- 6
# - Jones, Sir Harford (later Sir Harford Jones Brydges).
Estimate
150,000 - 200,000 GBP
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Description
- His personal and official papers as East India Company factor at Basra, Resident at Baghdad and minister plenipotentiary to the Persian court, comprising over 3100 items and providing intricately detailed insights into trade and diplomacy in the Middle East from 1783 to 1811, and defensive networks raised against the Napoleonic threat
At the age of 19, Jones was posted to Basra in the service of the East India Company, to be assistant factor to the maverick Resident, Samuel Manesty. Apart from a few excursions to Bushehr and Schyras, he remained in the post for a decade (1783-1794). The papers from this first stage of Jones's career, mostly comprising letters to Jones from other East India Company agents in Bushehr, Baghdad, Aleppo, Cyprus and India (Fort St George, Calcutta, Bombay and Surat), reveal the minutiae of the Company's trade between India and the Persian Gulf ports.
Jones was allowed to supplement his modest Company pay by trading privately. Official transactions for the Company are interspersed with details of Jones's own business ventures. It appears that Jones jointly owned at least one vessel with Manesty; a significant portion of their business involved the transport of Company mail and the horse trade. The letters to Jones (supplemented by his own letterbooks for 1786 to 1791 and accounts) abound with references to the sale or purchase of horses, greyhounds, wine, saffron, morocco leather, tobacco, wheat, barley, seeds, carpets, silk, pewter, lanterns and shoes; more specialised transactions include "fifty white Lamb Skins (for Aprons)" for the Masonic Society at Bombay, sporting guns and dogs, and books, maps and "valuable Manuscripts". Diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls require specialist knowledge and their handling by novices can prove dangerous. In one of his numerous letters to Jones, Manesty cautions against buying diamonds in Persia, but advises him nevertheless that "Constantinople is the best market for them, and...Brilliant, Rose and Table Diamonds of the first Water, will all sell at handsome Prices...", and that the emeralds Jones is to purchase on their joint account must be "Table Emeralds, or...pairs of Emeralds of the Shape of Pears, for Ladies Earings, of the old mine, which in these Countries are called Suadee, quite clear, without flaw, of a medium Color, between light and dark Green...".
Jones's two letterbooks, containing copies of all his outgoing private and business correspondence between 1786 and 1791, reveal all the intricate details of commercial transactions within Basra and Persia, including deals brokered with local dignitaries. They also trace Jones's increasing familiarity with diplomatic manoeuvres on a local level and its effect on both his local influence and his trade. His continuous immersion in Middle Eastern life is further revealed by frequent references to the language and customs of the area, and to his de facto Armenian wife, Maria Goorjee, with whom he had three children.
During Jones's various excursions to Persia, he and Jones exchanged extensive reports on any signs of unrest which might affect their trade, including, for example, the Montifick Arabs' rebellion against the Turkish government in Basra in 1787, the movements of the army of the Shah Jafar Khan and the aftermath of his murder in 1789. News of war and insurrection elsewhere reached Jones through his expanding network of contacts in other trading posts, particularly in India. The Third Anglo-Mysore War of the British against Tipu Sultan was at its height during Jones's last few years in Basra. The military setbacks suffered by the ineffectual governor of Madras, Sir William Medows, and the decisive intervention by Lord Cornwallis in Mysore are a recurring subject for Jones's correspondents.
Following a dispute between Manesty and the Jewish community of Basra (about which frequent references are made in his correspondence with Jones), both he and Jones received a suspension order from the Company. Although Manesty was to return to Basra to continue as Resident, Jones returned to England in 1794.
The influence and wealth of local knowledge Jones had acquired in Basra prepared him well for his next appointment: Resident in Baghdad from 1798 to 1804. The main object of the Residency was to help counteract the French threat to India via the Red Sea or Persian Gulf. Jones was expected to gather intelligence, exchange information with the government in Bombay and the Secret Committee of the East India Company, and use his influence at the court of Baghdad to persuade the Pasha of the dangers of a French invasion and benefits of an alliance with the East India Company. In Jones's own words, recorded in his letterbook: "...India one day or other will be fought for on the Banks of the Tigris or Euphrates; and the Victory most probably will rest with the Enemy or us, according as this Government shall be managed by us in the Interim – Depend on it...the French Minister at the Porte will be the most powerful Minister there – withdraw this Residency and give a French Agent three Years uncontrolled operation here, supported by his Minister at Constantinople, and you may afterwards whistle for any real political influence or importance with this Government...God forbid this Residency should be withdrawn, until we see more clearly what is to become of the Turkish Empire; and to what points France shall extend her ambition...".
