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Walter Lord (8 Oct 1917-19 May 2002) published his most famous work, A Night to Remember, in 1955. A journalistic narrative history of the TITANIC, the book became a British film (in 1958) and Lord was asked to be a consultant on James Cameron's film 'Titanic'. (1998). He is credited with having revived the memory of the ship, about which not a single book was published between 1913 and 1955. His book has been a bestseller ever since.

His life-long fascination stemmed from his mother's tales of her voyages on the OLYMPIC, one of TITANIC's two sister ships, which she used to tell him as bedtime stories. By the age of nine, the story of the TITANIC had become his greatest interest and he persuaded his mother to take him across the Atlantic on the OLYMPIC, so that he could learn more about the lost liner.

Through the years he talked to and corresponded with scores of survivors, rescuers and others intimately connected with the disaster. He tracked down nearly 60 TITANIC survivors to get their stories for 'A Night To Remember', and collected much commemorative memorabilia, donated over many years by his friends and admirers.

William MacQuitty (15 May 1905 - 5 Feb. 2004) was born in Belfast. He was six when he watched the launch of the TITANIC on 30 May 1911, and saw her set sail on her fateful maiden voyage a year later. During the Second World War he worked in film production for the Ministry of Information but it was only in the 1950s that his interest in the TITANIC was rekindled. His wife had been reading Lord's 'A Night to Remember' and he realised that this was the film he had been waiting for. He took an option on the film rights, met Walter Lord, and together they developed a screenplay based on the book.

MacQuitty then produced the film, also called 'A Night to Remember' (directed by Roy Ward Baker) and following its success won a contract for the Independent Television Authority's franchise for Ulster.

Sir Phipps Hornby (1785-1867) began his naval career in 1797, being promoted to Lieutenant in 1804 and to Captain in 1810. He was on half-pay between 1816 and 1832, and then held several posts ashore until his promotion to Rear Admiral in 1846. From 1847 to 1850 he was Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Squadron, with his base at Valparaiso, where he established his wife and family. He served briefly as a Lord of the Admiralty, was promoted on retirement in 1854, and became Admiral in 1858.

Sir Geoffrey Thomas Phipps Hornby (1825-1895), son of Sir Phipps Hornby, entered the Navy in 1837, being appointed to the PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, flagship of Admiral Stopford. He was promoted to Captain in 1852 and commanded several vessels, including the EDGAR, flagship, Channel, 1863-1865. He was given command of the Channel Squadron from 1871 to 1874, and was Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean from 1877 to 1880. He became Admiral of the Fleet in 1888.

Robert Stewart Phipps Hornby (1866-1956), younger son of Sir Geoffrey, entered the Navy in 1879, served in the Egyptian War in 1882 and became a Lieutenant in 1886. He was promoted to Captain in 1903 and commanded the DIANA in the Mediterranean, 1904 to 1906. From 1914 to 1915, he was Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station, and he was promoted to Admiral in 1922 on the retired list.

Windham Mark Phipps Hornby (1896-1987), son of Admiral R S Phipps Hornby, entered the Navy in 1909 and was promoted to Sub-Lieutenant in 1916. He joined the RAMILLIES in 1917, was promoted to Lieutenant in 1918, to Lieutenant-Commander in 1925 and retired in 1932.

Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872) devoted his life to building up his library at his house, Middle Hill, in Gloucestershire. Although Phillipps never managed to catalogue his collection, it was estimated that he owned 60,000 manuscripts at his death, and it became the most famous private library in Europe. The library was left to his grandson, who had still not completed its dispersal at his death in 1938. In 1946 the residue was finally purchased by Messrs Robinson who sold the naval manuscripts, describer here, to Sir James Caird for the Museum. (See A.N.L. Munby, Phillipps Studies, vols I-V, Cambridge, 1951-60). Because of the importance and diversity of this collection, it has been split into six entries. Those of no obvious provenance are given in this entry. The collections of Robert Cole (entry no.96), George Jackson (97), the Southwells (98), and William Upcott (99) are described separately below. The collection of John Wilson Croker, consisting of the correspondence received by Lord Nelson, has been described in Volume I of this Guide, entry no. 207.

Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853-1936), founder of the Wellcome Research Institution, collected numerous documents of a maritime origin as well as papers connected with the history of medicine.

Priest's registers: Before the restoration of the hierarchy many individual priests, as opposed to parishes, often kept registers covering diverse geographical areas.

Born, 1629; physician in Montpellier, France; died, 1699.

Cleopatra's Needle was made of pink granite at the time of Thothmes (Tuthmose) III, circa 1500 BC, with later inscriptions added by Ramesses II. It was later removed to Alexandria. It was brought to London in the container ship Cleopatra, towed by the steam ships Olga and Anglia, in 1877. It was erected on the Victoria Embankment between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge by the engineer John Dixon in 1879, with two sphinxes added to the base.

Crystal Palace was constructed in 1851 in Hyde Park, to house the Great Exhibition. After the Exhbition it was dismantled and re-erected in Sydenham where it was used as an amusement park, holding exhbitions, concerts, theatrical productions, firework displays and sports events. It had a small zoo, fountains and a statue park. The Palace burned down in 1936 and was destroyed.

These papers relating to property ownership were collected for their general or antiquarian interest rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).

John Thomas Graves: born in Dublin, 1806; undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin; distinguished himself in science and classics; a contemporary and friend of Sir William Rowan Hamilton; researches respecting exponential functions led him to important results, 1826; graduated BA, 1827; printed in the Philosophical Transactions the discovery of two arbitrary and independent integers in the complete expression of an imaginary logarithm, and considered it a solution for various difficulties that had perplexed mathematicians, believing that he had elucidated the subject of the logarithms of negative and imaginary quantities, 1829; removed to Oxford and became an incorporated member of Oriel College, 1830; entered the King's Inns, Dublin, 1830; MA, Oxford, 1831; MA, Dublin, 1832; called to the English bar as member of the Inner Temple, 1831; for a short time went on the western circuit; since his mathematical conclusions were not at first universally accepted by contemporaries such as Sir John Herschel, he communicated to the British Association a defence and explanation of his discovery, supported by Sir William Rowan Hamilton's paper published in the British Association's Report, 1834; corresponded for many years with Hamilton, also interested in algebraical science and imaginaries, who communicated his discovery of quaternions to Graves first of all, and acknowledged his debt to his friend for his stimulus in 1843; Graves continued his mathematical investigations; stimulated Sir William Rowan Hamilton in the study of polyhedra, and received from him the first intimation of the discovery of the icosian calculus; contributed various papers on mathematical subjects to the Philosophical Magazine, London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and others, 1836-1856; member of the committee of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; elected a member of the Royal Society, 1839; subsequently sat on its council; Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London, 1839-1843; elected an examiner in laws in the University of London; twelve lectures on the law of nations were reported in the Law Times from 1845; a member of the Philological Society and of the Royal Society of Literature; appointed an assistant Poor Law Commissioner, 1846; appointed a poor-law inspector of England and Wales, 1847; died, 1870. Publications: articles on Roman law and canon law for the Encyclopædia Metropolitana; articles in Sir William Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography (3 volumes, London, 1844-1849), including lives of the jurists Cato, Crassus, Drusus, Gaius, and an article on the legislation of Justinian; various scientific papers.

Either sent to the Royal Society, presented at meetings of Fellows, or commissioned by the Society. Final papers concerning trade in Cl.P/25 and those on the same subject in Cl.P/3(i) date from the first half of the 17th century, and were acquired from a different source. The present 25 volumes (bound as 31 volumes) may have originally been bound as 39.

Most of the letters in the collection were collected by Charlotte Erickson and the staff of the Survey of Sources for American Studies during their work in the 1950s, whilst others were donated or purchased.

