[Sir Charles William Rouse Boughton (1747-1821) and the East India Company]

[Sir Charles William Rouse Boughton (1747-1821) and the East India Company]

A collection of letter books, cash books and documents relating to Sir Charles William Rouse Boughton (1747-1821) during his career as an administrator for the East India Company, to include a diary for Charles William Boughton spanning 1770-1778 including his service as the Chief at Dacca (Dhaka) in 1775, small folio, original wrappers [often dealing with surveys of agricultural land, reports on local trade, taxation by the East India Company with detailed descriptions of travel and landscape, often interspersed with Persian writing and translations thereof [Persian was retained in India until 1835 as the language of official documents], also discussing local customs, festivals and manners. Several sketches of local rulers' family trees, descriptions of local flora, trees and crops

Four manuscript copy letter books, folio, marbled paper wrappers, 1771-1777, personal letters, as well as letters pertaining to East India Company business

Manuscript Abstract of Dacca Consultations, folio, marbled paper wrappers, March - December 1775, with index

Sheaf of manuscript copies of 'Letters written to Europe between August 1774 & July 1775', 4to, loose stitch bound gatherings, indexed to front

A collection of papers, large folio, ribbon bound in a neat scribal hand including 'Extract of Bengal Secret Consultations the 19th December 1783', various transcribed extract of letters, 'Notes of Reference to the Proceedings recited in the Statement of the Origin and Progress of the Disputes between the Nabob of Arcott and the Rajah of Fanjore 1749-1781; 'Particulars of Bengal Civil Charges 1775 & 1777' [1785]; 'Minutes of Council 3d Sept. 1781', 'Notes concerning the Nabobs Debts 1761-1785'; 'Report of Messrs. Croftes, Anderson & Bigle on the Revenue of Bengal ... 1778 ... to the Honble Warren Hastings Esq, Governor General at Fort William'; 'An Estimate of the Receipts and Payments from March 1787 to March 1790'; 'Settlement of the Revenues of Bahar for 1788-9' with two pages of 'Conjugation of a Verb active' in English and Persian'

[Manuscript maps] Cities along the Hooghly River, Map of area and rivers around Gopalpur and a further large map of 'Bhoosnah' and 'Kishen Nugger including a large section of the Ganges, noting forts and temples (3)

A stitch bound folder of papers, folio, manuscript wrappers entitled 'Indian Papers' containing printed extracts, a manuscript story of a Dacca woman whose husband had died and who insisted she be burnt on a pyre with him; several notes on Sanskrit language, three pages of notes on the 'Description of the Sun and Planets, taken from a Sanskrit Manuscript called Shanty Tuttawmirt (?), explained to me by Keul Ram Brisbut Bullacharge of Nuddeah', a small note on Chinese characters, a copy of a Firman of the Emperor Akbar respecting the Collection of certain Duties', 8vo, 12pp, Persian, annotated 'Inclosed in Mr Gladwin's Letter of Feb 1 1792'

Sir Charles William Rouse Boughton (1747-1821)

Sir Charles William Rouse Boughton (1747-1821) was a British colonial administrator in India with the East India Company. Boughton travelled to India as a writer in 1765 and held several judicial and administrative offices in the service of the Company. He was at various times a Persian interpreter [1768], senior merchant and a judge [Sadar Diwani Adalat, 1773]. Rouse Boughton served as chief at Dacca in 1775. During his time in India, he inherited an estate at Rous Lench, Worcestershire by the will of Thomas Phillips Rouse. In 1784 he was appointed Secretary to the Board of Control for India and held the post until 1791. He opposed the impeachment of Warren Hastings. In 1791 he published a lengthy Dissertation concerning the landed property of Bengal.