John Bird

Properties2
tagsperson, british, trader, 1786
aliasesMr. John Bird, Bird

6 min read

John Bird (Mr. John Bird) was a British trader, mentioned in the letter of the Sultan of Acheh to Warren Hastings of 7 November 1786 as one of three Europeans — together with Captain Glass and Captain Thomas — “who are acquainted with my affairs and with my intention towards you.” He is named in P. H. van der Kemp (1900), in Appendix 1, both as a guarantor of the Sultan’s intentions and as the man who took over the effects of the murdered Captain Hobbs.

The Sultan’s reference

After the murder of Captain Hobbs at Tringano, the Sultan had been unable to find anyone whom he could entrust with his reply to Hastings. He therefore proposed that Hastings himself should seek information from the three Europeans — Captain Glass, Captain Thomas and Mr. John Bird — who had personal knowledge of the Achehnese court and of the Sultan’s intentions. The relevant passage runs: “You will ask captain Glass, captain Thomas and Mr. John Bird, who are acquainted with my affairs and with my intention towards you.”

The affair of Captain Hobbs’s effects

Later in the same letter, the Sultan explains his dealings with John Bird over Captain Hobbs’s effects. The Sultan’s own account is as follows:

“Mr. John Bird was desirous of sailing with the effects of the deceased. I opposed this, because captain Hobbs left no such orders with me; afterwards captain Canning and Mr. Phillips etc. came to me, and I consulted them respecting the effects of captain Hobbs, and they unanimously desired me to deliver them to Mr. John Bird, and give him his discharge to take them to Bengal when captain Canning etc. gave him letter notifying that I had given him permission to depart with them advise and the good and bad is on Mr. John Bird. These articles were for Java and not for Bengal, Mr. John Bird were sold these articles and took in exchange goods for Bengal from me. He has done this himself, and has occasioned a loss upon the goods of 3891 Koors.”

In other words: the Sultan resisted the release of Hobbs’s effects to John Bird, since Hobbs had left no instructions to that effect; but at the request of captain Canning and Mr. Phillips he released them. Bird then disobeyed his instructions: he was to take the goods to Bengal, but they had been destined for Java, and he sold them at Java and exchanged them for other goods for Bengal — at a loss to the Sultan of 3891 Koors. The Sultan reported the circumstance to Hastings as proof that he was maintaining his friendship in good faith, despite the loss.

Significance

The Bird episode is the earliest documentary evidence of a commercial dispute between the Achehnese court and an English trader. Van der Kemp prints it in Appendix 1 as part of the Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings — the first of his twelve appendices — because it demonstrates the existence, more than thirty years before the Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission, of substantive British-Achehnese contacts that had already given rise to losses, claims and references to higher authority.

See Also

Source

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

John Bird (Mr. John Bird) was a British trader, mentioned in the letter of the Sultan of Acheh to Warren Hastings of 7 November 1786 as one of three Europeans — together with Captain Glass and Captain Thomas — “who are acquainted with my affairs and with my intention towards you.” He is named in P. H. van der Kemp (1900), in Appendix 1, both as a guarantor of the Sultan’s intentions and as the man who took over the effects of the murdered Captain Hobbs.

The Sultan’s reference

After the murder of Captain Hobbs at Tringano, the Sultan had been unable to find anyone whom he could entrust with his reply to Hastings. He therefore proposed that Hastings himself should seek information from the three Europeans — Captain Glass, Captain Thomas and Mr. John Bird — who had personal knowledge of the Achehnese court and of the Sultan’s intentions. The relevant passage runs: “You will ask captain Glass, captain Thomas and Mr. John Bird, who are acquainted with my affairs and with my intention towards you.”

The affair of Captain Hobbs’s effects

Later in the same letter, the Sultan explains his dealings with John Bird over Captain Hobbs’s effects. The Sultan’s own account is as follows:

“Mr. John Bird was desirous of sailing with the effects of the deceased. I opposed this, because captain Hobbs left no such orders with me; afterwards captain Canning and Mr. Phillips etc. came to me, and I consulted them respecting the effects of captain Hobbs, and they unanimously desired me to deliver them to Mr. John Bird, and give him his discharge to take them to Bengal when captain Canning etc. gave him letter notifying that I had given him permission to depart with them advise and the good and bad is on Mr. John Bird. These articles were for Java and not for Bengal, Mr. John Bird were sold these articles and took in exchange goods for Bengal from me. He has done this himself, and has occasioned a loss upon the goods of 3891 Koors.”

In other words: the Sultan resisted the release of Hobbs’s effects to John Bird, since Hobbs had left no instructions to that effect; but at the request of captain Canning and Mr. Phillips he released them. Bird then disobeyed his instructions: he was to take the goods to Bengal, but they had been destined for Java, and he sold them at Java and exchanged them for other goods for Bengal — at a loss to the Sultan of 3891 Koors. The Sultan reported the circumstance to Hastings as proof that he was maintaining his friendship in good faith, despite the loss.

Significance

The Bird episode is the earliest documentary evidence of a commercial dispute between the Achehnese court and an English trader. Van der Kemp prints it in Appendix 1 as part of the Sultan of Acheh’s letter to Warren Hastings — the first of his twelve appendices — because it demonstrates the existence, more than thirty years before the Raffles-Coombs Acheh Commission, of substantive British-Achehnese contacts that had already given rise to losses, claims and references to higher authority.

See Also

Source

Raffles’ Atjeh-overeenkomst van 1819, by P. H. van der Kemp, in Bijdragen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, 6e Volgr., Deel VII (1900), pp. 159–239. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, LS.08781.

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