The general election was held in May 2005 and was won by the Labour Party with a reduced majority. Requests for donations were sent out to candidates of all parties throughout the country and major deposits were received from all parts of the United Kingdom. Parties represented include: Conservative Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats, Green Party, UK Independence Party, Socialist Alliance, Plaid Cymru, Scottish National Party and a range of parties from Northern Ireland. The collection also includes a wide range of addresses and material from smaller parties and Independent candidates.

For some fifty years George H. Gabb (fl 1880-1930) built up a collection not only of manuscripts relating to science, but also of scientific instruments.

The Royal Geographical Society (RGS) was founded in 1830 as the Royal Geographical Society of London. Its aim was the advancement of Geographical Science. The Society was granted a Royal Charter by Queen Victoria in 1859. In 1995 the RGS merged with the Institute of British Geographers (IBG) to create the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers). Since 1831 the Society has published a Journal, initially containing the principal papers read at the Society's evening meetings and abstracts of Geographical works published elsewhere, it is now a refereed academic publication. The journal has appeared under various titles: Journal of the RGS (JRGS) 1831-1880; Proceedings of the RGS (PRGS) 1857-1878; Proceedings of the RGS (New Series) (PRGS (NS)) 1879-1892; Supplementary Papers (1882-1893); and the Geographical Journal (GJ) 1893 onwards. At first edited by the Secretary of the Society, the preparation and editing of these journals is currently carried out by the Geographical Journal Office.

Morven Park is a Victorian house situated in Potters Bar. It was purchased by the National Trust in 1930. It is now (2010) a care home for the elderly.

The hundred of Gore comprised the parishes of Edgware, Hendon, Kingsbury, Little Stanmore, Great Stanmore, Harrow and Pinner.

William, 1st Earl of Mansfield, died on 20 March 1793 and was succeeded by his nephew David. The plan of the Kenwood estate may have been drawn up in connection with the 2nd Earl's succession.

Henry 3rd Viscount Clifden succeeded his grandfather in 1836 and on his own death in 1866 was succeeded by his son Henry George the 4th Viscount.

A calendar of prisoners is a list of persons awaiting trial, often including a physical description, age and place of birth. The calendar may also provide information about the nature of the crime and the charges, list the names of the aggrieved persons, witnesses and the Justices who heard the case. Sometimes the outcome of the trial is also given. The Calendars were compiled by officers at the prison and submitted to the Clerk of the Peace.

The manor of Isleworth or Isleworth Syon seems to have included land in Heston, Isleworth and Twickenham. In 1086 it belonged to Walter of Saint Valery, one of William the Conqueror's companions. The land subsequently passed into royal possession and was granted to Queen Isabel in 1327 and Queen Philippa in 1330. In 1421 the king granted Isleworth to the newly created abbey of Syon, in whose possession it remained until 1539. The Abbey was suppressed in 1539 and in 1547 the Duke of Somerset secured a grant of the estate to himself, which he held until his execution in 1552, although his widow continued to live at the manor until ordered to leave in 1554. The Crown leased the lands to various tenants until 1598 when Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, secured the tenancy rights. In 1604 he received a grant in fee of the house and manor with the park. The property descended to his heirs including Charles, Duke of Somerset (died 1748) and his son the Earl of Northumberland. Their descendants still owned Syon in 1958.

One notable event in the later history of the manor occurred in 1656. In that year articles of agreement were drawn up between Algernon, Earl of Northumberland, lord of the manor of Isleworth Syon, and Sir Thomas Ingram and other principal copyhold tenants. These articles established certain of the customs of the manor on a firm basis. Fines and heriots were to be certain and not arbitrary, at the will of the lord. The tenure of customary and was to be by Borough English, whereby the youngest son of a copy holder inherited on the death of his father. These articles were signed on 20 May 1656 and were confirmed by a decree in Chancery, 28 June 1656 (see ACC/1379/330 and partial transcript in History of Syon and Isleworth by G. Aungier, p.206). A printed tract called Isleworth Syon's Peace was to be published in 1657 and according to Aungier was to be placed in the Isleworth parish chest. London Metropolitan Archives possesses copies in ACC/0479 and ACC/1379.

