Indian Antiquary Vol 57

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 89

APRIL, 1928)
NICOLAO MANUCHY'S WILL AND TESTAMENT
This will was so made, dictated and nominated by the testator in question to the above Secretary, who in the presence of the witnesses read and re-read this present testament, which he said he had heard well and wished to be executed according to its form and tenor.
Leaving aside any other testament and codicil which he might have made with his own hand, he wishes only this to have effect; made and passed at Fort Louis in Pondicherry in the office of the above Secretary in the year 1712, the eighteenth day of January in the forenoon in the presence of Mr. François Moufle Ecuyer Delafosse, Lieutenant d'infanterie and Pierre Elyer de la Vaupalier, clerk of the above Royal Company of France at Pondicherry, who are the witnesses called by the testator. The testator and the witnesses have given their signatures along with me, the above Secretary ;
Signed : NICOLAO MANUCHY. Signed : MOUFLE DELAFOSSE. Signed : ELYER DE LA VAUPALIER.
Signed : DELORME. Address of Nicolao Manuchy's relatives. His two brothers, 'Andre and George Manouchy. His two maiden sisters Angella and Francisca. A third one who he is not sure is alive, Perine.
Residing at the quarters of St. Jean, Evangelist St., Stin, Venice. Note.-This information about his family address has been found in a bit of paper attached to the present testament. I have found this testament among the notarial records of Pondicherry. The paper has become yellow and is so dotted with holes here and there that two or three words cannot be deciphered.
According to the will of the testator, he wished to die at Pondicherry and be buried there, but he lived long after making his testament, as is evidenced by the following events. No one is sure of the date of his death. Several have assigned it to the years 1711-1712, but they are quite wrong.
Mr. H. Dodwell, ex-curator of old Records, Madras, now professor in the School of Oriental Studies in the University of London, says in the preface to his book Records of Fort St. George, Minutes of Proceedings in the Mayor's Court of Madraspatam (June to December 1689 and July 1716 to March 1719)"........ A still more interesting person who appears here, is Dr. Manuch,' with his characteristic suit against a Moorman' to recover winnings at Back-gammon. The date of the suit shows moreover that the time of Manucci's death must be assigned to a later period than Mr. Irvine supposed."
Mr. Julian James Cotton, I.C.S., in his work List of Inscriptions on Tombs or Monuments in Madras, page 3, No. 8 (6th October 1683) says. "Clarke's widow married the Venetian Nicolao Manucci, who died at San Thome about 1709, aged 74. Manucci lived in Madras from 1686 till his death."
It cannot be that he died in 1709, as he was alive in 1712 and made his will on the 18th January of the same year. Again it is said that he died at San Thome. But there is no proof of any tomb having been built there for him. I have gone through the notarial Records from 1712, the date of the above will, to 1725, five years after the first appearance of his second will and codicil of the 18th January 1719 (dated Madras). I have not found any record about the date of his death and bequests. After the discovery of his second will I made sure he was alive in the year 1719.
Miss L. M. Anstey in her article ; "More about Nicolao Manucci" (Indian Antiquary, March 1920, pages 52, 53) says: “On January 14, 1712, the president of (Madras).... ... informed the Board that special order had come to Pondicherry calling for Manucci's attendance at Shah Alam's court (then at Lahor) ........"
However the Emperor Muazzam Bahadur Shah, the first, alias Shah Alam the first, died at Lahore on February 27. Mr. Manucci lived then surely at Pondicherry, for it is there