Description

Given by Miss H. Reid and Captain P.H.S. Reid

1 box and 2 microfilms (nos. 19 and 20)

Box 1

• Notes made while revenue officer 5 June 1815-27 March 1832, by H.S. Reid. There are almost daily notes of amounts collected and other information in various places; Laidabad, Sadabad, Mandour, Merrowlee, Mahrana, Maah, Agra, etc.; condition of crops; weather; and amounts collected in other years.
• Envelope containing two sheets with family trees of the Stuarts.
• Bundle of papers containing: bond of indemnity on change of sureties of Captain William Bell, 13 March 1833; trust deeds of James, John and Charles Stuart, 1813, 1819, 1833.
• Bundle containing correspondence between William Bell and Mr. Denton about borrowing money, September and December 1836.
• Bundle of letters regarding Mary Stuart and her finances, including cost of travelling to India, 1831-36; also Mary Stuart’s marriage settlement to William Bell, undated.
• Bundle containing inventory and sale of William Bell’s effects after his death dated 10 January 1837; other papers regarding his estate and its settlement; correspondence with the Military Board with regard to the children and their return to England; copy of the regimental regulations governing officers’ debts; other demands for settlement to the executor J.F.M. Reid including settlement of the insurance policy. 1837-38.
• Aftermath of the death of Bell: letters regarding travelling expenses; letters from the Military Board to the Governor-General of India in Council, George Lord Auckland, 23 December 1836; the reply; statement regarding children, dates of birth etc; letter from Colonel James Salmond, Military Secretary to the Hon. the Court of Directors of the East India Company, London; petition for Bell’s sons, 15 November 1836; John Bell’s letter about his nephews to Mr. Reid, 25 February 1837; passage money for the family; letters about debts. 1837-47.
• Papers connected with farm in Hobart, Tasmania, which Bell owned; settlement of account with Messrs. Learmouth. 1833-39.
• Collection of bills sent to J.F.M. Reid, Bell’s executor, for settlement after Bell’s death.
• Collection of miscellaneous bills collected presumably by Bell before his death: many of them from Indian dealers, and mostly for household requirements.
• Territorial Department Contingent Bills, Nos. 1, 2 and 4, 1835-36; Territorial Department Final Account current of the late Captain W. Bell 1 November – 21 December 1836.
• Current account book for the Bank of Bengal, belonging to Captain William Bell, 19 April 1836-7 January 1838; cheque stubs for cheques of the Bank of Bengal, 11 December 1837 – 31 January 1838.
• Letter from Captain P.H.S. Reid’s father describing the attempted assassination of the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge on 23 December 1912. Xerox copy.
• Contemporary mutiny letter from I.W. Sherer, Bengal Civil Service, to Cecil Beadon, B.C.S., describing the mutiny and the massacre at Cawnpore. 17 July 1857. Xerox copy.
• Printed statement by Cecil Beadon about his conduct during the mutiny, defending an imputation on his personal courage made by the Editor, in the Friend of India, 31 May 1866. Xerox copy.

Microfilm No. 19

• ‘A history of India’, by H.S. Reid. MSS. Divided into lectures. History begins in 1677, continues with the arrival of the British and founding of the East India Company; details of the history of the company; Black Hole of Calcutta; Clive; the Mahratta war; history of the East India Company etc.

Microfilm No. 20

• Commonplace book kept by Reid, 15 December 1846 – January 1848. Contains notes of daily temperature and weather; horse racing; sketches; poems; lists of books; details of journeys taken, with mileages and places stayed at; lists of letters written; duties of assistant magistrates; genealogical lists and dates of births and deaths etc.