There is no unifying factor to these papers (e.g. that they relate to property owned by one estate or family or the legal work of one office), they were simply collected or preserved for their antiquarian interest before being passed to the archive.

The manor of Ealing or Ealingbury was presumably the 10 hides at Ealing granted in 693 by Ethelred, king of Mercia, to the bishop of London for the augmentation of monastic life in London. The manor passed through various owners until 1906 when most or all of the land was sold to the Prudential Assurance Company.

Northumberland Park, Tottenham, was a new avenue, lined by middle-class villas, running from the High Road towards the new railway line. It was laid out and developed in the 1850s.

Source of information: 'Ealing and Brentford: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 123-128 and 'Tottenham: Growth after 1850', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 317-324 (available online).

Common Recovery was a process by which land was transferred from one owner to another. It was a piece of legal fiction involving the party transferring the land, a notional tenant and the party acquiring the land; the tenant was ejected to effect the transfer. An exemplification was a formal copy of a court record issued with the court's seal.

A marriage settlement was a legal agreement drawn up before a marriage by the two parties, setting out terms with respect to rights of property and succession.

Source: British Records Association Guidelines 3: How to interpret deeds (available online).

The Manor of Sunbury was held by Westminster Abbey until 1222 when they transferred it to the Bishop of London to settle a dispute. It passed to the Crown in 1559 and was leased out until 1603 when it was granted to Robert Stratford. The manor subsequently passed through several hands and families until 1925 when it was considered virtually lapsed.

'Sunbury: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 53-57 (available online).

The manor of Edgware Boys (or Edgware and Boys) was sold to William Lee of Totteridge Park in 1762. It passed to his son William, who changed his surname to Antonie in accordance with the will of Richard Antonie of Colworth. He left the manor to his nephew John Fiott, who assumed the name of Lee under the terms of the will of his uncle. John Fiott Lee died in 1866.

Information from: 'Edgware: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 155-157 (available online).

A deed is any document affecting title, that is, proof of ownership, of the land in question. The land may or may not have buildings upon it. Common types of deed include conveyances, mortgages, bonds, grants of easements, wills and administrations.

Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

Common Recovery was a process by which land was transferred from one owner to another. It was a piece of legal fiction involving the party transferring the land, a notional tenant and the party acquiring the land; the tenant was ejected to effect the transfer. An exemplification was a formal copy of a court record issued with the court's seal.

Source: British Records Association Guidelines 3: How to interpret deeds (available online).

An 'indenture' was a deed or agreement between two or more parties. Two or more copies were written out, usually on one piece of parchment or paper, and then cut in a jagged or curvy line, so that when brought together again at any time, the two edges exactly matched and showed that they were parts of one and the same original document. A 'right hand indenture' is therefore the copy of the document which was on the right hand side when the parchment was cut in two.

The Breakspears Estate was the foremost manor in Harefield, Middlesex. It took its name from William Breakspear who owned it in 1376. It belonged to the Ashby family from 1447. In 1769 the last male Ashby died without a male heir and the house passed to a daughter, Elizabeth, who was married to Joseph Partridge. Their son left the estate to a relative of his wife. By 1877 the property belonged to Alfred Henry Tarleton, whose widow sold the house to the county council in 1942. The estate land was used as a park while the house became an old people's home.

Source of information: 'Harefield: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 240-246.

A Thomas Dewell is noted as a leader of non-established religions in Old Brentford; organising meetings of Independents and acting as trustee of a Baptist congregation in Old Brentford, founded in 1819.

Source: 'Ealing and Brentford: Protestant nonconformity', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 7: Acton, Chiswick, Ealing and Brentford, West Twyford, Willesden (1982), pp. 158-162.

Highgrove House in Eastcote, Ruislip, was constructed in 1881 for to designs Sir Hugh and Lady Juliana Hume-Campbell after the existing house was ruined by fire. The house was designed by E S Prior in an early Georgian style. It is now Grade II listed. Winston Churchill is believed to have honeymooned there. The house was later used by the Middlesex County Council to accommodate homeless families.