Jones's letterbooks for the period, together with letters by other important East India Company agents and diplomats, document the numerous quarrels that beset his Baghdad appointment. Samuel Manesty, still Resident at Basra and deeply resentful of his former assistant's new post, refused to acknowledge his position, intrigued with the Pasha against him, and denounced him to the Secret Committee as ineffectual. The beleaguered Jones, feeling that he was playing "the part of a Scene Shifter in this Comedy", was not even sure under whose authority he operated. In 1801 he proposed that he should be a Consul General, answerable only to the government in London and independent of the Ambassador at Constantinople, then Lord Elgin; the distribution of consular beraats, for example, should be in the hands of the Consul General at Baghdad "and not sold at Constantinople for the emolument of the Ambassador – they must be given to the people, bona fide in employ...". Elgin's letters to Jones, in fact, skirt diplomatic issues and discuss mostly the procurement of antiquities, pearls, turquoises and rubies, fine Arabian horses and Persian carpets. In one letter he asks Jones's opinion on procuring firmans (he was to use a firman from the Porte to justify the removal of the Elgin Marbles).
Jones's most frequent correspondents also include the governor at Bombay, Jonathan Duncan, James Willis (writing from India House), Peter Tooke (the Company's agent at Constantinople), Spencer Smith (Elgin's predecessor), John Barker (consul at Aleppo), Sir John Malcolm (envoy to the Persian court), Sir Hugh Inglis and Henry Dundas, as well as his wife Sarah. Their letters (and Jones's replies, copied in his letterbooks) cover all the main concerns relating to Jones's appointment, most notably: news of the progress of war against the French in Egypt, Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean, the triumphs of Nelson, and the Treaty of Amiens; the changing nature of Jones's role after the retreat of the French from Syria and the consequences of a possible break-up of the Ottoman Empire; military support for the Pasha; the growing power of the Wahabee; intrigues at court (including Jones's plans to replace the Pasha's influential French doctor, the spreading of rumours regarding Jones's relationship with a Muslim woman and discriminatory measures taken against him); the death of the Pasha and its repercussions; trade (mostly the state of the pearl and diamond markets, the supply to India of Turkish copper, and the sale of shawls, jewels and wine; also including a long report by Jones for Sir John Malcolm about Persian trade); diplomatic appointments (including the reception of Sir John Malcolm at Teheran and elaborate preparations for his reception at Baghdad); plague epidemics and experiments in vaccination; other scientific investigations (including a letter by the James Rennell with detailed geographical enquiries); the collection of antiquities and manuscripts; hawking and shooting; the conveyance of mail from Europe to India (and the relative merits of the Baghdad and Aleppo routes) and cyphering methods; and news from India (mainly the fall of Seringapatam and defeat of Tipu Sultan). Long letters from Jones's wife include news of their children's progress, including that of his two illegitimate daughters. News of his son by Maria Goojee reaches Jones from other quarters, mainly Manesty, who accuses him of neglecting his familial duties.
Following several disagreements with Ali Pasha, culminating in house arrest, Jones was recalled from Baghdad in 1806. The next year he was appointed envoy-extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Fat'h Ali, the Shah of Persia. This appointment was made in the light of growing French influence in Tehran, as Jones explained in a position paper ("...Let England once settle a Peace between Persia and Russia, let her Envoy conduct himself with common prudence and the downfall of the French interest at Tahran must follow of course...") He arrived in Tehran in 1809 and was quickly able to negotiate a treaty in which the Shah agreed to prevent any attempted incursion into India via Persia in return for financial and military assistance. His retained copies or drafts of despatches to George Canning, Lord Wellesley, Robert Dundas, and others provide much detail about the diplomatic context of his mission, possible trade links via Trebizond, Persian military strength, political stability, resources, her strategic significance to Britain, the possibility of the East India Company acquiring an island in the Persian Gulf, the actions of the French agent Iouannin, and wider regional intelligence.
