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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(SEPTEMBER, 1921
Francis Scattergood left no heirs. His only son, whom he never saw, and of whose existence he probably never heard, was baptised on the 28th April 1641 and was buried five days later. His widow Elizabeth is apparently identical with the Elizabeth Scattergood who was married at Winwick, co. Northampton, on the 24th June 1652, of which parish her brother-in-law, Dr. Anthony Scattergood, mentioned above, was Rector.30
III. ROGER SCATTERGOOD OF ELLASTON AND LONDON, MERCHANT-TAYLOR : HIS COMMERCIAL
DEALINGS WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY, 1659-1680. Roger Scattergood, who was baptised at Ellaston on the 11th January 1623-4, was the Beventh son and eighth child of John Scattergood of Chadsden and Ellaston, co. Stafford, and therefore most probably a brother of Francis Scattergood noticed above (No. II).
He served his apprenticeship as a linendraper to Richard Arden of Newgate Market from 1641 to 1648, became a freoman of the Merchant Taylors Company in 1649 and a liveryman in 1655-6. Before the latter date he had married Catherine, 31 daughter of William Westby of Mowbrick, Lancashire, and was living in Newgate Market, near the prison.32
The first recorded mention of Roger Scattergood in connection with the East India Company is on the 29th July 1659 33 when he purchased goods at a Court of Sales to the value of £717-108., "to paie at 3: 6 months from primo September next." From 1659 until 1663 he continued to make large purchases at the Company's sales, the amounts, in round numbers being as follows : 34 1659-£ 2000
! 1661-£ 6000 1660-£3500
1662-£ 1300 Some of the names, by which the various kinds of piece-goods figurin gin Roger Scattergood's sale accounts were known, have been explained in Yule's Hobson-Jobson and Foster's English Factories. Others have not been traced to their source. I give below an alphabetical list of the goods and a summary of the information I have collected regarding each kind of material. Bafta. Pers. bafta, woven: any cloth. The trade name of the calicoes of Gujarât.
There are frequent mentions of baftas" in the Company's records from 1605 onwards. The term appears to have been extended and applied to various kinds and textures of cotton cloth; for besides fine quality Broach (Baroch) baftas," broad, narrow, white and coloured "bafts," "Synda" and "Caile Velha baftas," (bafta from Sindh and Old Kiyal, near Tuticorin) which appear among Roger Scattergood's purchases, we find "baftaes made of Guzzees (gazí, coarse cotton cloth)." Foster, Eng. Fact., 1646-1650, p. 82.
30 Information supplied by Mr. Scattergood.
31 She was the granddaughter of Richard Fleetwood of Penwortham, co. Lancs., through whcm she claimed a double Royal Descent, on the one side from Edward III, through Joan Beaufort and the Nevilles and the Stanleys, and on the other through the whole line of Welsh Kings back to Maelgwn Hir, the nephew of King Arthur..
32 Information supplied by Mr. Scattergood, who also informs me that Roger's sister-in-law, Dorothy Westby, married Christopher Birkhead, citizen and goldsmith of London (d. 1680), father of Christopher Birkhead, elected writer for Bengal in 1716, to whom John Scattergood junior (No. V) acted as mento on his first arrival in India.
33 Home Series, Miscellaneous, vol. 6 (India Office Records).
# These amounts have been arrived at by collecting the various entries in the sales lists contained in Home Series, Misc., vol. 6, and in the Court Minutes of the dates m above.