Fulham House (or Hall), otherwise known as Stourton House, was occupied by Thomas Winter. It was situated in Bear Street, on the west side, just north of the Swan Inn. A portion of the site is now occupied by Cambridge House, number 156 High Street, and the houses northward. The approach to Putney Bridge covers most of the site. The house was demolished by M Henry Scarth in 1842.

Conveyances are transfers of land from one party to another, usually for money. Early forms of conveyance include feoffments, surrenders and admissions at manor courts (if the property was copyhold), final concords, common recoveries, bargains and sales and leases and releases.

Probate (also called proving a will) is the process of establishing the validity of a will, which was recorded in the grant of probate. If a person died intestate (without a valid will) their money, goods and possessions passed to their next of kin through an administration (or letters of administration) which had the same form in law as a will.

Abstract of title is a summary of prior ownership of a property, drawn up by solicitors. Such an abstract may go back several hundred years or just a few months, and was usually drawn up just prior to a sale.

Lease and release was the most common method of conveying freehold property from the later seventeenth century onwards, before the introduction of the modern conveyance in the late nineteenth century. The lease was granted for a year (sometimes six months), then on the following day the lessor released their right of ownership in return for the consideration (the thing for which land was transferred from one party to another, usually, of course, a sum of money).

A marriage settlement was a legal agreement drawn up before a marriage by the two parties, setting out terms with respect to rights of property and succession.

Source: British Records Association Guidelines 3: How to interpret deeds (available online).

These papers were collected for their general or antiquarian interest and relevance to the local history of Middlesex, rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).

The Manor of West Drayton was owned by Saint Paul's Cathedral from around 1000. It was leased out or farmed for the common benefit of the canons. Henry VIII acquired the manor in 1546 and granted it to Sir William Paget (1506-1568). It remained in the Paget family until 1786 when Henry Paget, the first Earl of Uxbridge (1744-1812) sold it to Fysh Coppinger, a London merchant. Coppinger assumed his wife's surname of de Burgh and the manor stayed in the de Burgh family until 1939.

Information from: 'Hillingdon, including Uxbridge: Manors and other estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 4: Harmondsworth, Hayes, Norwood with Southall, Hillingdon with Uxbridge, Ickenham, Northolt, Perivale, Ruislip, Edgware, Harrow with Pinner (1971), pp. 69-75 (available online).

The Willis family were involved in the legal profession: the documents mention Richard Willis of Tokenhouse Yard, solicitor; James Willis of Lincoln's Inn, barrister-at-law; and George Willis, 449 West Strand.

These papers relating to Middlesex local history were collected for their general or antiquarian interest and relevance to the subject, rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).

The Andrews and Weall families were united by the marriage of Dr James Andrews, originally of Pershore, Worcestershire, to Margaret Weall of Hampstead, in about 1872. Trust funds for Margaret were set up under the wills of her great-uncles John and Benjamin Weall. She was also to inherit the residue of the real estate of Benjamin Weall which consisted of houses in Watford, Hertfordshire, and Headstone Farm and land in Pinner, Middlesex. Litigation was started by Margaret Andrews (ne Weall) against her trustees arising out of a dispute over law costs charged by the trustees to her estate. This resulted in a test case tried in the High Court, Chancery Division, 1889, in which Mrs Andrews was successful. The report in The Times called it 'a judgement of great importance and interest to trustees and their cestuis que trustent'.

These papers relating to properties in London were collected for their general or antiquarian interest rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).

These papers relating to properties were collected for their general or antiquarian interest, rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).

Curzon Street runs between Fitzmaurice Place and Park Lane in Mayfair. In around 1715 the land in this area was purchased by a Derbyshire baronet, Nathaniel Curzon. Building began in the 1720s although much of the north side remained open until the 19th century. It became a fashionable address, and was well known for the Mayfair Chapel where illicit marriage ceremonies were performed without banns or licence, until the 1754 Marriage Act stopped the practice.