Following the agreement of a preliminary Anglo-Persian treaty, the Shah sent an envoy, Mirza Abdul Hassan, to London. He was accompanied by Jones's secretary, James Morier, who wrote more than thirty letters to Jones providing a highly detailed account of this mission, Mirza Abdul Hassan's reception in England ("... he was received at Plymouth with a guard of honour, salutes were fired ... nothing pleases him – He wants to be admitted immediately to the King, but all the reasoning in the world, viz. Old established forms, the King's age & Infirmities, nothing will convince him that his King's name is not slighted..."), as well as news of English opinion about Jones's mission – including that "Smirke is making an admirable painting of your presentation to the Shah: you will be mightily pleased with it" (3 January 1810).
In relation to Persian domestic affairs, Jones and the British took a keen interest in the Shah's heir apparent, the reform-minded crown prince Abbas Mirza; one of Jones's closest contacts in Persia was Mirza Bozurg, one of the prince's ministers. He also received a constant stream of intelligence from various locations in Persia especially from the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr, where the Company had a permanent trading post. The collection includes letters in Farsi and translations of many firmans and other Persian documents. The correspondence also reveals that Jones was involved in the sale to the Shah of the legendary 36 carat "Hornby diamond".
There is considerable correspondence concerning the ongoing Russo-Persian war, primarily conducted by Abbas Mirza from his own capital at Tabriz, including official letters reporting battles intercepted correspondence, and letters by Baron Wrede, the Russian diplomat. Britain had a number of military observers detached to the Persian army and their letters to Jones provide a detailed picture of affairs in the north of the country, as they report skirmishes, defensive work on the Aras river, British assistance in the casting of artillery, mapping in Azerbaijan, and news of the prince ("...he sent each of us this morning a basket of roses and an invitation to visit him – he received us as usual very kindly, and we remained with him about half an hour – the conversation was all about Troops and Kalas...")
Jones's mission was strongly opposed by the Governor General of India, the Earl of Minto, both because such involvement in Persia ran counter to his view of Indian frontier policy, and because his favoured emissary to the Shah was another man – General Sir John Malcolm. This tension generated voluminous correspondence (although only a part of Minto's side of the correspondence appears to have survived): the retained copies of Jones's letters show him repeatedly defending his actions ("... If I have ever understood the Objects of England in Persia – one of them was the Expulsion of the French – it has been done, and in such a manner as I venture yet to believe Your Excellency will think creditable to us – a second was Peace – it has been maintained – another of them was Alliance – it has been effected...", 24 April 1809), while Minto's letters show his increasing anger at Jones including, in January 1809, a peremptory order "to quit the Court and territory of Persia in whatever predicament this letter may find you". There is also considerable correspondence between Jones and Malcolm, who was sent by Minto as an envoy to Tehran in 1808 and again in 1810 – when Jones was actually in residence – which shows the uneasy relationship between the two men.
Jones was also in regular correspondence with other British diplomatic missions, especially at the Ottoman court. A richly detailed series of letters by Robert Adair, British Ambassador to the Sublime Porte until 1810, and thereafter by his replacement Stratford Canning, partially in cipher, provides news from Istanbul including the peace treaty between Britain and the Sublime Porte (1809), the actions of the Persian diplomats in Istanbul and especially Asker Kahn (previously Persian Ambassador to Paris), Persian politics ("... the whole proceedings of [the Shah's] Government towards you, are false and deceitful from the beginning to the end..."), intelligence from Russia, and of the European war. Jones's other contacts in Turkey included David Morier, who travelled widely throughout turkey and wrote colourful letters about his adventures (including references to other travellers such as Hester Stanhope), his father Isaac.
Jones had regular intelligence from Baghdad through his network of contacts established through his years in the East India Company. Changes of government and bloody disorder were reported in a series of thirty letters by John Hine ("...Ali Pacha is no more. You will recollect our prediction, that God would not permit a man so fond of spilling human blood to die quietly in his bed not has he permitted Ali, for he was assassinated on the 18th Ultimo in the midst of his people, and whilst in the act of prostrating himself at the morning prayer. This affair was planned and executed by five or six of the late Suliman Pacha's Georgians...", September 25, 1807). Hine also reported information about the new Company resident in the city, the writer Claudius James Rich – his collecting habits, eccentricities, relationship with Pasha – and in time Rich himself became a regular correspondent.
