Updates, or Filling a Few Gaps

I found a significant entry on Fenwick (about whom I had expressed curiosity earlier) in Samir Raychowdhury's Shābek Kolkatar Rastar Itihash (Kolkata: Puja Foundation, 1997).

Edward Fenwick was a fortune-hunter. After arriving in Calcutta in 1764 he found employment as a clerk with the Company. The following year he was sent to Midnapur. What he got embroiled in exactly is unknown, but for one reason or another, within a couple of years he was removed from the Treasury to the Secretary’s Office. In 1768 he was accused of passing on classified information to Mr. Bolt. Bolt wrote a book based on these facts. The allegation caused him to be sacked (Fort William and India House Letters, Vol. 5, 1767-69). After a fairly long period of joblessness he was re-employed in May 1772. His monthly salary was Rs 5. But the very next year he lost his job again. The few years of his life that can be marked off as happy were between 1775 and 1782. During this period he was a member of the Revenue Board and he was in charge of some logistics in the court of law. He was getting a salary of Rs 800 per month. Following this he joined the Provincial Council as the third member, and he was later promoted to the highest possible post in Dinajpur. He did not spend much time in Dinajpur. He was transferred to Calcutta. It was during this stay that he made his acquaintance with William Hickey. (My translation.)

The entry goes on to quote in Bangla translation from Hickey's memoirs, to which we can come later. I am paraphrasing from the same book: It appears that the Company of Cotton and Mayer used to outsource some work to Hickey, who made great profit by it. Soon the company entered naval trade with China and Malay, having purchased three ships, and having made Hickey their guarantor. Hickey learnt soon after that one of the ships had been lost at sea to a tempest and that the duo was planning a furtive escape from India. He went to court and got the two arrested. He also withdrew his signature from the guarantor's bond. Poor Fenwick arrived as the saviour and took his place. Meanwhile the said duo did make their escape, leaving Fenwick in what can only be described as a pickle. He found himself behind bars. Fenwick may also have entered into business with the Nawab of Arcot.

It was with the profits he made from these enterprises, augmented by the Company funds, that he tried to set up the Bazar. He is also to be thanked for setting up the roads that lead up to the Bazar. He was dismissed by the Company on 17 April 1795. He rapidly lost all his wealth and was rendered utterly destitute. The Company took pity on him and started giving him a small pension. In 1812 it was discovered that he had utterly lost his sanity, and the Company gave him the whole salary he was entitled to. He did not live much long after and the exact date of his death is not known.

A rather sad story there.The following is an excerpt from Memoirs of William Hickey edited by Alfred Spencer:

A fête-champetre announced as to be given by Mr. Edward Fenwick, a gentleman high in the Civil Service, entirely engaged the public attention and conversation during the greater part of the month of May. It was intended to be celebrated at his country house, situated upon the banks of the river, in Garden Reach, about five miles from Calcutta, which thentofore had been the property and place of residence of my esteemed friends Mr. and Mrs. Lacam. The gardens were to be brilliantly illuminated with many thousand coloured lamps; an eminent operator in fireworks had been brought down from Lucknow to display his talents; the company to appear in fancy dresses, those that chose it to wear masks. Ranges of tents were fixed in different parts of the gardens, wherein tables were laid covered with all the dainties the best French cooks could produce, for the accommodation of three hundred persons, besides which every room in the house was stored with refreshments of every sort and kind; different bands of martial music were stationed in several parts of the gardens, and also in the house, with appropriate and distinct performers for the dancers. The last two miles of the road were lighted up with a double row of lamps on each side, making every object clear as day. In short, nothing could exceed the splendour of the preparations for this rural entertainment.

You may want to look up the rest of Hickey's account of how he had gotten drunk at a party earlier that evening, and how he reached Fenwick's party completely sloshed, after an accident or two.

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In other news, on my way to the West Bengal State Archives, I picked up from a College Street second-hand bookstore this Big Book with nice illustrations and photographs, titled Changing Visions, Lasting Images: Calcutta through 300 Years, edited by Pratapaditya Pal. There are several very interesting essays in the volume, including one on the Indo-American trade - which is something I am personally interested in because of my area of research. In an article by Siddhartha Ghosh, "Early Photography in Calcutta" I found a lovely photograph of the Sans Souci theatre (earlier mentioned). The caption reads: "The "Sans Souci" Theatre of Calcutta. c. 1840. Photo: Siddhartha Ghosh. The earliest known example of a daguerreotype picture taken in Calcutta, which has survived only as a reproduction."