Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 383

MARCH, 1933]
THE SCATTERGOODS AND THE EAST INDIA COMPANY
213
Several letters addressed to Scattergood from London in 1720 did not reach Madras until after he had once again sailed for China. His mother Elizabeth Trenchfield, his daughter Betty, his step-sister Anne Trenchfield, his uncle Peter Radcliffe and his friend Anne Wigmore all supplied him with family news and one and all complained either of the non-receipt or of the difficulty of " clearing " the presents sent them. On this head Scattergood's mother remarked :
"The presents you mention to have sent me from China I thank you for, but I desire you'l not give your selt the trouble of sending anything more, because I have not got any one of these sent last year, being either lost or stole; besides the trouble of danceing after them is greater than the things aro worth. Yet if you doe send me anything let it be only a pa. betteeles (beathila, veiling) or a pot of tea which may be bought in and cleard out of [the] Companys warehouse."
William Phipps, who was impatiently awaiting preferment by the Company, wrote of his prospects and the Ostend trade.
[110] Dear Sir,
Yours under the 8th November from Canton(') I received with the present you sent my wife by Mr. Massey() for which I return you thanks. The tea he delivered me was very ordinary,(3) but I think it very extraordinary with those sort of gentry to be guilty of no worse then exchanging their bad for better.
I have wrote you and Mr. Harris joyntly by the China ships, duplicate of which send you now, beleiving it may reach you before you depart Madrass. I was in hopes by these ships to have writ you for certain relating to my going abroad this year, but cannot any otherwise then, as I believe if I do, it will be to succeed Mr. Boone at Bombay.(4)
The Act of Parliament past last Sessions to prevent the English engageing in the Ostend India trade(5) you will find to be of little purpose, severall being now bound out to India from thence, encouraged by Mr. Tobin's voyage of 200 per cent,() who is againe going with two ships the same way.
My wife desires that the muslin you send her may be yard and half wide. Mr. Legg is married to Mrs. Benyon.(') I heartily wish you health and speedy success.
[Signed] WILLIAM PHIPPS. London the 14th January 1719-20. [Endorsed] Received per Duke of Cambridge the 4th July.
[Notas ON DOCUMENT No. 110.) (1) Soo p. 203 for a reference to this letter which was not reproduced in full.
(3) In Soattergood's letter of November 1719 he said that he was sending his gifts by Mr. Robert Aynsworth (a mistake for Rowland Aynsworth), 3rd supercargo of the Sunderland. Charles Massey, who had commanded Beattergood's ship, the Elizabeth brigantine, probably also returned in the Sunderland, for we find him petitioning the Company in January 1721/2 (Court Book, vol. 49, p. 562) for the command of one of the three vessels building for the use of Bombay."
(8) Sonttergood had remarked in his letter that the tea ho was sending was "the best Congo tex I could procure."
( His hopes were fulfilled. He became Governor of Bombay, in succession to Charles Boone, at the end of the year.