Secret Correspondence with India

Correspondence of the EIC Secret Committee, the Board of Control and the India Office with the Governments of Bengal/India, Madras and Bombay. Down to 1858 there are two broadly overlapping sets of Secret Letters received from each of the three Indian Governments - one of these sets belonged to the EIC Secret Committee, whilst the other (more complete) series belonged to the Board of Control. Enclosures to Secret Letters are usually bound separately. Copies of Secret Dispatches to India exist in three largely duplicating series, the second of which also contains correspondence between the Board and the Secret Committee. L/PS/5 also includes Secret Commercial Dispatches (1815-1831) and Secret Letters to areas outside India (1859-1874). See also Foster's Guide pp 13-14 and 23, and Moir's Guide pp 45, 50-53, 77-80. For the continuation of L/PS/5 after 1874 see the series L/PS/7.

(1) EIC Secret Committee, Court and Council Minutes [IOR/L/PS/1]; (2) Board of Control Secret Minutes [IOR/L/PS/2]; (3) Secret Home Correspondence [IOR/L/PS/3]. For Indexes and Registers: see IOR/Z/L/PS/4 and IOR/Z/L/PS/5.

Available for research unless otherwise stated

Unlike other EIC Dispatches to India which were first drafted at East India House then sent to the Board of Control for review, the majority of Secret Dispatches (from 1784) were drafted by the Board then fowarded to the EIC Secret Committee for onward transmission to India - in practice however the Secret Committee, despite the statutory limitations on its role, also originated some drafts - this was especially true of the period before 1813.