Jones left Persia in 1811, but the ship carrying his property was wrecked near the Isle of Wight resulting in the loss, among other things, of "Books and Persian Manuscripts" and "Public Dispatches". His contacts in Persia continued to write with news of Sir Gore Ouseley, the new ambassador, and in the summer of 1811 he received news from a number of correspondents that the Persian army had won a victory over the Russians in which horse artillery supplied by Jones had played a central role: according to Mirza Bozourg, "It is by your means that the Prince and all Persia have been made happy". Nevertheless, Jones soon resigned from the East India Company and never enjoyed another diplomatic posting, although the small quantity of later material shows that he maintained a close interest in the affairs of the region.
These papers offer a panoramic vision of the customs, trade, and diplomatic and military upheavals in the Middle East from 1783 to 1811.
Jones was allowed to supplement his modest Company pay by trading privately. Official transactions for the Company are interspersed with details of Jones's own business ventures. It appears that Jones jointly owned at least one vessel with Manesty; a significant portion of their business involved the transport of Company mail and the horse trade. The letters to Jones (supplemented by his own letterbooks for 1786 to 1791 and accounts) abound with references to the sale or purchase of horses, greyhounds, wine, saffron, morocco leather, tobacco, wheat, barley, seeds, carpets, silk, pewter, lanterns and shoes; more specialised transactions include "fifty white Lamb Skins (for Aprons)" for the Masonic Society at Bombay, sporting guns and dogs, and books, maps and "valuable Manuscripts". Diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls require specialist knowledge and their handling by novices can prove dangerous. In one of his numerous letters to Jones, Manesty cautions against buying diamonds in Persia, but advises him nevertheless that "Constantinople is the best market for them, and...Brilliant, Rose and Table Diamonds of the first Water, will all sell at handsome Prices...", and that the emeralds Jones is to purchase on their joint account must be "Table Emeralds, or...pairs of Emeralds of the Shape of Pears, for Ladies Earings, of the old mine, which in these Countries are called Suadee, quite clear, without flaw, of a medium Color, between light and dark Green...".
Jones's two letterbooks, containing copies of all his outgoing private and business correspondence between 1786 and 1791, reveal all the intricate details of commercial transactions within Basra and Persia, including deals brokered with local dignitaries. They also trace Jones's increasing familiarity with diplomatic manoeuvres on a local level and its effect on both his local influence and his trade. His continuous immersion in Middle Eastern life is further revealed by frequent references to the language and customs of the area, and to his de facto Armenian wife, Maria Goorjee, with whom he had three children.
During Jones's various excursions to Persia, he and Jones exchanged extensive reports on any signs of unrest which might affect their trade, including, for example, the Montifick Arabs' rebellion against the Turkish government in Basra in 1787, the movements of the army of the Shah Jafar Khan and the aftermath of his murder in 1789. News of war and insurrection elsewhere reached Jones through his expanding network of contacts in other trading posts, particularly in India. The Third Anglo-Mysore War of the British against Tipu Sultan was at its height during Jones's last few years in Basra. The military setbacks suffered by the ineffectual governor of Madras, Sir William Medows, and the decisive intervention by Lord Cornwallis in Mysore are a recurring subject for Jones's correspondents.
Following a dispute between Manesty and the Jewish community of Basra (about which frequent references are made in his correspondence with Jones), both he and Jones received a suspension order from the Company. Although Manesty was to return to Basra to continue as Resident, Jones returned to England in 1794.
The influence and wealth of local knowledge Jones had acquired in Basra prepared him well for his next appointment: Resident in Baghdad from 1798 to 1804. The main object of the Residency was to help counteract the French threat to India via the Red Sea or Persian Gulf. Jones was expected to gather intelligence, exchange information with the government in Bombay and the Secret Committee of the East India Company, and use his influence at the court of Baghdad to persuade the Pasha of the dangers of a French invasion and benefits of an alliance with the East India Company. In Jones's own words, recorded in his letterbook: "...India one day or other will be fought for on the Banks of the Tigris or Euphrates; and the Victory most probably will rest with the Enemy or us, according as this Government shall be managed by us in the Interim – Depend on it...the French Minister at the Porte will be the most powerful Minister there – withdraw this Residency and give a French Agent three Years uncontrolled operation here, supported by his Minister at Constantinople, and you may afterwards whistle for any real political influence or importance with this Government...God forbid this Residency should be withdrawn, until we see more clearly what is to become of the Turkish Empire; and to what points France shall extend her ambition...".
