INDIAN MUTINY


File of autograph letters relating to Charles Jenkins, of the Honourable East India Company's Civil Service, and the opening weeks of the Indian Mutiny, comprising:(i) Autograph letter signed by Jenkins, to his sister Mrs Vans Agnew, describing conditions at the opening of the Mutiny ("...Events are now happening, the End of which it is impossible to speculate upon, as I will write & tell you, my experiences during the one week I have been in charge of the Mofussilinear City. On one night 3 Bungalows were on Fire in the lines... All without any doubt by the hands of incendiaries. In the City the men look insolently upon one... All the ladies have been sent away. You will see from the Papers the horror's that have been perpetrated at Meerut & Delhi, & I fear from all I hear, that a general rising of the Sepoy's may be expected, & if so of course a massacre of all European's. There is but one English Regiment between this & Dinapore a distance of 400 Miles. So much for 'economy'. So much for the foolish idea of forcing 'Education' down the throats of a People who have not arrived at the pitch of Civilization to warrant it. I pronounce unhesitatingly the blood of those who have been murdered & of those who will be, lies at the door of the Peace & educational Propagandists. The New Cartridges is but an excuse..."), 4 pages, the first two cross-written, 8vo, Shahjehanpore, 17 May 1857(ii) Contemporary transcript of a letter by Jenkins, to the Secretary of the Government of the North West Frontier, describing the outbreak of the Mutiny, 8 pages, some dust-staining, 4to, Mohomdie, 2 June 1857(iii) Office copy of the above, with list of casualties and escapees added; certified as a true copy by E.C. Bailey, 3 pages, some spotting, 4to, Mohomdie, 2 June 1857(iv) Deposition of "Benarree. In the service of Charles J. Jenkins Esqre.", certified as a true copy by J.C. Jenkins, describing the outbreak on 31 May and Jenkins's later murder, 3 pages, small section of second leaf trimmed away, 8vo, certified Chapra, 3 November 1857(v) File of correspondence on behalf of Richard Collier, historian of the Mutiny, in 1962
|'A GENERAL RISING OF THE SEPOYS MAY BE EXPECTED, & IF SO OF COURSE A MASSACRE OF ALL EUROPEANS... THE NEW CARTRIDGES IS BUT AN EXCUSE' – a first-hand account of the opening stages of the Indian Mutiny, by one of its first victims: the author was to be killed early that June. These papers form part of the muniments of the Vans Agnew family of Barnbarroch and Sheuchan. The first letter's recipient, Frances, was married to John Vans Agnew, an erstwhile merchant banker at Madras. His elder brother, Patrick Alexander, achieved posthumous fame after his murder in 1848, with Lieutenant Anderson, at Multan: 'The killing of two such young and pitifully vulnerable men sent shock waves throughout British India and hastened the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the British annexation of the Punjab... For some years, until overtaken by the cataclysm of 1857, the fate of "poor Agnew" was frequently invoked in Anglo-Indian memoirs as a symbol of the inextinguishable nobility of British endeavour in India' (Katherine Prior, ODNB).