Untold lives blog

A recent acquisition to the India Office Private Papers has now been catalogued and is available for researchers to view in the British Library’s Asian and African Studies reading room.  The collection consists of the papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Under-Secretary of State for India 1914-1915.

Sketch of Charles Roberts in the Westminster Gazette July 1923 Mss Eur F770/5/9 f.8

Charles Roberts was born on 22 August 1865, the son of the Rev Albert Roberts, Vicar of Tidebrook and Ellen Wace of Wadhurst.  He was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford.  He was also a fellow at Exeter College, Oxford and taught there from 1889 to 1895.  Roberts was involved in Liberal politics from an early age and tried unsuccessfully to be elected as a Liberal Party MP to the seats of Wednesbury in 1895 and Lincoln in 1900. 

House of Commons Voting Record for Roberts 1906 Mss Eur F770/2/1 f.1

His third attempt was successful, and he became Liberal MP for Lincoln in the 1906 general election, a seat he held until 1918.  He held a number of posts in government in that time, including Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Comptroller of the Household 1915-1916, Chairman of the National Health Insurance Joint Committee 1915-1916, and was a member of the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918.

Letter from Gandhi to Roberts about the Indian Volunteer Corps Mss Eur F770/1/23 f.32

The collection includes letters to Roberts while he was at the India Office, often relating to the routine work of the office, such as arranging meetings with visitors, requests for passes to the House of Commons and other Parliamentary business, but there are also fascinating letters from individuals requesting assistance.  Roberts was Under Secretary at the India Office at the outbreak of the First World War, and many of the letters he received dealt with military matters relating to the Indian Expeditionary Force and the hospitals for Indian soldiers.  There are also a few letters relating to Roberts’ other interests such as Liberal politics, Temperance matters, National Health Insurance and Indian constitutional reform.  Included are letters from prominent British politicians and leading Indian figures, such as Winston Churchill, H H Asquith, Edwin Samuel Montagu, Sir Charles Hardinge, Sir William Wedderburn, Gandhi, Bhupendra Nath Basu, Cornelia Sorabji, and Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar.

Notes by Roberts for his India Budget Speech 1914 Mss Eur F770/3/1

As a prominent politician and member of the Government, Roberts was often required to make speeches, such as his 1914 speech in the House of Commons on the India Budget, and some of his rough preparatory notes survive.  The collection contains his notes for speeches and talks he gave on a variety of subjects, such as education, Indian finance, Indian and the War, constitutional reform in India, Tibet, and the Liberal Party and liberalism.  The collection also includes many official papers from his time in government, including copies of private telegrams between the Secretary of State for India and the Viceroy of India, and copies of telegrams from Sir Percy Cox, Political Resident in the Persian Gulf, and the Resident at Aden.  There are papers on subjects such as the Excise Administration in India, Indian wheat exports, the response in India to British Government policy towards Turkey, and the Government of India policy on local self-government.  There is also a report on a deputation of members of the Indian National Congress who visited the India Office in May 1914, which included Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

Memo by Roberts on his meeting with the Indian National Congress Deputation May 1914 Mss Eur F770/2/9 f.17

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Papers of Charles Henry Roberts (1865-1959), Liberal Politician, Under Secretary of State for India 1914-1915, Mss Eur F770 – a paper catalogue of the contents is available to consult in the Asian and African Studies Reading Room.

Roberts' papers relating to the Montagu Delegation to India 1917-1918 and the Financial Relations Committee 1919-1920 can be found at Mss Eur F170 – a list for this collection can be found on The National Archives' Discovery catalogue.

The social issues publicised in two plays by John Galsworthy suggest he should be remembered for his philanthropy, not just for writing The Forsyte Saga.

The personal papers of John Galsworthy (1867-1933) have been acquired by the British Library and are now fully catalogued (Add MS 89733).  Although relatively unknown today, Galsworthy was a big name during his lifetime, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.

John Galsworthy by an unknown photographer, circa 1929 NPG x14353 © National Portrait Gallery, London CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

John did not write for fame and financial success, but realised his popularity gave him a platform to support causes close to his heart.  Galsworthy’s compassionate nature was reflected in the subjects he was inspired to write about.  Beyond the subtle satire of the acquisitive middle class in A Man of Property and the other Forsyte novels, it was John’s plays that most obviously brought social issues to the fore.

