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."

Finick Bazar Street

The fact that the Fenwick Bazar Street exists was beyond doubt. I was positive that I had read it somewhere and even a plan of the New Market shows it running adjacent to the present-day compound. I thought I had a fair idea of where it is, but I just wanted some confirmation from the Street itself.

Fenwick's Bazar (I am yet to discover the origin of the name) used to be where the New Market is today. The New Market, of course, was built in 1874. We find some references to Fenwick's Bazar in reports through out the 19th century. It was probably demolished in favour of something more sanitised because, as I understand, it had acquired a reputation for being shabby and unclean. Fires in the area seem to have been quite common. The Asiatic Annual Register, for instance, notes in 1804 the incident of a Fire.

A fire, which at first excited considerable alarm, broke out on Saturday evening, in the neighbourhood of Fenwick's Bazar, Chouringhee. It originated, we here, [sic] from a bheesty, who was piping sorrow away, with a chillum of Bang; and carelessly laid the contents, after he had done, against a hut: however, before it could be subdued, upwards of one hundred straw and other houses, were reduced to ashes.

In November 1843 (I am not absolutely sure of the year) another conflagration commenced "at the bazar and huts immediately behind the Chowringhee-road. It was bounded on the South by Fenwick's buildings, on the north by the Jaun Bazar, on the west by the Ouchterlony monument, and on the east by Wellesly street." It appears that several hundred huts and houses were destroyed by this fire.

The 1828 map of Calcutta, prepared for the use of the Lottery Committee, surveyed by I. A. Schalch, with additions from the survey by Capt. J. Prinsep shows the Bazar. This is from a photograph I took of the map, which is there in the National Library:

It appears under controversial circumstances in a report in Allen's Indian Mail on February 24, 1873. It may be a reference to the area, not the market, and I am not at all certain of when the building was broken down. The New Market seems to have been inaugurated on January 1, 1874. The report may also have been from a different time, published on the said date. It appears that the Commissioner of Police at Calcutta, one Mr Wauchope, made a claim that "will seem to many a direct attack upon a pet article of our [British] moral creed." He argued against the notion that crime rates were directly related to presence of liquor shops, and indeed of liquor consumption. He furnishes a list of comparisons: Burra Bazar, which has 31 liquor shops has a lower crime rate compared to Colootollah, which has only 7. Colinga with 6, "has a criminal population as large in proportion as Fenwick Bazar with thirty-one shops of the same kind." He also claimed '[t]hat the most successful dacoit he ever knew "never tasted liquor"'. Is there a half-appreciative note in the way they say "most successful dacoit"?

A few days back, actually almost a week back, while I was waiting for an appointment with probably the only Churrack Sanyasi in town, I took it upon myself to find traces of the Street. I think it's a nice gesture to commemorate the Bazar with an underexposed street name. At first I couldn't see any of the houses or bigger shops which gave out their address as "Fenwick Bazar Street." There's a liquor shop right where the Street meets Lindsay Street, which gives the address as L. Lindsay Street. It could either mean 'lower' or 'little', and may actually be a legitimate street name also. I asked around a bit but no one seemed to know. May be it was a bad day for street name enthusiasts or the wise elderly. Closer inspection and a second semi-resigned walk revealed a couple of small shops which confessed to being located on the said street. They spelt it as 'Finick Bazar Street', which I later realized, is probably a transcription from Bengali of the pronunciation of 'Fenwick.'

Fenwick Bazar Street (facing Lindsay Street)