Stephen Foster
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STEPHEN FOSTER A private empire NOTES A PRIVATE EMPIRE NOTES These notes follow the text of A Private Empire, chapter by chapter. Page numbers appear in the left margin, preceded by #. Occasionally a note ascribed to a specific page also relates to the following page or pages. Much of the book is based on documents in the possession of Sir William Macpherson of Cluny, referred to in these notes as the Macpherson Collection. These include many letters, some of them original, some in draft form, and some repeated as both originals and drafts. Except where there is a particular reason to do so, I have not in these notes distinguished originals from drafts. 2 A PRIVATE EMPIRE ABBREVIATIONS # page number in A Private Empire q the number of a bundle or file in the Macpherson Collection, Blairgowrie nd no date M Macpherson AM in chapters 1 to 9 Allan Macpherson 1740–1816, ‘the Colonel’ AM in chapters 10 to 16 Allan Macpherson 1818–1891, ‘the squatter’ WM William Macpherson 1784–1866, ‘the clerk’ WCM William Charles Macpherson 1855–1936, ‘the scholar’ AW Allan Williams 1810–1896 Ossian James Macpherson 1736–1796 ADB Australian Dictionary of Biography BL British Library CO Colonial Office records in the National Archives, UK HRA Historical Records of Australia ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography SLNSW State Library of New South Wales SMH Sydney Morning Herald Soldiering William Charles Macpherson, Soldiering in India 1764– 1787: extracts from journals and letters left by Lt. Colonel Allan Macpherson and Lt. Colonel John Macpherson of the East India Company’s service, Edinburgh, W.Blackwood, 1928 3 A PRIVATE EMPIRE 1 PORTRAITS #10 The case of Stephen Lawrence is well reported by Brian Cathcart, London, Penguin, 1999. This account of the telephone call draws on conversations with Sir William Macpherson in 2003. Sir William speaks about the case in various interviews, including with Mary Riddell in New Statesman, 21 Feb 2000. The Report of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry is at http://www.archive.official-documents. co.uk/document/cm42/4262/4262.htm. #11 Richard Norton-Taylor’s The colour of justice is published London, Oberon, 1999. Searing indictment: quoted in Alan Marlow, ‘Policing in the pillory: Macpherson and its aftermath’, in Alan Marlow and Barry Loveday (eds), After Macpherson: policing after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, Lyme Regis (Dorset), Russell House, 2000, p.1. Defining moment: BBC News/Vote 2001, 7 May 2001 http://news.bbc.co.uk/vote2001/hi/english/main_issues/sections/ facts/newsid_1190000/1190971.stm [accessed 12 Dec 2003]. #12 William the Purser: this William Macpherson was a recent widower. #13 The stone-throwing story is recorded in William Charles Macpherson, The Macphersons of Blairgowrie, privately printed, 1896, p.5, Macpherson Collection; and WCM, Soldiering in India 1764–1787, Edinburgh, William Blackwood & Sons, 1928, p.2. All called William or Allan: note that the tradition begins with the birth of William in 1784; the father of William who died at Falkirk was Andrew. #20 Cost of portraits: Seton’s invoice, 30 Jan 1783, Macpherson Collection; the exact cost was 400 sicca rupees, with another 50 rupees for the frame. 4 A PRIVATE EMPIRE 2 PROSPECTS #22 Calcutta 1781: based chiefly on Thomas Daniell’s Views of Calcutta, 1780s–90s; Jeremy P.Losty, Calcutta, city of palaces: a survey of the city in the days of the East India Company, 1690–1858, London, British Library, 1990, pp.51,65; images by Balthazar Solvyns, in Robert L. Hardgrave, Portrait of the Hindus: Balthazar Solvyns & the European image of India, 1760–1824, New York, OUP, 2004; and Dhrubajyoti Banerjea, European Calcutta: images and recollections of a bygone era, New Delhi, UBS Publishers’ Distributors, 2005. For cautionary comments on orientalist views of Calcutta, see Swati Chattopadhyay, Representing Calcutta: modernity, nationalism, and the colonial uncanny, London, Routledge, 2005, esp. pp.6–9. Chattopadhyay discusses the works of William and Thomas Daniell at pp.34–52. On bearers: Alexander Macrabie’s comments 1775, quoted by Rudrangshu Mukherjee, ‘“Forever England”: British life in old Calcutta’, in S.Chaudhuri, Calcutta: the living city, Calcutta, OUP, 1990, pp. 46–47. Promises: based on AM to James Macpherson (hereafter ‘Ossian’: see ch.4), 16 Nov 1781, reproduced in State of the Conjoined Actions of Reduction, and of Count, Reckoning, and Payment, Colonel Allan Macpherson, of Blairgowrie, against James Macpherson, Esq. now of Belville, and Others, 25 Feb 1813, p.112, q427; John Macintyre to AM, 20 Jun 1779, q435; AM to Ossian, 22 Feb 1782, q582; AM to brother John M, 18 Jun 1782,q755; AM to Ossian, 31 Mar 1783, Sir John Macpherson Papers, MSS EUR F291/133, BL; AM to Ossian, 29 Sep 1783, q586; and AM to Ossian, 21 Jun 1784, q589. #23 AM’s efforts to win promotion: AM to Ossian, 13 Mar 1780, q591; AM