Annotated typescript of The Silver Box giving Jones’ response to his sentence - Add MS 89733/2/10 f. 126

In 1907 his debut play, The Silver Box, utilised Galsworthy’s legal training to highlight prejudices in the British justice system.  When an unemployed labourer, Jones, takes a cigarette box as well as a purse he knows was stolen by the son of an MP, the truth is suppressed to spare the young gentleman’s reputation.  In court the case partly rests on their drunken recollections of meeting in the early hours of the morning.  Although Jones cries: 'My word’s as good as yours', his physical defence of his wife when she was arrested combines with his social status to seal his fate.

Typescript draft of Galsworthy’s report on Separate Confinement - Add MS 89733/13/2 f. 35

Galsworthy was also concerned about the overuse of solitary confinement as a punishment in British prisons and therefore requested permission to visit and interview inmates.  He then wrote to contemporary politicians including Winston Churchill, published an open letter to the Home Secretary Herbert Gladstone, and wrote a new play Justice.  First staged in 1910, its success increased public pressure on the government and resulted in a legal limit on hours prisoners could be in solitary.

Manuscript of the script of Justice showing Galsworthy’s drawing of the protagonist’s cell - Add MS 89733/2/5 f. 125

These are just two of John’s early plays and represent only a part of the social topics covered by his dramatic output.  Strife brought an industrial dispute onto the London stage, Loyalties touched on British antisemitism, and A Family Man covered the changing role of women in society.  He also wrote poems and articles on behalf of a number of charities and worthy causes, including animal rights, women’s suffrage, and the rehabilitation of disabled servicemen.

Matthew Waters
Curator, Modern Archives & Manuscripts

The India Office Records and Private Papers, held at the British Library, contains many very interesting documents relating to M K Gandhi and the Indian Independence movement.  Among these is one letter which often attracts comment from visitors to the Library.  This is a letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, and dated 28 August 1931, just prior to his travelling to England to attend the Second Round Table Conference.

First page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

In the letter, Gandhi criticised the tactics of Government in recent negotiations: ‘This is to tell you how grieved I felt in Simla over what appeared to me to be your obstructive tactics.  I hope I am wrong in my fears and that you were not responsible for the exasperating situation that led to the waste of precious three days.  The securing of a constitution is nothing to me compared to the joy of discovering human contacts by which one could swear'. However, Gandhi was keen to reassure Emerson that he bore him no ill-will: ‘I shall soon forget the sad memories of the past three days and I know you will forgive me if I have unwittingly misjudged you'.  He went on to say that the future filled him with fear and misgivings and warned Emerson that if Government continued to distrust men such as Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, then an explosion would be almost unavoidable.  He continued: ‘You will most certainly avoid it by trusting them.  I think I know the influence you have.  May I assume your promise to use it right’.

Second page of letter from Gandhi to Herbert William Emerson, Secretary in the Home Department of the Government of India, 28 August 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

Gandhi ended the letter by saying that he had written freely in the exercise of a privilege of friendship and so hoped not to be misunderstood.  He then explained that ‘My right hand needing rest, I have to write with the left hand.  I could not dictate a personal letter like this’.  It might seem surprising to have such informal and friendly communication with government officials to whom he was so completely opposed.  However, a core component of Gandhi’s philosophy was that a free India must be based on a respect and love which encompassed everyone, even British officials.

Emerson's reply to Gandhi, 1 September 1931 IOR/R/3/1/289

Emerson replied to Gandhi on 1 September and commented: ‘I did not know you were ambidextrous.  May I congratulate you on the excellence of your left hand writing.  It is neater than I can achieve with the right hand’.  He thought it was hard to be accused of obstructive tactics, and assured Gandhi that the Government wished to keep the peace.

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Correspondence with and noting about Gandhi, 1922-1932, reference IOR/R/3/1/289.
Amar Kaur Jasbir Singh, Gandhi and Civil Disobedience. Documents in the India Office Records 1922-1946 (India Office Library and Records: London, 1980).

The National Lottery is celebrating its 30th anniversary.  To mark this occasion we look at one of the collections acquired with the help of National Lottery funding: the papers of Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Earl of Lytton, as Viceroy of India 1876-1880.

Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India. Grand Master of the Star of India, c. 1876. From J. Talboys Wheeler, The History of the Imperial Assemblage at Delhi (London, 1877). British Library shelfmark Photo 1054/(2). Images Online

Lytton was born in 1831, son of the writer Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.  Following his education at Harrow and the University of Bonn, he entered the diplomatic service in 1849.  He spent the first half of his career in various diplomatic posts around Europe and was serving as British Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon when he was appointed Viceroy of India in 1876 by the Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.  His term of office would be controversial entailing war in Afghanistan, famine in India and an attempt to tighten British control over the native press.  The collection includes letters from a wide range of people in India and England, as well as correspondence between Lytton and the Secretary of State for India, and British officials and politicians on matters relating to Indian government.  There are also letters to and from members of the British Royal family.

Map showing the frontier with Afghanistan 1880 - Mss Eur E218/126

Perhaps not surprisingly, a dominant subject of the papers in the collection is Afghanistan and the Second Anglo-Afghan war.  The rivalry between Britain and Russia in Central Asia, often referred to as the Great Game, was one of the defining aspects of British foreign policy in the mid-19th century.  Lytton had been given the task of securing an alliance with the Amir of Afghanistan Sher Ali Khan who was thought to be too pro-Russian, but on failing in this he opted to order an invasion instead.  The collection contains correspondence, minutes, reports, and notes on relations with the Amir of Afghanistan, future policy, and the frontiers of India, for example:
• Correspondence respecting relations with Afghanistan since the accession of Sher Ali Khan, Jul 1863 to Nov 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/123.
• Minutes and notes by the Viceroy relating to Afghanistan and the frontiers of India, 1876-1880, reference Mss Eur E218/125.
• Correspondence and other papers concerning the attack on the British Embassy at Kabul and subsequent military operations, Sep 1879 to Mar 1880, reference Mss Eur E218/127.

A statement on the Indian Famine of 1877 - Mss Eur E218/136

One of the most controversial aspects of Lytton’s time as Viceroy was his government’s response to the great famine of 1876-1878.  This was caused by drought leading to crop failure, affecting many parts of India, with the death toll estimated at between 6 and 10 million people.  The high mortality rate was in part blamed on the government’s minimal famine relief measures. The collection includes several files on the famine, such as:
• Volume of cuttings from Indian and newspapers concerning the famine, Jul 1877 to Feb 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/134.
• Volume of printed weather reports from each province and of rain telegrams sent to the Private Secretary's Office, Jul 1877 to Jan 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/135.
• The Indian Famine of 1877 being a statement of the measures proposed by the Government of India for the prevention and relief of famines in the future (1878), reference Mss Eur E218/136.

Minute by the Viceroy Lord Lytton on Afghanistan - Mss Eur E218/125

The collection also touches on other aspects of Indian government, such as Indian finances, new legislation, appointments to the Indian Civil Service, and includes two files on attempts to control Indian newspapers and publications:
• Papers concerning the Native Press and the 1878 Vernacular Press Act, 1858-1881, reference Mss Eur E218/146.
• Correspondence between the Secretary of State for India and the Government of India on the control of publications in Oriental languages, 1878, reference Mss Eur E218/147.

Weather Reports for Hyderabad July 1877 - Mss Eur E218/135

John O’Brien
India Office Records

Further Reading:
Papers of 1st Earl of Lytton as Viceroy of India 1876-1880, collection reference Mss Eur E218. Deposited on permanent loan by Lady Hermione Cobbold in 1955. Purchased from Lord Cobbold in 2004 with assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Friends of the British Library, The Friends of the National Libraries and The Lord Farringdon Charitable Trust.

A list of the Lytton Papers can be found on The National Archives'  Discovery catalogue: Papers of 1st Earl of Lytton as Viceroy of India 1876-80.

Launched on 22 October 2014, the Qatar Digital Library (QDL) was developed as part of a longstanding partnership between the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar National Library, and the British Library.  The partnership includes the digitisation of a wide range of material from the British Library’s collections, aimed at improving understanding of the modern history of the Gulf, Arabic cultural heritage, and the Islamic world.

Following on from parts 1 and 2, in this concluding part, members of the team of experts working on the QDL reflect once more on memorable material that they and former colleagues have encountered during the last decade.

