Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

The voyages and manifesto of William Fergusson, a surgeon of the East India Company 1731-1739 / edited by Derek L. Elliott. "This volume brings to publication for the first time the manuscript of William Fergusson, a Scottish ship's surgeon who sailed for the East India Company in the 1730s. Written in 1767, while in retirement, Fergusson's diaries are the memories of his youth spent travelling the world during his apprenticeship. They detail the four voyages he took, the first, a passage from Scotland to England with a lading in Ireland, and three others to the East, calling at ports in the Atlantic, southern Africa, Arabia, India, and Southeast Asia, before reaching as far as China. Almost nothing is known of Fergusson and none of his other writings are known to survive. Remaining evidence suggests that he was an average man of his class, who travelled the well-plied trade routes of European merchant capitalism. While many logbooks of these voyages survive, comparatively few accounts were written by the men who sailed them. Fewer still ever come to light. Fergusson's manuscript offers a rare new source on what were by then the relatively routine voyages of the East India Company's early trading network, providing a treasure trove of comments on the politics, economics, societies, and religious beliefs and practices he witnessed along the way. Originally titled 'Journals of my Voyages & Manifesto', the name suggests Fergusson's manuscript offers far more than the insights usually contained in contemporary travelogues. In his manifesto, readers will discover Fergusson's impassioned polemics on natural religion, devotional 'enthusiasm', just governance, all while he implores the principles of rationality and reason. It is truly a manifesto of Enlightenment thought. As such, it also provides a unique example of how those who sailed for the East India Company during the early modern era participated in a global intellectual exchange of ideas. Fergusson wrote his private memories in twenty-two small bound booklets, all of which have been transcribed and annotated to guide the reader. These are presented here along with a critical introduction that contextualises the complex eighteenth-century world into which Fergusson voyaged, including elements of his role as a ship's surgeon, the Indian Ocean trading and political environment, and the ideas of the Enlightenment he so passionately expressed. Researchers interested in the histories of ideas, medicine, early-modern colonialism, maritime merchant empires, as well as historians of Africa and Asia, will find much new information to explore within the pages of this volume"-- 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 061.22HAKLUYT

An Act for the explanation and better execution of former Acts made touching watermen and wherrymen rowing on the River of Thames and for the better ordering and governing the said watermen, wherrymen and lightermen upon the said river between Gravesend and Windsor Great Britain. Laws, statutes, etc 1700 • RARE-PAMPH • 1 copy available. 094:342.537

Hendrik Jacobsz Dubbels (1621-1707) : Gemalde und Zeichnungen mit kritischem Oeuvrekatalog /Ulrike Middendorf Middendorf, Ulrike 1989 • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 7.047(26)

Making scientific instruments in the Industrial Revolution / A.D. Morrison-Low. Morrison-Low, A.D. c2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 681.2-051(42)"17/18"

Selling science in the age of Newton : advertising and the commoditization of knowledge /Jeffrey R. Wigelsworth. Wigelsworth, Jeffrey R. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 5/6(091):659.1"17"

The British Navy in the Baltic / John D. Grainger. "This book presents a comprehensive overview of the activities of the British navy in the Baltic Sea from the earliest times until the twentieth century. It traces developments from Anglo-Saxon times, through the medieval period when there were frequent disputes between English kings and the Hanseatic League, the seventeenth-century wars with the Dutch, and Britain's involvement in the Northern Wars in the early years of the eighteenth century. It considers in detail the major period of British involvement in the Baltic during the Napoleonic Wars, when the British navy fought the Danes, Napoleon's allies, and was highly effective in ensuring Sweden's neutrality and Russia's change of allegiance. It goes on to discuss British naval actions in the Baltic during the Crimean War and in the First World War and its aftermath. Throughout, the book relates naval actions to patterns of trade, to wider international politics, and to geographical factors such as winter sea ice and the shallow nature of the Baltic Sea."--Provided by the publisher. 2014. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"800/1950"(42)

The East India Company and provinces in the eighteenth century Thomas, James H 1999 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 914.227

Missions and empire / Norman Etherington, editor. 2005. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 941.44:27-764

