Archive / Papers / Jameson Papers

Description

Lent by Mr. A. St. Clair Jameson

Microfilm and Small Collections Box 14

Microfilm No. 34

  1. Journal of a voyage to Bombay, 29 December 1819 – 30 April 1820 kept by John St Clair Jameson.
    • Detailed journal of the voyage, of the distance run, weather, position, sailing techniques taken from log-book, etc.; plan of table, food and the band, sick-lists, fancy-dress party; crossing the line ceremony; how he passes the time in reading, writing, arithmetic, in practising stenography and learning Hindustani; birds sighted and caught or killed; how he manages his clothes; employed in the boat by boatswain etc.; two babies baptized; soldiers and seamen flogged; cadets begin drill; method of preserving milk; illnesses and remedies – portable soup; sketches of native craft off Bombay; arrive Bombay; sketches of the harbour; description of Bombay ‘a beautiful place’; the Pringles go to stay with Mr. Elphinstone, the Governor; details of procedure of a cadet’s arrival in Bombay; signs on in front of Adjutant General etc.; rents a house; arrangements for being attached to a regiment in the Deccan; social life; clothes; what to bring out and the money to be made in trade; death of rich Parsee ‘only man who attended the Governor’s functions’; his calling; call on Sir Charles Colville, Commander of the Forces, and Lt. Col. Hunter Blair; breakfast with the Governor; more calling; buys camp equipment; gets orders to join lst Battalion 10th Regiment at Poona; buys house; invited to dine with the Governor; dancing afterwards; thirty-six to dinner amongst them Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras; indents for equipment. Journal ends 25 May 1820 just as he is about to leave for Poona.
  2. Letter from James Jameson, uncle of the above, written at Pont de Galle, 28 September 1806, reporting the capture of the Fame on a voyage from Bombay to Bengal, by the French frigate La Piedmontuze.

Additional material donated by Dr Douglas Gourlay.

Small Collections Box 14

Annotated letters and diary of Captain James Jameson giving considerable detail of travels out to India in 1811 and 1819-20. The TS copies of the letters are accompanied by Dr Gourlay’s research into the history of the Jameson family and the lives and careers of the protagonists, with references, illustrations and commentary. 58pp.