Jones's letterbooks for the period, together with letters by other important East India Company agents and diplomats, document the numerous quarrels that beset his Baghdad appointment. Samuel Manesty, still Resident at Basra and deeply resentful of his former assistant's new post, refused to acknowledge his position, intrigued with the Pasha against him, and denounced him to the Secret Committee as ineffectual. The beleaguered Jones, feeling that he was playing "the part of a Scene Shifter in this Comedy", was not even sure under whose authority he operated. In 1801 he proposed that he should be a Consul General, answerable only to the government in London and independent of the Ambassador at Constantinople, then Lord Elgin; the distribution of consular beraats, for example, should be in the hands of the Consul General at Baghdad "and not sold at Constantinople for the emolument of the Ambassador – they must be given to the people, bona fide in employ...". Elgin's letters to Jones, in fact, skirt diplomatic issues and discuss mostly the procurement of antiquities, pearls, turquoises and rubies, fine Arabian horses and Persian carpets. In one letter he asks Jones's opinion on procuring firmans (he was to use a firman from the Porte to justify the removal of the Elgin Marbles).
Jones's most frequent correspondents also include the governor at Bombay, Jonathan Duncan, James Willis (writing from India House), Peter Tooke (the Company's agent at Constantinople), Spencer Smith (Elgin's predecessor), John Barker (consul at Aleppo), Sir John Malcolm (envoy to the Persian court), Sir Hugh Inglis and Henry Dundas, as well as his wife Sarah. Their letters (and Jones's replies, copied in his letterbooks) cover all the main concerns relating to Jones's appointment, most notably: news of the progress of war against the French in Egypt, Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean, the triumphs of Nelson, and the Treaty of Amiens; the changing nature of Jones's role after the retreat of the French from Syria and the consequences of a possible break-up of the Ottoman Empire; military support for the Pasha; the growing power of the Wahabee; intrigues at court (including Jones's plans to replace the Pasha's influential French doctor, the spreading of rumours regarding Jones's relationship with a Muslim woman and discriminatory measures taken against him); the death of the Pasha and its repercussions; trade (mostly the state of the pearl and diamond markets, the supply to India of Turkish copper, and the sale of shawls, jewels and wine; also including a long report by Jones for Sir John Malcolm about Persian trade); diplomatic appointments (including the reception of Sir John Malcolm at Teheran and elaborate preparations for his reception at Baghdad); plague epidemics and experiments in vaccination; other scientific investigations (including a letter by the James Rennell with detailed geographical enquiries); the collection of antiquities and manuscripts; hawking and shooting; the conveyance of mail from Europe to India (and the relative merits of the Baghdad and Aleppo routes) and cyphering methods; and news from India (mainly the fall of Seringapatam and defeat of Tipu Sultan). Long letters from Jones's wife include news of their children's progress, including that of his two illegitimate daughters. News of his son by Maria Goojee reaches Jones from other quarters, mainly Manesty, who accuses him of neglecting his familial duties.
Following several disagreements with Ali Pasha, culminating in house arrest, Jones was recalled from Baghdad in 1806. The next year he was appointed envoy-extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Fat'h Ali, the Shah of Persia. This appointment was made in the light of growing French influence in Tehran, as Jones explained in a position paper ("...Let England once settle a Peace between Persia and Russia, let her Envoy conduct himself with common prudence and the downfall of the French interest at Tahran must follow of course...") He arrived in Tehran in 1809 and was quickly able to negotiate a treaty in which the Shah agreed to prevent any attempted incursion into India via Persia in return for financial and military assistance. His retained copies or drafts of despatches to George Canning, Lord Wellesley, Robert Dundas, and others provide much detail about the diplomatic context of his mission, possible trade links via Trebizond, Persian military strength, political stability, resources, her strategic significance to Britain, the possibility of the East India Company acquiring an island in the Persian Gulf, the actions of the French agent Iouannin, and wider regional intelligence.
