Guide to the Papers of Frederick Danvers (as filmed by the AJCP)
M550 - M576
National Library of Australia View Catalogue Record
Created: 2018
Collection Summary
- Creator
- Dutch East India Company
- Title
- Papers of Frederick Charles Danvers (as filmed by the AJCP)
- Date Range
- 1600 - 1700
- Collection Number
- M550 - M576
- Extent
- 112 items
- Language of Materials
-
English
Language of materials is both Dutch and English translations of the Dutch. - Repository
- Australian Joint Copying Project
- Sponsor
- The Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) online portal was created with the assistance of the Australian Public Service Modernisation Fund, 2017-2020. The National Library of Australia gratefully acknowledges the contribution of the other foundation AJCP partners, the State Library of New South Wales and The National Archives of the UK, and all other organisations which supported the work of the AJCP, the world's most extensive collaborative copying project, operating from 1948 to 1997.
Introduction
Scope and Contents
Transcripts, created by Frederick Danvers, of selected Dutch documents relating to India and the East held in the State Archives in The Hague. They deal with all activities of the Dutch in the East from the regulation of trade to the treatment of indigenous peoples, and particularly relations with Chinese, French, Spanish, English and Portuguese traders and officials.
Conditions Governing Access
Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use
Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.
Preferred Citation
Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.
Example: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February-23 September 1770, British Library, Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234).
Archival History
Material selectively filmed as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, 1963 (AJCP Reels: M550 - M576). Original microfilm digitised as part of the AJCP Online Delivery Project, 2017-2020.
Existence and Location of Originals
British Library, 96 Euston Road, London. Originally filmed at India Office Library, Blackfriars Road, London. Collection Reference: IOR/I/3/1-106. For further information, see British Library Manususcripts and Archives Catalogue: Reference Code: IOR/I/3/1-106. (http://hviewer.bl.uk/IamsHViewer/Default.aspx?mdark=ark:/81055/vdc_100000000027.0x000062)
Existence and Location of Copies
The original AJCP microfilm of the records filmed from this collection is available at the National Library of Australia [https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1856212] as well as other institutions holding AJCP microfilm.
Finding Aid Note
This finding aid is a revised online version of the original finding aid prepared by the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP), published by the National Library in 2018. The original AJCP finding aids were unpublished typescripts or photocopies available from libraries that held copies of the original microfilm.
Dates used in this finding aid refer to the date range of the records selected for filming rather than to the date range of the Series or Files.
Subjects
China; Danvers, Frederick C.; Dutch East India Co; Dutch East Indies; Dutch in Asia; India; Indonesia; Jakarta, Indonesia; Netherlands; Netherlands State Archives; Portuguese in Asia; Spaniards in Asia and the Pacific; ; The Hague, Netherlands; Trade: China; Trade: Dutch East Indies; Trade: India;
Bibliography
Originally cited in Australian Joint Copying Project Handbook. Part 8: Miscellaneous (M) Series. Third Edition, published 1998. Entry 124, p. 45.
Biographical / Historical
The Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) was established in March 1602 following negotiations between the States-General and the directors of six companies that had been trading with the East Indies since 1596. It comprised six regional chambers based in Amsterdam, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Rotterdam, Delft and Middleburg. In 1609 it decided to appoint a governor-general and council to regulate the activities of its captains and factors in Asia.The Company's first fleet sailed to the East Indies in 1603 and its first trading post was at Banten in Java. It is initial interest was the Moluccas and the trade in cloves and nutmegs and it captured Amboina in 1605 and Ternate in 1606. Within a few years it had established factories over a vast area, including Siam, Japan, the Coromandel coast and Surat in India, and Sumatra. In 1619, after the Dutch had stormed the English fort at Jayakarta in the sultanate of Banten, the Company transferred its headquarters from the Moluccas. Jayakarta was renamed Batavia in 1621. The Dutch had major victories over the Portuguese, English and French and for most of the seventeenth century they were the dominant European power in Asia. They took control of Malacca in 1641, Ceylon in 1656, Ternate in 1662 and Makassar in 1667. By this time, the VOC had over 140 ships and 25,000 employees, making it by far the largest trading company in the world.
In the eighteenth century the Company consolidated its position in Java, but its military, shipping and financial power declined. By the later decades of the century it had lost all its settlements in India, Japan, Siam and the Persian Gulf. The Company was dissolved in 1800. Its surviving records were transferred to the General State Archives in The Hague in 1856.