Anson : Royal Navy commander and statesman, 1697-1762 /Anthony Bruce "George Anson, Baron Anson (1697-1762), circumnavigator and First Lord of the Admiralty, entered the Royal Navy in 1712 and progressed rapidly, achieving his first command in 1722. He benefited from the patronage of his uncle Thomas Parker, later the Earl of Macclesfield, who served as Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor until his impeachment for fraud in 1725. Anson first saw action at the Battle of Cape Passaro (1718) under Admiral Sir George Byng but most of his early career was spent as captain of the station ship based at Charleston, South Carolina. In 1737 he was appointed captain of the 60-gun Centurion and sent on patrol to West Africa and the Caribbean. It was in this ship that he circumnavigated the globe (1740-1744) during the war with Spain. Ordered to attack the Pacific coast of Spanish South America, the expedition almost ended in disaster when half of Anson's squadron disappeared as it encountered 'huge deep, hollow seas' during the passage around Cape Horn. Despite further heavy losses, Anson was able to carry out a limited number of raids against coastal targets, but his capture of the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Seänora de Covadonga off the Philippines was a real victory that secured his reputation (and wealth). On his return Anson, welcomed as a national hero, soon revealed his political ambitions: he joined the opposition Whigs, was elected MP for Hedon and appointed to the Admiralty Board. Although he entered the Board while still a captain, he secured rapid promotion to Rear-Admiral, Vice-Admiral and then Admiral of the Fleet. Anson returned to sea in command of the Western Squadron in 1746-1747 and his notable victory against the French at the Battle of Cape Finisterre was a rare example of a British naval success after seven years of war. Anson, who was then raised to the peerage, returned to the Admiralty Board, working with the Duke of Bedford as First Lord and with Lord Sandwich on a series of naval reforms, which included ending political interference in courts-martial, introducing compulsory retirement, innovations in ship design and the formation of the Royal Marines under Admiralty control. In 1751, Anson succeeded Lord Sandwich as First Lord of the Admiralty and served until his death in 1762 (except for one brief interruption in 1756-1757 following the loss of Minorca). The reform programme continued, but his main priority on returning to office (and the Cabinet) in the Pitt-Newcastle coalition was the Seven Years War: its strategic direction, planning operations and preparing naval forces. Although he died shortly before the conflict ended, Pitt later said of Anson: 'to his wisdom, to his experience the nation owes the glorious success of the last war.' Horace Walpole inevitably took a more critical view: 'Lord Anson was reserved and proud, and so ignorant of the world, that Sir Charles Williams said he had been round it, but never in it.' Anson's earlier biographers have focused on the story of the circumnavigation, which has largely defined his reputation, as well as his victories at sea. However, other aspects of his career, particularly his roles as a naval reformer and wartime strategist, deserve to be given greater weight in reassessing his position as a leading figure in British naval history. As one commentator has pointed out, 'there is an increasing cultural valuation of administrative skills that allows an Anson to be remembered in the same arena with, but still distinctly from, a Nelson. Whereas Horatio Nelson is certainly the most well-known and enduring example of a naval hero, others followed different paths to success during their lifetimes.'"--Provided by the publisher. 2023. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 941.07092

A slaving voyage to Africa and Jamaica : the log of the Sandown, 1793-1794 /Bruce L. Mouser. "Captain Samuel Gamble recorded in his ship's log a record of a nearly failed slaving venture to Africa and Jamaica. It is one of the best first-hand narratives of the slave trade to survive. This book presents a faithfully transcribed and carefully annotated edition of Gamble's log, which provides a haunting perspective on slave trading at the end of the eighteenth century. Gamble was Captain of the British merchant Sandown. During 1793-1794, the ship embarked on a commercial venture from England to Upper Guinea in West Africa to buy slaves and to transport them for sale in Kingston, Jamaica. Gamble describes shipping at the beginning of the Anglo-French war in 1793, naval and nautical procedures for the English-African-West Indian trade, and the slave-trading patterns and institutions on the African coast and at Kingston, Jamaica. He recounts as well the beginnings and spread of a yellow fever epidemic that swept the Atlantic and crippled commerce on both sides of the ocean. Bruce L. Mouser's extensive annotations place Gamble's account in historical context and explain for the reader Gamble's observations of commerce, disease, and African peoples along the Upper Guinea coast."--Jacket. Ã2002. • BOOK • 2 copies available. 380.1/44/094

