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SEPTEMBER, 1921]
THE SCATTERGOODS AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
THE SCATTERGOODS AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, 1619-1723.
A COLLECTION OF MSS. COMMUNICATED BY
BERNARD P. SCATTERGOOD, M.A., F.S.A. Edited and supplemented from contemporary records by Sir Richard Temple, Bt.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE EDITOR, [I am indebted to the generosity of Mr. Bernard P. Scattergood for the use of a series of papers discovered by him and of high value to students of Anglo-Indian history in the 17th and 18th centuries. Mr. Scattergood has occupied many years in collecting a mass of information regarding the Scattergoods, from the earliest times to the present day, and he has compiled elaborate pedigrees of the different branches of the family. While following up the details of a lawsuit in which the executors of John Scattergood, East India Merchant, were concerned, two large bundles of papers, each containing several parcels, were disinterred at the Public Record Office. These have been examined, classified and transcribed, under Mr. Scattergood's direction, by Miss Dorothy Shilton and Mr. Richard Holworthy, and the whole of the documents relating to India and the East have been placed at my disposal. The letters, journals, and accounts comprised in the bundles throw valuable light upon the methods of trade in India, Persia and China, and on the lives of Englishmen under the Company's jurisdiction in those regions during the last half of the 17th and first half of the 18th century
The papers forming the collection unearthed at the Public Record Office were the property of John Scattergood, the last of the name who had direct connection with the East India Company. For information regarding his predecessors, servants of, or shareholders in, the Company, ample material exists among the records at the India Office and in Mr. Scattergood's voluminous notes. It is thus possible to present, in chronological order, the lives of five members of the Scattergood family in so far as they were connected with India and the East India Company. I propose to divide these papers into five sections as follows:I. Anthony Scattergood and his connection with the East India Company at
home, 1619. II. Francis Scattergood of Ellaston, co. Staffs, and his service with the East
India Company abroad, 1640-1647. III. Roger Scattergood of Ellaston and London, Merchant-Tavlor. and his com
mercial dealings with the East India Company at home, 1659-1679. IV. John Scattergood, Merchant and servant of the East India Company,
his career in Madras and Bengal, 1672-1681. V. John Scattergood junior, Free Merchant, his life in India, Persia and China
1697-1723, including (1) Journal of an expedition from Isfahan to Gombroon (Bandar 'Abbâs)
in 1708, with account of expenditure. (2) Descriptions of the islands of Junkceylon (Malay Peninsula) and
Divi (near Masulipatam), c. 1715. (3) Correspondence with the Company's servants and others in India, China
and England, 1711-1723. (4) Accounts, commercial and shipping transactions, miscellaneous papers,
documents in Gujarati, Armenian, Chinese, Portuguese, &c.
