, Cons. 11 Apr. 1806, 3125.

7 Manesty to Court of Directors, 2 Jan. 1796, SLV, 8.

8 Jones to Manesty, 24 May 1795, SLV, 8.

9 Manesty to SC, 28 Aug. 1796, SLV, 8.

10 Crow to Warden, 31 Mar. 1806, BPSP, 382/17, Cons. 11 Apr. 1806, 3125; Crow to C of D. 25 Sept. 1796, SLV, 8.

11 Manesty to SC, 28 Aug. 1796, SLV, 8.

12 Jones to Willis (pte.), 31 Dec. 1802, KC, 9214.

13 Jones to Manesty (pte.), 15 Mar. 1799, KC, 9211.

14 Wm. Ramsay to Jones, 5 July 1798, BPSP, 380/73, Cons. 20 Nov. 1798, 4240.

15 According to Jones the original proposal was to send him to the Red Sea with Blankett. He implies that the Baghdād position was his own suggestion. This would be consistent both with Manesty's charges that Jones had solicited the position and with the subsequent lack of interest in Baghdād. See Jones, Wahauby, 177–8.

16 SC to Sulayman Pasha, 6 July 1798, Board's Drafts of Secret Letters to India (BDSLI), Series 1, Vol. 2.

17 Dundas to Sulaymān Pasha, 4 July 1798, BPSP, 380/73, Cons. 20 Nov. 1798, 4244.

18 Jones to Dundas, 1 July 1798, FRP, 23.

19 Jones to Dundas, 24 Aug. 1798, FO 78/20; Smith to Grenville, 28 Aug. 1798, FO 78/19; Jones to Willis (pte.), 1 Aug. 1800, KC, 9212.

20 Smith to Grenville, 25 Mar. 1799, Dropmore papers, iv, 507.

21 Jones to Jonathan Duncan (pte.), 13 Feb. 1799, KC, 9211.

22 Duncan, memo., 13 Dec. 1805, BPSP, 382/10, Cons. 13 Dec. 1805, 5151.

23 Jones to Willis (pte.), 11 May 1800, KC, 9212.

24 Jones to Willis (pte.), 17 Sept. 1801, KC, 9213.

25 e.g. Jones to Willis (pte.), 14 Feb. 1799, KC, 9211.

28 Jones to Griffith (pte.), 22 Oct. 1798, KC, 9211.

27 Jones to Willis (pte.), 29 Nov. 1802, KC, 9214.

28 Jones to Bosanquet, 13 Oct. 1798, SLV, 6.

28 Jones to Willis (pte.), 15 Jan. 1800, KC, 9212.

30 Jones to Peter Tooke (pte.), 16 Mar. 1804, KC, 9214.

31 Jones to Willis (pte.), 14 Feb. 1799, KC, 9211; Jones to Willis (pte.), 15 Jan. 1800,1 Aug. 1800, KC, 9212; Jones to Inglis (pte.), 28 July 1802, KC, 9214.

32 Jones to Elgin (pte.), 20 Apr. 1800, KC, 9212; Jones t o Duncan (pte.), 20 Apr. 1801, KC, 9213; Jones to Duncan, 31 Aug. 1805, BPSP, 382/9, Cons. 12 Nov. 1805, 4158. For Rousseau's projects see Prospectus d'une compagnie de commerce. … FBP, 23, and his Description du Pachalic de Bagdat, Paris, 1809, 13–14.

33 John Raymond, memo., 10 Oct. 1804, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 371.

34 Jones to David Scott, 21 Nov. 1801, SLV, 6.

35 Jones to Inglis, n.d., c. 1799, KC, 8379; Jones to Willis (pte.), 22 June 1800, KC, 9212; Jones to Alexander Straton 24 Apr. 1804, SLV, 6.

36 Jones to Duncan, 19 Oct. 1798, BPSP, 380/73, Cons. 23 Nov. 1798, 4379.

37 Jones to Elgin, 8 Oct. 1799, FRP, 23; Jones to Tooke (pte.), 28 Nov. 1798, KC, 9211.

39 Jones to Elgin (pte.). 20 Apr. 1800, BM Add. MS 13707, f. 350.

39 Jones to Duncan (pte.), 16 June 1801, KC, 9213.

40 Sulaymān Pasha to Manesty, reed. 2 Aug. 1801, FRP, 20; Jones to Scott, 10 Aug. 1801, SLV, 6.

41 Jones to Elgin (pte.), 21 June 1801, KC, 9213.

42 Jones to Duncan (pte.), 16 June 1801, KC, 9213.

43 Manesty to Jones, 27 Sept. 1804, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 423.

44 Jones to Scott, 21 Sept. 1801, 21 Nov. 1801, SLV, 6. Duncan, however, believed that ‘a question of this National moment’ should be decided either by the Secret Committee, or the Governor-General, or the Ambassador in Istanbul (Duncan to SC, 14 Feb. 1802, Bombay Secret Letters, Series 2, Vol 1, 471).