• The power of OCR – IOR/R/15/1/381 and IOR/R/15/1/720

Excerpt from an administration report of the Persian Gulf, 1945 – IOR/R/15/1/720, f. 92r

The application of OCR to digitised records just before the QDL’s launch in 2014 enabled a response to a query from a geology professor at the University of Baluchistan, Pakistan, who was looking to find archival material on the 1945 Makran tsunami, as part of UNESCO commemorations on the tenth anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

• A foretelling of US post-war dominance in the Gulf – IOR/L/PS/12/2124

A minute paper by Isaiah Berlin, dated 5 January 1944 (not 1943, as stated in this copy) – IOR/L/PS/12/2124, f. 36r

As a cataloguer – and no doubt as a researcher too – when reading official government papers, it is rare to find something so candid and revealing on a single piece of paper.  Most often, things are implied rather than stated explicitly, across hundreds of pages and throughout dozens of files and volumes.  Inside this India Office Political and Secret Department file is one of those rare finds: a copy of a minute paper by the philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who at the time was working in the British Embassy in Washington DC.  Writing in January 1944, Berlin reports on having seen an extract from a secret report by the United States War Department, which outlined the long-term strategic interests of the US in Saudi Arabia and recommended that ‘no effort should be spared to develop close relations with King Ibn Saud’.  British officials responded with extreme scepticism; however, in just a few years, the US replaced Britain as Saudi Arabia’s key western sponsor and protector, and soon become the predominant imperialist power in the region.

• Sources on Palestine – 306.37.C.18

Excerpt from an English translation of The Oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, an Arabian traveller of the tenth century – 306.37.C.18, pp. 39-40

The description of Palestine pictured above comes from an 1800 English translation of The Oriental geography of Ebn Haukal, which was written in 977 CE.  At a time when Palestinian history and lived experience is denied and devalued more than ever, brushed over with colonial myths about ‘making the desert bloom’, this account (one of many sources on Palestine that feature on the QDL), with its descriptions of ‘all the hills of Palestine ... covered with trees’ and ‘much fruit, olives, and figs’, constitutes evidence of a flourishing Palestine from more than a millennium ago.

• The mystery of the Roebuck, and the importance of cross-referencing – IOR/L/MAR/A/XXIX and IOR/L/MAR/A/XXX

Inscription at the start of a journal kept by Henry Crosby – IOR/L/MAR/A/XXIX, f. 7v

Within the records of the India Office’s Marine Department (IOR/L/MAR) are two ship journals, IOR/L/MAR/A/XXIX and IOR/L/MAR/A/XXX, which appear to assert that a ship named the Roebuck was in two different places at once. How was this mystery solved? By assiduous cross-referencing.

IOR Cataloguing Team, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

Launched on 22 October 2014, the Qatar Digital Library (QDL) was developed as part of a longstanding partnership between the Qatar Foundation, the Qatar National Library, and the British Library.  The partnership includes the digitisation of a wide range of material from the British Library’s collections, aimed at improving understanding of the modern history of the Gulf, Arabic cultural heritage, and the Islamic world.

Following on from part 1 , members of the team of experts working on the QDL reflect on memorable material that they and former colleagues have encountered in the last decade.

• Preserving original order in George Curzon’s Persia and the Persian Question – Mss Eur F111/33

Annotated pages in George Curzon’s personal copy of his 1892 book, Persia and the Persian Question – Mss Eur F111/33 ff. 74v-75r. Image digitised by the BLQFP

George Curzon’s personal copy of his two-volume tome stands out for the interesting challenges it posed during conservation and cataloguing.  Rather unexpectedly, it contained dozens of assorted papers between its pages, including received correspondence, newspaper cuttings, various journal and magazine articles, and a few handwritten notes by Curzon.  The question for the conservation and cataloguing teams was how to preserve the inserted papers’ original order while ensuring their long-term preservation and indeed that of the book itself.  The solution was to number the pages of the book and the inserted items with the latter still in place, forming a single foliation sequence.  Now, when viewed on the QDL, the inserted items remain in their original order, between the pages of the two volumes (though some, e.g. certain newspaper cuttings, do not appear online for copyright reasons).  Physically, however, the inserted items are now preserved in a separate file.

• Discovering the unexpected – IOR/R/15/1/355 

A British wartime propaganda poster, dated c. 1941-42 – IOR/R/15/1/355, f. 42v

Cataloguing can be very serendipitous, as unassuming files can reveal the unexpected.  Such was the case with this financial file, containing two rare Arabic-language propaganda posters, which the British Government produced during the Second World War.  The posters only survived because of a wartime paper shortage, which led to financial accounts of the Bahraini Government being typed on their reverse.

