MRP: Sir George Oxenden

"You haveing for the tyme past truely made your life a kinde of a pilgrimage

you have seene many of the great wonders of the Great God, ocularly, which wee
have onely by contemplation, and in that I (that have never beene out of my

native countrey) have taken great pleasure" ( Robert Raworth to Sir George Oxenden, April 9th, 1663)

Sir George Oxenden, engraving, 1668

As president of the English East India company in Surat between 1663 and 1669, Sir George Oxenden left a private correspondence with his sister, Elizabeth Dallison, and with other kin, close friends, and commercial partners. The correspondence, now in the British Library, provides a starting point from which to explore their lives.

Bound in still bright red Indian leather, the volumes are the work of Oxenden’s copyists, his factory writers, rather than autograph manuscripts. The communication is largely one way, with Oxenden’s own voice often to be inferred from the tone and substance of his correspondents.

A careful reading of the correspondence reveals the existence of two connected joint stock companies formed in in the decade prior to Oxenden’s presidency by Sir George Oxenden and five former colleagues from Surat. Two slightly divergent lists of subscribers to the two ventures were subsequently discovered by this author in the National Archives in Chancery papers related to the ventures.

In 1655 the English East India company was in disarray, its monopoly had expired, and the eastern markets were up for grabs. Yet, the ventures have little visibility in the historiography, and are the subject of only a brief footnote by Sir William Foster.

See Smirna Venture Joint Stock subscriber list
See King Fernandez subscriber list

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Suggested links

See biographical profile of Sir James Oxenden (father of Sir George Oxenden)
See biographical profile of Elizabeth Dallison (favourite sister and London agent of Sir George Oxenden)
See biographical profile of Sir Henry Oxenden (eldest brother of Sir George Oxenden)

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Primary sources

BL, IOR/H/MISC/32 Various letters relating to the Williams Venture
BL, MSS. XXXXX, Letter from Robert Raworth to Sir George Oxenden, Gray's Inn, 9th April 1663, ff. 106-107
BL, Add. MSS. 40708-40713, The Oxenden papers, vols. XIII-XVIII

TNA, C10/109/102 (1663)
TNA, C10/82/2 (1664)

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Secondary sources

William Foster (ed.), XXXX, citing Home Miscellaneous, vol. 26, 10 June 165[8?] (fol. 5)

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Images

'Sir George Oxenden, 1668', unnumbered plate, between pp. 40 & 41, in Cecil L. Burns, Catalogue of the Collection of Maps, Prints and Photographs of the Island & City of Bombay, Victoria & Albert Museum (Bombay, 1918). No artist, technical details, nor provenance given.

Image credits

'Sir George Oxenden, 1668', unnumbered plate, between pp. 40 & 41, in Cecil L. Burns, Catalogue of the Collection of Maps, Prints and Photographs of the Island & City of Bombay, Victoria & Albert Museum (Bombay, 1918). Book and image are out of copyright.