British Stockbroker Provides "troops and slaves" to East India Company. Fascinating!

In this deed, Daniel H. D. Burr and his siblings convey to stockbroker William Morgan the interest of their father in a debt owed to him by Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar. The debt had been secured by a lien on Farquhar's claim against the East India Company for goods and services that he provided in the 1790s.

Specifically, Farquhar claimed that he had not been paid for "two parcels of provisions supplied by him to the Troops and Slaves" of the East India Company. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the East India Company relied on slave labor and acquired slaves from both West and East Africa, especially Mozambique and Madagascar. The Company also had its own army, numbering approximately 200,000 in 1800, or more than twice the size of the British Army at the time. It used its armed forces to subdue Indian and Indonesian states and principalities and its slaves to build internal improvements to support its trade.

[EAST INDIA COMPANY; SLAVERY.] William Morgan, Manuscript Document Signed, Deed of Debt of Robert Townsend Farquhar to Daniel Burr Conveyed by Burr's Heirs, March 30, 1841, [London?]. 6 pp., 28" x 23.5". On vellum; ribboned together and sealed with wax seals; some soiling; very good.

Excerpts

"This Indenture made the thirtieth day of March One thousand eight hundred and forty one Between Daniel Higford Davall Burr of Gayton in the County of Hereford Esquire of the first part The Reverend James Henry Scudmore Burr of Chepstow in the County of Monmouth Clerk Mary Burr of Chepstow aforesaid Spinster Frances Cornelia Burr of Chepstow aforesaid Spinster and James Phillipps of Bryngwyn in the County of Herford Esquire and Lucy Mary Ann his Wife of the second part and William Morgan of Popes Head Alley Cornhill in the City of London Stock Broker of the third part Whereas Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar late of Richmond Terrace Whitehall in the City of Westminster Baronet deceased in and for many years both before and after the year One thousand seven hundred and ninety six was engaged in the Civil Service of the East India Company and in the said year One thousand seven hundred and ninety six he was appointed by the said Company to be their Deputy Commercial Resident at Banda and subsequently their Chief Resident of Amboyna Banda and the Molucco Islands in the East Indies and then recently captured from the Dutch in the course of which said services and employment various accounts arose between the said Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar and the said Company which were never finally adjusted and the said Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar not being able to procure payment of the amount claimed by him from the said Company in the balance of such accounts he in the month of May One thousand eight hundred and twenty nine filed his Bill in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery...."

"And whereas the said East India Company the Defendants having duly appeared and put in their Answer to the said Bill the said Cause of Farquhar versus the East India Company came on for hearing before His Honor the then Master of the Rolls on or about the seventeenth day of February One thousand eight hundred and thirty whereupon it was decreed that it should be referred to the Master of the said Court in rotation to enquire and state to the court whether any thing and what was due to the said plaintiff Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar in respect of two parcels of provisions supplied by him to the Troops and Slaves of the said Defendants at the captured Dutch Settlements in the East Indies...."

"Now this Indenture witnesseth that in pursuance and par performance of the said arrangement and agreement and in consideration of the Covenants hereinafter contained on the part of the said William Morgan and in consideration of the premises and also for and in consideration of the sum of ten shillings of lawful money of Great Britain to every of them the said Daniel Higford Davall Burr and the said several parties hereto of the second part by the said William Morgan in hand well and truly paid at or before the sealing and delivery of these presents (the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged) He the said Daniel Higford Davall Burr as such sole acting Executor of the said Mary Burr deceased and as such sole legal personal Representative of the said Daniel Burr deceased with the privity and approbation of the several persons parties hereto of the second part (testified by their respectively executing these Presents) and also in respect of his the said Daniel Higford Davall Burr's right and interest therein...Hath granted bargained sold assigned Transferred and set over And by these presents Do and each and every of them Doth grant bargain sell assign transfer and set over unto the said William Morgan his executors administrators and assigns All that the said principal sum or debt of Three thousand pounds so as aforesaid due and owing from the Estate of the said Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar to the Estate of the said Daniel Burr deceased...."

