East India Company 'Vellore Garrison Orderly Book', 1785-9 Manuscript, 234 ff., on thick laid paper, 46.5 x 29cm, tables at rear ('General monthly return of the Honourable Company's troops in the garrison of Vellore and its dependancies [sic]'), contemporary ownership inscriptions including 'Lieut P. Grant, fort adjutant, Vellore' (possibly jocular) to rear free endpaper, contemporary 'native' leather binding, concentric foliate and fillet rolls to covers in blind, remains of manuscript paper label to front, binding heavily worn, loss to spine, section of leather coming loose on rear cover, variable browning and damp-staining, a few small worm-holes in first leaf (incorporating title) and to lower margins of a sequence of later leaves

Note: An early and substantial document providing a comprehensive official account of activity at a major HEIC garrison. A stronghold of the Madras presidency, Vellore was first taken by the British in 1768 and unsuccessfully besieged by Hyder Ali during the Second Anglo-Mysore War. After the British victory in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War in 1799 the family of Tipu Sultan were detained there. The mutiny of the sepoy contingent in 1806, though quickly suppressed, shocked the imperial hierarchy and led to the recall of both governor of the Madras presidency William Bentinck and local commander-in-chief John Cradock. Provenance: By family repute sometime in the possession of Robert Taylor (1751-1805), Edinburgh-born East India Company merchant and father of the noted colonial officer, also Robert (1788-1852), and thence by descent. Sold with copied research.