45 Sulaymān Agha to Re'īs Efendi, FO 78/32, f. 143; Elgin to Hawkesbury, No 88 of 6 July 1801, FO 78/32, f. 139; Jones to Elgin (pte.), 21 June 1801, KC, 9213; Jones to Willis (pte.), 26 June 1801, KC, 9213.

46 Elgin to Jones, 3 Aug. 1801, FO 78/32.

47 Jones to Willis (pte.), 17 Sept. 1801, KC, 9213.

48 Jones to Tooke (pte.), 25 July 1801; Jones to Duncan (pte.), 10 Sept. 1801, KC, 9213.

49 Jones to Roberts, 23 Sept. 1802, SLV, 6: Jones to Wellesley, Précis, 30; Raymond, memo., 10 Dec. 1804, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 371; Osborne, memo., n.d., BPSP, 382/18, Cons. 20 May 1806, 4236. The Janissary Agba later abandoned support for 'Abdullāh Agha. In Wahauby, 206, Jones says that the Janissary Agha requested Jones's help to make himself Pasha.

50 For the Babik affair in general see Jones to Duncan, 27 Sept. 1804 and enclosures, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 390; Jones to Duncan, 24 Nov. 1804, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 444; Jones to Duncan (pte.), 25 Nov. 1804, Boultibrooke, 4905E.

51 Jones to Inglis (pte.). 22 July 1805, Boultibrooke, 4905E.

52 Jones to Willis (pte.), 9 Feb. 1804, KC, 9214.

53 Manesty to Elgin, 25 Apr. 1803. See full collection of documents in FRP, 20, numbered 2222 and 2223.

54 Manesty to SC, 16 Sept. 1803, SLV, 9. See also Jones to Roberts, 28 May 1803, SLV, 6; Jones to Duncan (pte.), 19 June 1803, KC, 9214.

55 Jones to Duncan (pte.), 9 Oct. 1804, Boultibrooke, 4905E; Jones to Duncan, 28 Sept. 1804. 11 Oct. 1804, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 420 a nd 428.

56 Jones to Straton, 1 Oct. 1804, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 426. Osborne, memo., n.d., BPSP, 382/18, Cons. 20 May 1806, 4236.

57 Jones to Bombay, 27 July 1805, BPSP, 382/9, Cons. 12 Nov. 1805, 4177.

58 Jones to Grant, 5 Oct. 1805, SLV, 6; Jones to Duncan, 9 Oct. 1805, BPSP, 382/10, Cons. 13 Dec. 1805, 5159.

59 Arbuthnot to Jones, 11 Sept. 1805, BPSP, 382/11, Cons. 17 Dec. 1805, 5311; Arbuthnot to Jones, 16 Nov. 1805, BPSP, 382/14, Cons. 7 Feb. 1806, 696.

60 Jones to Duncan (pte.), 6 Sept. 1805, Boultibrooke, 4905E.

61 Hoskins, H. L., British routes to India, New York, 1928, 21, is too preoccupied with the Egyptian route and vastly understates the importance of the communication routes through Syria and Iraq during this period.Google Scholar

62 Jones to C of D, 13 July 1799, FRP, 23.

63 Duncan to Jones, 15 Feb. 1800, FRP, 23.

64 Tooke to Barker, 7 Feb. 1805, BPSP, 382/5, Cons. 3 May 1805, 1367.

65 Elgin to Grenville, No 20 of 28 Dec. 1799, FO 78/24 and enclosures.

66 Jones, memo., 28 Mar. 1805, BPSP, 382/6, Cons. 21 June 1805, 2009.

67 Tooke to Barker, 7 Feb. 1805, BPSP, 382/5, Cons. 3 May 1805, 1367.

68 Jones to C of D, 13 July 1799, FRP, 23.

69 Jones to Duncan, 15 Feb. 1805, BPSP, 382/6, Cons. 21 June 1805, 2002.

70 Jones to Duncan, 24 Nov. 1804, BPSP, 382/3, Cons. 9 Feb. 1805, 401; Jones to Duncan, 9 Oct. 1805, BPSP, 382/10, 13 Dec. 1805, 5159

71 Jones to Straton, 14 Jan. 1805, BPSP, 382/5, Cons. 13 Apr. 1805, 1127.

72 Jones to Bombay, 31 Aug. 1805, BPSP, 382/9, Cons. 12 Nov. 1805, 4158.

73 Jones, memo., 10 Oct. 1800, FRP, 23; Jones to Mills, 26 Mar. 1802, SLV, 6.

74 Edmonstone to Bombay, 21 Jan. 1806, see Osborne, memo., n.d., BPSP, 382/18, Cons. 20 May 1806, 4236.

75 G-G in C to G in C, 3 Apr. 1806, BPSP, 382/18, Cons. 20 May 1806, 4333.

76 Warden to Browne, 17 May 1806, BPSP, 382/18, Cons. 20 May 1806, 4328.

77 See G in C to G-G in C, 17 May 1806, BPSP, 382/18, Cons. 20 May 1806, 4336.

78 Alexander, C. M.. Baghdad in bygone days, London, 1928, 26–8, 39–40, 69–70.Google Scholar