• Personal reflections on life in the Gulf during the last years of Empire – Mss Eur F226/2, Mss Eur F226/7, Mss Eur F226/10, Mss Eur F226/13, Mss Eur F226/22, Mss Eur F226/23, Mss Eur F226/26, Mss Eur F226/28, Mss Eur F226/30, and Mss Eur F226/34

Excerpt from John ‘Jack’ Bazalgette’s 1984 memoir – Mss Eur F226/2, f. 152r. © Estate of John Bazalgette

These ten memoirs belonging to former British officials of the Indian Political Service provide a unique insight into one generation’s experiences of living and working in the Gulf during the last years of British India, as discussed at length in three blogs and in this QDL expert article.

• Muzah bint Ahmad Al Bu Sa‘id: the protector of Muscat – IOR/F/4/1435/56726

Heading to a letter written by Muzah bint Ahmad Al Bu Sa‘id, to the Governor of Bombay, dated 8 April 1832 – IOR/F/4/1435/56726, f. 235v

As in many archival collections, women are under-represented in the records, and those who do feature are largely misrepresented.  For these reasons, this item is particularly notable, since it contains a letter to the Governor of Bombay from Muzah bint Ahmad Al Bu Sa‘id, who, in the absence of her nephew the Imam of Muscat, took charge and defended his territories.

IOR Cataloguing Team, British Library/Qatar Foundation Partnership

In November 1885, after the deposition of King Thibaw at the end of the Third Anglo-Burmese War, British forces moved into the palace at Mandalay, where they found ‘a small royal white elephant’ in the menagerie, with another regular elephant kept as its companion.

Minute paper regarding the discovery of the white elephant in the palace at Mandalay - IOR/L/PJ/6/192, File 27

In the era of the Konbaung dynasty, to which Thibaw belonged, the possession of a white elephant was required in order to assume the title of Hsinbyushin or Hysinbyumyashin - Lord of the White Elephants - and legitimise one’s position as ruler.  Owning a white elephant signified royalty and status but most importantly, wealth, since housing and keeping these creatures was an expensive endeavour - as the British would soon find out.  Indeed, in English the term ‘white elephant’ now means something that is a financial burden, with little to no benefit.

Note by Sir Ashley Eden of the India Office making reference to white elephants as ‘an emblem of royalty’ and recommending that the animal should not be sent out of Burma - IOR/L/PJ/6/192, File 27

In a series of letters between the Chief Commissioner of British Burma and the Foreign Department in Simla (Shimla), the question of what to do with these two young elephants - and the financial and political concerns involved - was posited back and forth, with three eventual solutions being proposed:

• The white elephant could be presented to the King of Siam as a gift
• It could be transported to the Royal Zoological Society in London
• It could be kept in the Phayre Gardens at Rangoon (now Yangon).

In these letters, the Secretary for Upper Burma to the Chief Commissioner, Herbert Thirkell White, referred to the ‘uselessness’ of the two elephants, and the ‘inconvenient arrangement’ of paying 140 Burmese rupees a month for their care.  On 14 April 1886 the animals were handed over to the Transport Department, despite not being old enough to serve as beasts of burden.

In the interest of avoiding a political incident, the decision was made not to gift the animals to the King of Siam.  As a letter to the Chief Commissioner explained, presenting a Burmese royal white elephant to the King ‘would be regarded as a humiliation in the eyes of the Siamese’.

A series of letters between Burma, India and Siam discussing the white elephant - IOR/L/PJ/6/192, File 27

Despite concerns about the white elephant being acquired by ‘pretenders to the throne’ should it be sold within Burma, there was a similar political risk involved in removing the animal from the country.  The Secretary of State for India, Viscount Cross, wrote in a letter to the Governor General of India: ‘... it has been suggested to me that the removal of the animal to this country may produce an unfavourable effect upon the minds of some portion of the natives of Burma, and that it might on that account be more advisable to keep it in the Phayre Gardens at Rangoon’.