Following the agreement of a preliminary Anglo-Persian treaty, the Shah sent an envoy, Mirza Abdul Hassan, to London. He was accompanied by Jones's secretary, James Morier, who wrote more than thirty letters to Jones providing a highly detailed account of this mission, Mirza Abdul Hassan's reception in England ("... he was received at Plymouth with a guard of honour, salutes were fired ... nothing pleases him – He wants to be admitted immediately to the King, but all the reasoning in the world, viz. Old established forms, the King's age & Infirmities, nothing will convince him that his King's name is not slighted..."), as well as news of English opinion about Jones's mission – including that "Smirke is making an admirable painting of your presentation to the Shah: you will be mightily pleased with it" (3 January 1810).
In relation to Persian domestic affairs, Jones and the British took a keen interest in the Shah's heir apparent, the reform-minded crown prince Abbas Mirza; one of Jones's closest contacts in Persia was Mirza Bozurg, one of the prince's ministers. He also received a constant stream of intelligence from various locations in Persia especially from the Persian Gulf port of Bushehr, where the Company had a permanent trading post. The collection includes letters in Farsi and translations of many firmans and other Persian documents. The correspondence also reveals that Jones was involved in the sale to the Shah of the legendary 36 carat "Hornby diamond".
There is considerable correspondence concerning the ongoing Russo-Persian war, primarily conducted by Abbas Mirza from his own capital at Tabriz, including official letters reporting battles intercepted correspondence, and letters by Baron Wrede, the Russian diplomat. Britain had a number of military observers detached to the Persian army and their letters to Jones provide a detailed picture of affairs in the north of the country, as they report skirmishes, defensive work on the Aras river, British assistance in the casting of artillery, mapping in Azerbaijan, and news of the prince ("...he sent each of us this morning a basket of roses and an invitation to visit him – he received us as usual very kindly, and we remained with him about half an hour – the conversation was all about Troops and Kalas...")
Jones's mission was strongly opposed by the Governor General of India, the Earl of Minto, both because such involvement in Persia ran counter to his view of Indian frontier policy, and because his favoured emissary to the Shah was another man – General Sir John Malcolm. This tension generated voluminous correspondence (although only a part of Minto's side of the correspondence appears to have survived): the retained copies of Jones's letters show him repeatedly defending his actions ("... If I have ever understood the Objects of England in Persia – one of them was the Expulsion of the French – it has been done, and in such a manner as I venture yet to believe Your Excellency will think creditable to us – a second was Peace – it has been maintained – another of them was Alliance – it has been effected...", 24 April 1809), while Minto's letters show his increasing anger at Jones including, in January 1809, a peremptory order "to quit the Court and territory of Persia in whatever predicament this letter may find you". There is also considerable correspondence between Jones and Malcolm, who was sent by Minto as an envoy to Tehran in 1808 and again in 1810 – when Jones was actually in residence – which shows the uneasy relationship between the two men.
Jones was also in regular correspondence with other British diplomatic missions, especially at the Ottoman court. A richly detailed series of letters by Robert Adair, British Ambassador to the Sublime Porte until 1810, and thereafter by his replacement Stratford Canning, partially in cipher, provides news from Istanbul including the peace treaty between Britain and the Sublime Porte (1809), the actions of the Persian diplomats in Istanbul and especially Asker Kahn (previously Persian Ambassador to Paris), Persian politics ("... the whole proceedings of [the Shah's] Government towards you, are false and deceitful from the beginning to the end..."), intelligence from Russia, and of the European war. Jones's other contacts in Turkey included David Morier, who travelled widely throughout turkey and wrote colourful letters about his adventures (including references to other travellers such as Hester Stanhope), his father Isaac.
Jones had regular intelligence from Baghdad through his network of contacts established through his years in the East India Company. Changes of government and bloody disorder were reported in a series of thirty letters by John Hine ("...Ali Pacha is no more. You will recollect our prediction, that God would not permit a man so fond of spilling human blood to die quietly in his bed not has he permitted Ali, for he was assassinated on the 18th Ultimo in the midst of his people, and whilst in the act of prostrating himself at the morning prayer. This affair was planned and executed by five or six of the late Suliman Pacha's Georgians...", September 25, 1807). Hine also reported information about the new Company resident in the city, the writer Claudius James Rich – his collecting habits, eccentricities, relationship with Pasha – and in time Rich himself became a regular correspondent.