Frederick Danvers
Frederick Charles Danvers (1833-1906) was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and King's College in London. He studied civil and mechanical engineering before joining the East India Company as a writer in 1853. Following the nationalisation of the Company in 1858, he transferred to the India Office. He worked in several departments, in particular the public works department, where he became assistant secretary in 1875. In 1884 he was appointed the Registrar and Superintendent of Records, a position he held until his retirement in 1898. In 1891-1892 Danvers was sent to Lisbon to examine and transcribe Portuguese records relating to India. He then made three trips to The Hague in 1893-1895 and studied many of the seventeenth century records of the Dutch East India Company. He selected 2646 documents for transcribing, 1517 of which were subsequently translated into English.
Danvers was the author of a number of publications on technical and engineering matters and later wrote reports and papers on Indian subjects. His most substantial work was The Portuguese in India (2 volumes, 1894)
Item Descriptions
Series IOR/I/3/1-106. Transcripts and translations of Dutch records, 1600 - 1700
112 itemsSubseries I/3/1-86 (M550-M567). Transcripts of letters from India, 1600 - 1662
The title of this series of records is somewhat misleading: they are not confined to letters and they were written from Dutch settlements and factories throughout Asia, not just in India. In addition to letters, there are legal documents, treaties, contracts, reports of diplomatic missions and trade negotiations, historical summaries and accounts, daily registers of expeditions, journals of ships' captains, descriptions of towns, resolutions, lists of merchandise and prices, and instructions to naval officers and factors. A large number of the letters were written to the directors of the VOC in the Netherlands, many of them from the Governor-General and Council in Batavia. There is also a great deal of correspondence between the Governor-General and governors, directors, factors, admirals, captains and Dutch residents in the East Indies, India, Japan, Siam and elsewhere and also between the Governor-General and kings, sultans, rajahs and other rulers. There is some correspondence with agents of the English East India Company and Portuguese governors.
The original records were arranged in roughly chronological order, although some documents were misfiled. The transcribed documents were numbered by Danvers and bound in volumes. The English translations were given the same numbers and the volumes of translations were interfiled with the volumes of transcripts. For instance, the first volume containing the 1600-1608 transcripts was followed by the volume containing the 1600-1608 translations. However, the microfilming was done in two sequences, with all the volumes of transcripts filmed first (M550-M570), followed by all the volumes of translations (M571-M576).
Archival History
Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M550-M567
Documents 1172-1203, 1691 - 1693 (File I/3/76)
Finding Aid Note
Upon digitisation document 1203 was split between two microfilm reels; for continuity purposes this document has been listed fully at Document 1203-1222.
List of volumes of letters from India compiled by Danvers when selecting documents for transcribing, 1622 - 1640 (File I/3/86)
Copy (in French) of accord concluded between the English and Dutch commissioners, 25 Jan. 1622/23. List of Portuguese documents (and English translation) found among Dutch records, principally from Goa and Malacca, 1639-1640. Undated Dutch letter on the state of Portuguese settlements, c. 1638-1639.
Subseries I/3/87-93 (M567-M568). Transcripts of letters from the Seventeen, 1614 - 1700
The Gentlemen Seventeen were the group of directors who were responsible for the central management of the Dutch East India Company. They consisted of eight members of the Amsterdam chamber, four members of the Zeeland chamber, one member each from the Delft, Rotterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen chambers, and one director appointed in turn from one of the chambers outside Amsterdam. They usually met two or three times a year for periods of four to five weeks and used the Amsterdam or Zeeland chambers for administrative purposes.
The great majority of the transcribed letters were sent from the Seventeen to the Governor-General and Council of India. Others were sent to governors (such as Amboyna, Banda, Ceylon, Cape of good Hope), directors of factories, factors, admirals, the English East India Company, kings (such a Siam, Persia) and other rulers, and individuals living in Dutch settlements in Asia.
The English translations of selected letters can be found on M576.
Archival History
Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M557-M558
Subseries I/3/95-106 (M568-M570). Transcripts of letters from the Governor-General, 1614 - 1700
The letters from the Governor-General in Batavia were written to Dutch generals, admirals, captains, governors, factors, the English East India Company, Portuguese governors, kings and other rulers. They often contain instructions. One important example is the instructions from Anthony Van Diemen to Captain Abel Tasman and the chief mate Franz Visscher on their voyage of discovery on the Heemskirk, 13 August 1642.
The English translations of selected documents can be found on M576.
Archival History
Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M568-M570
Subseries I/3/2-58 (M571-M576). Translations of Letters from India, 1600 - 1670
Archival history
Originally filmed on AJCP Reel M571-M576