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SEPTEMBER, 1011.)
G. BOUGHTON AND TRADING PRIVILEGES
253
From what I have gathered by searching into the rice and tenor npon which the
Honourable Company have had and held their priviledges, and how now it stands with
them, I shall note a few things as follows, viz. :1st That Shaw-Sajah, that first granted the English those priviledges they enjoyed, had by
his father the government and all the revenues of Bengall and Oriss given him, and therefore might bave (given 1] those priviledges as a right to the first English, but it
could last no longer then his time, 2. That the Emperour hath never given any phirmaund (a phirmaund is an edict or law)
but what is directed to the Governours at Suratt, the translate of which I have given
your Honour. 8. Yet notwithstanding in the time of the severall Nabobs and Daans we have had the
priviledges continued from time to time till anno 1682, with much strugling and
great bribes. A. That the Emperour hath given his order to the Duan that he shall take 35 per cent. of
the English, according as it is paid at Surrat, except we bring a rewanua that custom
is paid there. 5. That the Duan cann't dispence with the Kings order; and the said Duan that now
is, is a devout Musselman that will take no present to the value of a flower. 6. That customo hath been paid this 3 years according to Agent Hedges agreement with
the Nabob, that if a phirmaund could not be procured in 7 months then he should
pay it. 7. That the Dutch upon all occasions excite the Governoars to take custom of us, a!leadg
ing their case, whom they (as they say) bave as much reason to be free of custom
as the English, and yet pay 4 per cent. 8. That Mr. Vincent, and after him Captain Alley paying custome, and at last Mr. Davis
offering to pay 31 per cent., if they might have the Nabobs perwanna, which was granted in the name of the Ld. Lamly, was of great prejudic to the Honourable
Company in this affair. Since our present concern with this narrative is confined to its version of the Boughton legend, as current in Bengal about 1685, we sball say little or nothing regarding its other contents, except to note that they afford some grounds for thinking that the author was John Beard, who became Agent in Bengal in October, 1684, and died at Ilugli in the following August. Whoever he was, as regards the earlier part of the story he probably depended on hearsay, and in certain details bis information was demonstrably inaccurate. The opening date, for instance, is wrong. Andrew Cogan (here called Cockaine) was not Agent on the Coromandel Coast until the autumn of 1639; and it was in August, 1648, that the Hopewell (with Cogan on board) sailed from Madras for Bantam, where she arrived in the following November,
Assuming that, as our narrative declares, Boughton sailed with Cogan from Madras, the question arises whether he merely joined the ship at that place, or whether he had taken part in her earlier cruises. The former theory is more consonant with the text; but the entire absence of any reference in the extant records to his being employed on shore at Madras rather favours the view that he had been the ship's surgeon froin the start, though no trace of his appointment can be found in the home records of the Company. On this hypothesis, it will be of interest to note that the Hopewell sailed from the Down on the last day of 1641, with Andrew Trumball as her master, and Francis Day in charge of her cargo. She was bound for Fort St. George, and duly reached that
This must have been the nobleman who was created Baron Lamley (in the poorage of England) in 1681, Viscount Lumloy in 1680, and Earl of Scarbrough in 1890. He was probably a patron of the notorious interloper Alley, whose ship was named the Lumley Castle.
