Description
Given by Colonel Michael Melvill
Papers of:
i. Philip Melvill (1796-1882) an officer in the Bengal Army from 1815. Military Secretary to the East India Company in London from 1837. 1819-31.
ii. Papers of Philip Melvill, nephew of the above, Calcutta and Lahore 1843-52.
1 box, 1843-52.
- ‘The sporting diary of an officer of the Honourable East India Company, 1819-31’. TS copy, bound. (Original in Melvill’s own papers.)
Xerox copies
- 10 April 1803. Letter from Philip Melvill to Charles Grant, M.P., requesting a post in the newly ford seminary for cadets of the East India Company; reference to be given by Sir David Baird.
- Letter from Charles Grant to Lt. Gen. Sir D. Baird, K.C., n.d. but postmark 13 June 1807, saying that there would be an opportunity for his protégé, young Melvill, at India House, and he was to go for an interview.
- Letter from Philip Melvill to his father, Sir James Cosmo Melvill, 19 January 1844 from Calcutta, about the battles of Maharajahpore and Punniar on 29 December 1843; description of Lord Ellenborough and his ladies watching the battle on elephants; criticism of Lord Ellenborough’s actions, and the war; figures of casualties given; further criticism of Lord Ellenborough and his relationship with the Court; Melvill’s prospects.
- Letter from Philip Melvill to his father, 26 July 1852, from Lahore, about his grievance against the Governors of the East India Company who over-rode a report he made.
- Persian or Urdu inscription on gold spattered paper.
- A translation of the petition of Almas Ali Cawn who was lately seized upon and put to death for political purposes in India. n.d.