Information from The London Encyclopaedia, eds. Weinreb and Hibbert (LMA Library Reference 67.2 WEI).

Wakenaam is an island at the mouth of the Essequibo River of Guyana, South America.

Parties named in the conveyance are: 1. John Turnbull, John Forbes, Broad St., City, merchants and co-partners; 2. Thomas Hussey, late of Demerary, now Manchester St, Manchester Sq., St. Marylebone, esq; 3. John McArthur, York Pl., Portman Sq., St. Marylebone, esq; 4. John McKirdy, F. Schovers, Demerary, esqs; 5. Tully Higgins, J. H. Horkel, Island of Wakenaam, esqs.

The Princess was Frances, only child and heiress of Fleetwood Wilson of Wappenham Manor, Northants, who was married to Russian Prince Alexis Dolgorouki. Alfred de Rothschild was the second son of Baron Lionel de Rothschild, and was, at various times, a director of the Bank of England and a trustee of the National Gallery.

The ships represented in this collection are:

• 'Salacia', No. 9144, registered at London, 64 tons; master, B. Bacon; in lobster and fresh fish carrying trade between UK and Norway
• 'Emperor', No 23244, registered at London, 30 May 1861, 199 tons; [owner], Messrs Lambert Bros. and Scott; master, James Chapman Smith; giving names of crew, for coasting trade from London to Shields or elsewhere
• 'Anne Lee', No 17055, registered at London, 380 tons; master, Demo Constantine; for Jamaica.

The manor of Stepney, also known as Stebunheath, was recorded in the Domesday Book as owned by the Bishop of London, and was probably part of the lands included in the foundation grant of the see of London circa 604. At this date the manor included Stepney, Hackney, and parts of Shoreditch, Islington, Hornsey and Clerkenwell; although parcels of land were later granted to other institutions and people, such as lands in Clerkenwell given to the priory of St Mary, Clerkenwell, and the Knights Hospitallers.

In 1550 the manors of Stepney and Hackney were surrendered to the King, who granted them to Lord Chamberlain Sir Thomas Wentworth. The manor stayed in the Wentworth family until Thomas, Lord Wentworth, the earl of Cleveland. He incurred large debts and was forced to mortgage the manors. The family eventually lost Hackney manor but retained Stepney until 1695 when it was sold to William Herbert, Lord Montgomery. In 1710 he sold it to Windsor Sandys. By 1754 it belonged to the Colebrooke family who held it until 1939. In 1926 all remaining copyholds were converted into freeholds.

The manor house at Stepney was used as a residence of the bishops of London and the Stepney meadows provided hay for his household's horses. The house later became known as Bishopswood or Bishops Hall, and later Bonner Hall.

Information from: 'Stepney: Manors and Estates', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11: Stepney, Bethnal Green (1998), pp. 19-52 (available online).

Trades mentioned in the documents include carver, haberdasher, carman, fruiterer and loriner. Loriners made bits and bridles for horses.

These statistics were prepared by local judicial administrators for the Home Office.

No administrative history has been traced for these photographs.

William Morris and Son, stock and share brokers, were situated at 80 Old Broad Street, 1875-1881; 121 Bishopsgate Street within, 1883-91; 80 Lombard Street, 1893-1895; at other addresses to 1924, and at 10 and 12 Copthall Avenue, 1924-1948.

Whiteheads and Coles were stock and share brokers of 39 Throgmorton Street.

William Hurt was a merchant of Bishopsgate and official of the East India Company, while his nephew Thomas Rogers was a factor for the Company. Although Hurt and Rogers were both employed by the East India Company, and Rogers' letters contain much about the Company's business, they appear to be private correspondence.

The City of London was divided into wards for the purpose of government as early as Norman times. The wards had responsibility to keep the peace, supervise trade and oversee sanitation, and each ward has the right to elect an Alderman and Commoners to sit in the Court of Common Council.