Documents in the Custody of the Cashier

The Cashier, who was responsible for the safe custody of the Company's home cash balances, was probably the only member of the staff who had at his disposal reasonably safe security accommodation judged by the standards of the time. For that reason, legal documents and other articles of value were entrusted to him for safe custody. That procedure, by diminishing degrees, persisted until after 1960. Four lists have been found of documents held by the Cashier. The earliest, written c.1813, is a bound volume entitled 'Register of Charters, deeds, etc. deposited in the Strong Room'. It lists 2,286 documents, and gives a full transcription or detailed summary of each one. It has a full index. As the main subject of the volume is the early charters and deeds of the Company, it had been listed in Class A (Charters and Deeds) of the India Office Records and later transferred to Legal Advisor's Records in Class L (see L/L/2/1). The three subsequent volumes had been deposited in the Accountant General's Department but listed in Class L (see L/L/2/2-4). All the existing charters and the most important early deeds (other than deeds of property) were transferred by the Accountant General to the Record Department at various times, notably in 1890, and are listed in Class A of the Guide to the India Office Records. Some of the deeds relating to property in England owned by the Company were sent to its solicitors about 1834 when the Company disposed of most of its property. Most of them were probably passed on to the purchasers, but some may have been retained by the solicitors. The records of the Company's solicitors and of the Legal Advisers to the Secretary of state for India have not yet been examined or listed in full. The first three of the four lists referred to have been examined for the purpose of this Section. After excluding documents stated to have been removed in the past, all the documents that were passed to the India Office records by the Cashier after 1960, were checked against the lists. Of the deeds of property, only a few were found to be missing. Those still held have been boxed under the numbers given to them in the original lists, until such time as a detailed account of them can be prepared. Other documents consisted partly of those of a general financial nature, and of which there were sections of the Guide already devoted to them (e.g. insurance policies, assignments of pension etc.) They have been included in this Guide in the appropriate section with others of the same description. Some, when found, could not be identified as having been entered in any of the three lists, and it seems certain that there was a book (Volume 1) of the more general classes of documents handed to the Cashier between 1870 and 1910. The last category to be considered were papers relating mainly to the trading activities of various individuals connected with the Company. Being often of some historical interest, and not appearing appropriate to any specific section, they have been listed in some detail in L/AG/50/5/5-6.

Number IOR/L/AG/51 is not used. Please request IOR/L/L/2/1-4 for the documents

Unrestricted