Historical Background

Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar, Baronet, served as an agent of the East India Company in the Maluku Islands of modern Indonesia in the late eighteenth century. In 1829, Farquhar sued the East India Company in the High Court of Chancery to obtain a settlement of more than $19,000 still due to him. In 1825, Farquhar became indebted to Daniel Burr, a lieutenant general in the service of the East India Company, for the sum of £3,000. To settle this debt, Farquhar gave Burr a lien on his claim against the East India Company. Burr died before the claim was settled by the court of chancery. In his will, Burr left his entire estate to his wife Mary Burr during her life and directed that the estate be divided among his children thereafter.

As executrix of her husband's estate, Mary Burr filed a bill in the High Court of Chancery against Farquhar and the East India Company in 1828. When Farquhar died, Mary Burr filed a bill of revivor in 1830 against his executor to continue the suit. Mary Burr died in 1836, and the case remained unresolved, and Daniel Burr's estate was divided among their four children—Daniel, James, Mary, and Frances. There was also some provision for Lucy Mary Ann Phillips, Daniel Burr's only child by his first marriage. To make matters more complicated, Farquhar's executor died in 1836, and the other heirs of Farquhar declined to take charge of the execution of his will. In addition, Farquhar and after his death, his estate was indebted to William Morgan and other creditors.

Mary Burr's case against the executor of Farquhar's estate could not be revived by her heirs without an executor of Farquhar's estate. In this situation, Daniel H. D. Burr, as acting executor of Mary Burr's estate, reached an agreement with his siblings, his half-sister and her husband, and William Morgan as representatives of the creditors to settle the estate to have Morgan apply to become the executor of Farquhar's estate so that he could prosecute Farquhar's claim against the East India Company.

As part of the agreement, Daniel H. D. Burr, his siblings, and his half-sister and her husband deeded to William Morgan through this document the principal and interest on the £3,000 debt claimed by Farquhar against the East India Company. In exchange, Morgan gave each of them 10 shillings and agreed to pay one-third of the £3,000 debt that Farquhar owed to Daniel Burr, with interest since 1825, if he was able to prosecute Farquhar's claim against the East India Company successfully.

William Morgan was a stockbroker in London from at least 1828 to 1841.

Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar, 1st Baronet (1776-1830) was born in London to a Scottish apothecary and his wife. He began attending the Westminster School at the age of 11. He studied bookkeeping and joined the East India Company by 1795. In 1798, he served as Deputy Commercial Resident and Dutch Interpreter in Amboyna and Banda. From 1798 to 1802, he was the Commercial Resident for the East India Company at Amboyna and Banda. He gained a reputation as an efficient administrator and served as lieutenant governor of Penang in modern Malaysia in 1804 and 1805, after which he returned to England. In 1807, he published a plan for replacing African slaves with paid Chinese laborers. After failing to win election to Parliament or obtaining the governorship of Penang, he became interim administrator of Réunion and Mauritius from 1810 to 1811. He served as governor of Mauritius from 1811 to 1823, with a leave of absence from late 1817 to 1820. While governor there, he made significant efforts to end the East African slave trade. He was made a baronet in 1821. From 1825 to 1826, he served as a Member of Parliament for Newton and, from 1826 until his death, for Hythe in Kent. From 1826 until his death, he had served as a director of the East India Company, on and off by rotation.

Daniel Burr (1749-1828) was born in Essex and joined the East India Company in 1767 as a cadet. He rose to the ranks of ensign in 1768, lieutenant colonel in 1794, colonel in 1797, major general in 1805, and lieutenant general in 1815. As a captain, he held various commands in Genjam, Vellore, and Guntoor Circar. In 1797, he took command of the 10th Madras Native Infantry. While Robert Townsend Farquhar was Commercial Resident at Amboyna, Burr led an expedition against Ternate in the Maluku Islands. In 1804, he married Lucy Parry, but she died eighteen months later, leaving one daughter, Lucy Mary Anne Burr. In 1808, he married Mary Davis, with whom he had two sons and three daughters. In 1821, he published a brief autobiography in which he praises the "superior qualifications" of Robert Townsend Farquhar and refers to him as his "young friend."

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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