Copy of a letter from Viscount Cross, Secretary of State for India, to the Governor General of India, 3 February 1887 - IOR/L/PJ/6/192, File 27

Copy of a letter from the Chief Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Burma to the Foreign Department in Simla dated 25 May 1887, reporting the decision to transport the white elephant to the Phayre Gardens in Rangoon IOR/L/PJ/6/206, File 1208

Although we have found no record of what happened to its companion, the white elephant’s story has a happy ending, and it was eventually moved to the Phayre Gardens.  In 1901, the Gardens were commissioned as a memorial to Queen Victoria and reopened in 1906 as the Victoria Memorial Park and Zoological Gardens, where the white elephant was touted as the central attraction.

Ely Nott
Library, Information and Archives Services Apprentice

Further reading:
IOR/L/PJ/6/192, File 27 Disposal of a white elephant found in the palace at Mandalay, 14 December 1886-3 February 1887.
IOR/L/PJ/6/206, File 1208 The white elephant found in the palace at Mandalay to be lodged in the Phayre Gardens at Rangoon, 17 June 1887.

From 1801, John Fenwick worked as a journalist and newspaper editor.  Noted as either purchasing or editing the radical newspaper the Albion in 1801, when its proprietor Allan MacLeod was in Newgate, and the Plow in 1802.  For the latter, Fenwick wanted to develop a network of regional correspondents.  The extent to which he was successful, or harnessed a news communications network to political purposes, is not known. In the years that followed, he occasionally travelled from London for work.

Report of a political meeting in Nottingham by an ‘able pen’, Statesman 31 May 1810 British Newspaper Archive

From April 1810, if not before, Fenwick likely worked on the radical daily newspaper the Statesman which continued to print while its proprietor and publisher Daniel Lovell was in Newgate in 1810-15.  Other than a letter from Charles Lamb to Barron Field in 1817, direct evidence that Fenwick edited the Statesman is scant.  Political meetings were occasionally reported by an unnamed ‘able pen’.  In October 1810, the Statesman published a warmly appreciative theatre review which focused exclusively on the Covent Garden debut of Eliza Ann Fenwick, John and Eliza Fenwick’s daughter.

Theatre review on the Covent Garden debut of Eliza Ann Fenwick, John and Eliza Fenwick’s daughter, Statesman 6 October 1810 - British Newspaper Archive

John Fenwick’s family relied partly on Eliza Fenwick’s income as a children’s writer, and neither parent had guaranteed earnings.  Fenwick was briefly subject to the rules of Fleet prison as a debtor.  The creditors named alongside his discharge in April 1808 confirmed that his unpaid bills comprised those of the school master Samuel Boucher Allen, who may have taught their son Orlando Fenwick; and the apothecary surgeon James Moss, of Somers Town where the Godwins lived, who might have prescribed for or been called to attend any member of the Fenwick family.  A John Fenwick published a well reviewed A new elementary grammar of the English language (1811), shortly after William Hazlitt completed A new and improved grammar of the English tongue (1810) for Godwin’s Juvenile Library.

Masthead for The London Moderator and National Adviser 14 October 1818 printed and published by Thomas James Fenwick - British Newspaper Archive

In March 1812, John Fenwick’s brother Thomas James Fenwick (1768-1850), a draper and slop seller in Limehouse, started a weekly newspaper The London Moderator and National Adviser which continued to print until 1823. Eliza Fenwick noted that

My brother has offered to pay me, if I will write, by the sheet, as I advance. He has bought printing premises types etc for a newspaper he has started, and as he must keep a certain number of men he wishes to purchase manuscripts to print.

It is likely that John Fenwick edited this weekly newspaper from 1812, and he may have continued to do so until 1823.  On the masthead, John Fenwick appeared as the proprietor of this newspaper in December 1818, before the paper was purchased in January 1819 by a John Twigg.

Masthead for The London Moderator and National Adviser 30 December 1818 printed and published by John Fenwick -  British Newspaper Archive

Fenwick briefly employed Charles Lamb to write for the Albion in the Summer of 1801.  Two decades later, in 1820, Charles Lamb lampooned his former employer as the ‘excellent tosspot’ Ralph Bigod, an impecunious republican newspaper editor.  And so commenced the laughable legend, which led the academic Lissa Paul to bluntly reinvent the hard to research John Fenwick as ‘a deadbeat’, in her 2019 biography of the novelist and children’s writer Eliza Fenwick.

CC-BY
Dr Charlotte MacKenzie
Independent researcher
@HistoryCornwall

Creative Commons Attribution licence

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive - much free content, including The London Moderator and National Adviser and Statesman

John Fenwick political radical and writer (1)