PBA Galleries

 2pp.+stampless address leaf. Autograph Letter Signed.To George [Fielder?], Duke Street, Grosvenor  Square, London. Docketed “Beasley, Fred. For Mr. Prince…”

Prince Sends a copy of a list he had received from India of bonded creditors of the “Argyle Estate” – a spice plantation founded in 1803 at Bencoolen on the island of Dutch Sumatra. The list of creditors as of 1823 included Sir Stamford Raffles, Robert Bogle, William Baskett and Francis Salmond. The bonds totaled nearly $23,000.

The famed British colonialist Stamford Raffles was Governor-General of Bencoolen, a British possession on Sumatra, until in 1825 it was ceded to the Netherlands - prompting Raffles to create the city-state of Singapore to provide a new trading port in the region. John Prince was an India merchant who had been Sub-Treasurer of Bencoolen under Raffles. Robert Bogle, the Plantation owner remained on Bencoolen after the British withdrawal, as did William Baskett, Tavern Keeper at Bencoolen and an Opium trader involved in “various shady deals, including the smuggling of slaves” after Raffles had outlawed slavery. Captain Francis Salmond, the Master Attendant at Bencoolen, was a close friend of Raffles. Frederick Beasley was apparently married into the Bogle family.