Jones left Persia in 1811, but the ship carrying his property was wrecked near the Isle of Wight resulting in the loss, among other things, of "Books and Persian Manuscripts" and "Public Dispatches". His contacts in Persia continued to write with news of Sir Gore Ouseley, the new ambassador, and in the summer of 1811 he received news from a number of correspondents that the Persian army had won a victory over the Russians in which horse artillery supplied by Jones had played a central role: according to Mirza Bozourg, "It is by your means that the Prince and all Persia have been made happy". Nevertheless, Jones soon resigned from the East India Company and never enjoyed another diplomatic posting, although the small quantity of later material shows that he maintained a close interest in the affairs of the region.
These papers offer a panoramic vision of the customs, trade, and diplomatic and military upheavals in the Middle East from 1783 to 1811.
Provenance
Sir Harford Jones Brydges; thence to his daughter Mary, who married James Lucy Scudamore of Kentchurch Court; thence by descent
Condition
Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The Harford Jones papers relate almost exclusively to his three postings: East India Company assistant and factor at Basra (1783–94); East India Company president in Baghdad (1798–1806); and British envoy-extraordinary and minister-plenipotentiary to the court of Persia (1807-11). The archive comprises correspondence, letterbooks and personal papers, and numbers in total approximately 3150 items housed in 10 archive boxes (each 5 x 11 x 18 inches/13 x 28 x 46 cm) with one outsize item (Jones's grant of baronetcy in its original case).
The archive includes six letterbooks containing copies of Jones's outgoing correspondence from 28 May 1786 to 28 March 1804 and therefore covering most of his first two postings in the Middle East. An account book also survives, containing details of the monthly disbursements of the Baghdad Residency from January 1801 to April 1803. The remaining items consist mostly of letters addressed to Jones. Approximately 2250 of them relate to his work at Basra and Baghdad, and 850 to his mission to Persia. This latter part of the collection is not, however, complete, as a portion of Jones's papers was lost on his return journey when the Pomona, carrying much of his property, was wrecked. Although the bulk of the archive is in English, there are over 160 items in Arabic, Armenian, and Persian.
The principal correspondents, each of whose letters amount to at least 20, include:
Samuel Manesty, Resident at Basra (c.240 letters, 1787-1811)
James Willis, Chief Assistant Examiner at East India House (1798-1805)
Sarah Jones, Harford Jones's wife (c.110 letters, 1798-1805)
Peter Tooke, East India Company agent in Constantinople (c.110 letters, 1798-1804)
John Barker, consul at Aleppo (1799-1806)
John Hine, Jones's successor as East India Company Resident in Baghdad (1806-1811)
John Spencer Smith, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, Robert Adair and Stratford Canning, consecutively Ambassadors to the Sublime Porte (1799-1811)
Jonathan Duncan, Governor of Bombay (1798-1809)
Sir John Malcolm (1800-1811)
Isaac, David, and James Morier (1807-1811)
There are also numerous letters by other East India Company agents, factors and residents writing from various posts in the Middle East and India and c.70 letters by several military observers with the Persian army during Jones's last mission. The collection also includes retained copies or drafts of important official correspondence, including with the Earl of Minto, Governor General in India (103 retained copies of letters by Jones to Minto and 13 letters by Minto, 1808-1810), Robert Dundas, President of the Board of Control for India (21 retained copies by Jones and letters by Dundas to both Jones and to Persian ministers), and the Foreign Secretary George Canning (27 retained copies of letters by Jones and two letters by Canning, 1807-9).
Jones himself wrote an account of his Persian mission, An account of his majesty's mission to the court of Persia in the years 1807–11 (1834), but there is no modern book-length study of Harford Jones or his missions to the Middle East. This archive is a rich resource with much untapped research potential. It has been on deposit for many years successively at the National Library of Wales and Hereford County Record Office.
There are minor nicks and tears to many letters. Just over four hundred items have been affected by damp; conservation work has been carried out but in some cases the ink is faded.
A detailed calendar of the entire collection is available upon request.