to Hastings, 2 Mar 1781, q589; Macintyre to AM, 15 May 1781, q435; AM to Hastings, 8 Jun 1781,q589; also Macintyre to AM, 20 Jun 1779,q435; J.M. Murray to AM, 16 Aug 1779, q369; AM to Ossian, 26 Aug 1780, q589; and P. Murray to AM, 12 Nov. 1780, q374. Prospect in Assam: Macintyre to AM, 15 May 1781, q435; such proposals were not unusual: see Gerald Bryant, ‘Officers of the East India Company’s army in the days of Clive and Hastings’ [first published 1978], in P.J.N.Tuck (ed.), The East India Company: 1600–1858. Vol.V: war, expansion and resistance, London, Routledge, 1998, p.58, n.127. Hastings attributed his 5 A PRIVATE EMPIRE inability to promote AM and his brother John to the pernicious influence of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Eyre Coote: Hastings to John (later Sir John) Macpherson, 17 Mar 1780, in H.H.Dodwell (ed.), Warren Hastings’ letters to Sir John Macpherson, London, Faber & Gwyer, 1927, pp. 61–64. AM’s determination to go home: Macintyre to AM, 26 Sep 1781, q435; and AM to Ossian, 16 Nov 1781, q589. BADENOCH #24 Passing through Scotland: AM to William MacDonald, 7 Aug 1786, q588. Scots in Calcutta: S.C.Ghosh, The social condition of the British community in Bengal 1757–1800, Leiden, E.J.Brill, 1970, pp.50–51; T.M.Devine, The Scottish nation 1700–2000, London, Penguin, 1999, p.26 (quoting Andrew MacKillop); G.J. Bryant, ‘Scots in India in the eighteenth century’, Scottish historical review, no.64, 1985, pp.22–41. Badenoch: Rona Macpherson, ‘The old townships of Badenoch’, Creag Dhubh, no.10, 1958. On sacking of Cluny House: Alan G. Macpherson, A day’s march to ruin: a documentary narrative of the Badenoch men in the ’Forty-five and biography of Col. Ewan Macpherson of Cluny, 1706–1764, Newtonmore, Clan Macpherson Assoc., 1996, pp.171–73. On Highland culture, see Kenneth Macneil, Scotland, Britain, empire: writing the Highlands, 1760–1860, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2007, esp. Introduction and ch.1. Attack on and disintegration of clanship: Devine, Scottish nation, pp.46–47,170–72. Care and affection: Fiona J.Stafford, The sublime savage: a study of James Macpherson and the poems of Ossian, Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1988, p.11. #25 A happy childhood: W.C.Macpherson, Soldiering in India 1764– 1787: extracts from journals and letters left by Lt. Colonel Allan Macpherson and Lt. Colonel John Macpherson of the East India Company’s service, Edinburgh, W.Blackwood, 1928, p.2; WCM, The Macphersons of Blairgowrie, copies A and B, p. 5; and information from Alan G. Macpherson, St John’s, Newfoundland. Their maternal uncle and his wife: Alexander Macpherson in Drumnourd (Druminard, part of Strathmashie) and his wife Isobel Macpherson (Invereshie). Their maternal aunt and her husband: Helen Macpherson and Andrew Macpherson in Knappach, parents of James ‘Ossian’ Macpherson. 6 A PRIVATE EMPIRE Cluny’s hideouts and escape: Macpherson, A day’s march to ruin, pp.212–13; Stafford, Sublime savage, pp.19–20; Davie Horsburgh, ‘Macpherson, Ewen, of Cluny (1706–1764)’, ODNB [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17724, accessed 9 Sep 2005]. Scottish schooling: Devine, The Scottish nation, pp.91–100; Robert David Anderson, Education and the Scottish people, 1750–1918, Oxford, OUP, 1995, esp.pp.10–11; Marion Lochhead, The Scots household in the eighteenth century: a century of Scottish domestic and social life, Edinburgh, Moray Press, 1948, pp.224–39. James Macpherson: Stafford, Sublime savage, pp.24–25; M.Kersey, ‘The pre-Ossianic politics of James Macpherson’, British journal for eighteenth century studies, vol.27, no.1, pp.61–62. #27 Abhorrence of Highlanders: Andrew MacKillop, ‘More fruitful than the soil’ : army, empire and the Scottish Highlands, 1715–1815, East Linton, Tuckwell Press, 2000, pp. 43–44; John Riddy, ‘Warren Hastings: Scotland’s benefactor?’, in G.Carnall and C.Nicholson, The impeachment of Warren Hastings: papers from a bicentenary commemoration, Edinburgh, Edinburgh UP, 1989, pp.38–39. War needed soldiers: based chiefly on MacKillop,‘More fruitful than the soil’. Wolfe, 9 Jun 1751, is quoted in Stephen Brumwell, Redcoats: the British soldier and war in the Americas, 1755–1763, Cambridge, CUP, 2002, p.268–69: ‘How can you better employ a secret enemy than by making his end conducive to the common good?’ The reduced threat of rebellion is suggested by Cluny Macpherson’s departure from Scotland in 1755. #28 Simon Fraser: MacKillop, ‘More fruitful than the soil’, p.84. Ruthven minister: MacKillop, ‘More fruitful than the soil’, p.209. A mere private: Muster Rolls for the 2nd Battalion Royal Highlanders (information kindly supplied by William Forbes and Ian Macpherson McCulloch). AM joined one of the three additional companies recruited for the 42nd Regiment: see Ian Macpherson McCulloch, Sons of the mountains: the Highland regiments in the French and Indian War, 1756–1767, New York, Purple Mountain Press, 2006, vol.2, pp.