Power over peoples : technology, environments, and Western imperialism, 1400 to the present /Daniel R. Headrick. Headrick, Daniel R. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.46:62"14/20"

Sexual and gender difference in the British Navy, 1690-1900 / edited by Seth Stein LeJacq. "This volume is a collection of a variety of important records that will give readers insight into key themes into the history of what its criminal code called "the unnatural and detestable sin of buggery"- sex between males - in the Royal Navy."--Provided by publisher. 2024. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.1094209033

Tables of the products and powers of numbers ... with an introduction, explaining and illustrating the use of the tables / by Charles Hutton. Hutton, Charles, 1781 printing (London : printed by William Richardson). • RARE-OVER • 1 copy available. 094:519.66

Declaration du Roi, portant supressant d'une des professions de lapidaires privilegies, & reunion de l'autre a celles d'orfevres, joailliers, tireurs & batteurs d'or privilegies de la cour, maison & suite de Sa Majeste, a la nomination du Prevot de l'Hotel. Donnee a Versailles le 12 Septembre 1781. Registree en la Cour des Monnoies le 19 Decembre audit an 1782 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 681.11

The Routledge history of slavery / edited by Gad Heuman and Trevor Burnard. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326

The horrible gift of freedom : Atlantic slavery and the representation of emancipation /Marcus Wood. Wood, Marcus. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.8 WOO

Wales and the British overseas empire : interactions and influences, 1650-1830 /edited by H.V.Bowen. Examines the many relationships between Wales and the expanding British overseas empire between 1650 and 1830, including economic, social, cultural, political, and religious interactions. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 942.9"16/18"

Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800) : London's leading scientific instrument maker /Anita McConnell. McConnell, Anita. c2007. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92RAMSDEN

From Grub Street to Fleet Street : an illustrated history of English newspapers to 1899 /by Bob Clarke. "In this book, Bob Clarke examines the organization and development of the English newspaper from its early origin in the broadsides of the sixteenth century, through the burgeoning of the press during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, to its arrival as a respectable part of the establishment in the nineteenth century. Along the way this narrative is illuminated with stories of the characters who contributed to the growth of the English press in all its rich variety of forms, and how newspapers tailored their contents to particular audiences.". 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 070(091)(42)".../1899"

Letters of the late Ignatius Sancho, an African / edited by Vincent Carretta. Sancho, Ignatius, 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 942.1/3200496

Lettres patentes du Roi, en forme de declaration, qui suppriment les communautes d'orfevres, & autres ouvriers employant des matieres d'or & d'argent, ci-devant etablies dans les villes du ressort du Parlement du Rouen : et reunissent les professions d'orfevres, lapidaires, joailliers & horologers, pour ne former a l'avenir qu'une seule communaute dans les villes du ressort, dont l'etat est ci-attache. Donnes a Versailles le 27 Juin 1779. Registrees en la Cour des Monnies le 4 Aout suivant 1779 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 681.11

The heirs of Archimedes : science and the art of war through the age of Enlightenment /Brett D. Steele and Tamera Dorland, editors. 2005. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355:5"13/17"

The age of sail : the international annual of the historic sailing ship /edited by Nicholas Tracy. 2002. • FOLIO • 2 copies available. 629.123.1

The correspondence of John Flamsteed, the first astronomer royal : Volume Two, 1682-1703 /compiled and edited by Eric G. Forbes, and (for Maria Forbes) by Lesley Murdin and Frances Willmoth. "The Correspondence of John Flamsteed: The First Astronomer Royal, Volume Two contains the letters Flamsteed wrote and received from June 1682 to the spring of 1703. A leading figure in the final phases of the seventeenth-century scientific revolution, his extensive correspondence with 129 British and foreign scholars touches on many of the scientific discussions of the day. Some of these exchanges involved established correspondents, chiefly Newton and Wallis, but members of a younger generation, such as Stephen Gray, William Derham, and Abraham Sharp, appear with increasing frequency, especially after 1700." 1997. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 52

Explore our Collection