#MB38
1780
Folio (ca. 30,5x20 cm). 2 pp. Brown ink in secretarial hand on ‘R. Williams’ laid paper, numbered and docketed on verso. Signed ‘Bates’, ‘Jonas Hanway’, ‘J. Slade’. Fold marks, slightly trimmed on the upper and lower margins, otherwise a very good document.
Interesting document illustrating the posterior career of a renowned British traveller Jonas Hanway. He is most famous for his travel to Persia and Russia in 1743-45 which he undertook in order “to sell English broadcloth for Persian silk and to evaluate the potential of trade with Persia, then ruled by the last great steppe conqueror, Shah Nadir Kuli Khan (1688–1747). […] Hanway was robbed on the way to Persia, by the rebellious Khars on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and was rescued by merchant colleagues. […] He was later partially compensated by Nadir Shah, who desired cordial relations with the British in order to enlist British artisans to construct a Persian navy for the Caspian. […] In 1753 he published the description of his adventures “An Historical Account of the British Trade over the Caspian Sea” (4 vols., 1753), the most original entertaining of all his books” (Oxford DNB).
Our document relates to Hanway’s activities as the chairman of the Marine Society (which he founded in 1756) and the Commissioner for victualling the British navy, the latter post he held for almost 20 years (1762-1783). The official paper of the Victualling Board orders to pay to a certain Wilkinson, the owner of a ship engaged in supplying British ships at the Caribbean Theatre of the American War of Independence (1775-1783). The document is signed by two other members of the board, Joah Bates (ca. 1741-1799) and John Slade (d. 1801).
