Papers Primarily Relating to Brigadier-General John Jacob and the Anglo-Persian War (1856-57)

Volumes IOR/H/549, 550 and half of 552 relate to the Anglo-Persian War of 1856-1857 and the aftermath. Half of the papers in IOR/H/552 relate to Jacob's early career in the Indian Army of the East India Company and political affairs in Sind [Sindh] and Beloochistan [Balochistan], notably [Khelat] Kalat, c 1858-72. Volume IOR/H/551 relates solely to the construction of the telegraph line along the Beloochistan and [Mekran] Makran coasts. It is unclear why this volume was originally catalogued (in the 1920s) in the same series with the other three volumes, although the connection most likely came about because the principal correspondents were officials located in Sindh and the Frontier of Upper Sindh, where Jacob spent most of his career (he was appointed Political Superintendent and Commandant, Frontier Upper Sindh, 1847, and Acting Commissioner in Sind 1856, dying in Jacobabad December 1858 not long after his return from Anglo-Persian War service). This series comprises papers and correspondence created within an official capacity context; it does not include private or personal correspondence of John Jacob. The contents of IOR/H/549, 550 and 551 are covered, or partially covered, by internal indexes or lists of contents. A significant proportion of the letters in the volumes are originals, but the volumes also include copy letters and a small number of copy and translated Persian letters.

Received from Major-General Thomas Nuttall (1828-1890) in October 1892.

Unrestricted

This description was modified in 2019 for the British Library-Qatar Foundation Partnership project. For the original description, see Samuel Charles Hill, Catalogue of the Home Miscellaneous Series of the India Office Records (London: HMSO, for the India Office, 1927).