Court Minutes of the Old, New and United Companies

Although the list of Court Minutes suggests a fairly regular and uniform series of volumes, closer examination reveals a number of gaps and peculiarities of arrangement. During the early seventeenth century, there are gaps in the series, notably:. Aug 1603-Dec 1603. Jan 1611-Dec 1613. Nov 1615-Sep 1617. Jul 1629- Jul 1630. Jul 1631- Jul 1632. Jul 1637-Jul 1639. In the first two decades and again in the 1650s, volumes overlap in date and apparently do not connect with each other. This is partly because of losses and partly because there are separate series of minutes for different subscriptions to voyages (see especially IOR/B/4, IOR/B/5 and IOR/B/25):. 1601-1613 Separate Stock Voyages (12). 1613 First Joint Stock. 1617 Second Joint Stock. 1628 First Persia Voyage. 1629 Second Persia Voyage. 1630 Third Persia Voyage. 1632 Third Joint Stock. 1641 First General Voyage. 1642 Fourth Joint Stock. 1648 Second General Voyage. 1650 United Joint Stock. 1657-1709 New General Stock. 1698-1709 New (English) Company. 1702-1709 Court of Managers. 1709- United Company. Users should be aware of some quirks in the series of Court Minutes as it is now constituted. The minute books of the Old Company, New Company and United Companies were originally numbered in a single sequence. There is therefore a confusing mix of records in the period of the merger of the two Companies (IOR/B/43-50). Another point to note is that the surviving series of United Company minutes from 1710-1858 (IOR/B/51-236) has been formed from parts of two separate sets of minute books which are of different size and pagination. The first part of the series comprises the set of 'Court Books', 1709-1833 (IOR/B/51-185). The second part comprises a set of 'Minute Books' April 1833-Sep 1858 (IOR/B/186-236). The Court Book series appears to have been discontinued in 1833 and the Minute Books were then used as the primary record of the directors' meetings. Pre-1833 volumes of Minute Books were destroyed. The minutes for each annual session of the Court (which ran from April to April) are usually bound in two volumes paginated as one. Indexes within volumes are indicated in the list. The amalgamation of the two sets of records complicates the use of finding aids for the Court Minutes. Separate indexes for 1790-1820 (IOR/B/111-170) are found in IOR/Z/B/1-3. Indexes to Minutes 1820-1827 (IOR/B/171-179) are found in IOR/Z/B/4-5, but access is complicated because these are the indexes to the part of the separate series of Court 'Minute Books' which was discarded, and for which the index references are different from the pagination in the set of surviving Court Books. To trace entries, it is necessary to consult the tables of Court meeting dates in the front of each index volumes. Using the tables, it is possible to match the page references from the discarded series to the pages covering the date of the meeting minuted in IOR/B/171-179. Indexes to Court Books 1827-1833 (IOR/B/180-185) are found in IOR/Z/B/16-45. These volumes are the indexes to the discarded pre-1833 'Minute Books'. Again, the index references do not match the pagination in the surviving volumes. The indexed matter has to be found by consulting the tables of Court meeting dates in order to match the page references from the discarded series to the pages covering the date of the meeting in IOR/B/180-185. There are no page or folio numbers in these volumes of Court Minutes. Indexes to Court 'Minute Books' 1833-1858 (IOR/B/186-236) are found in IOR/Z/B/46-96. Theses indexes contain direct references to page numbers in the 'Minute Books', with each index covering the same period as a corresponding volume of minutes.

Unrestricted

The Court Minutes often provide leads to other related classes of record which may contain fuller details of the business e.g. Committee of Correspondence (IOR/D); Finance and Home Committee (IOR/F/1); Committee of Shipping (IOR/L/MAR/1); Revenue, Judicial and Legislative Committee (IOR/L/PJ/1); Political Committee (IOR/L/PS/1). Many of the incoming letters which initiated Court action may be traced in the series of General Correspondence (IOR/E/1-2); Correspondence with the East (IOR/E/3); Correspondence with India (IOR/E/4); Factory Records (IOR/G). Outgoing letters containing the Court's decisions, orders and instructions are found in series IOR/E/1-2, IOR/E/4, IOR/F/2, IOR/G, IOR/H, IOR/L/AG, IOR/L/F/2, IOR/L/MAR/C, IOR/L/MIL/2, IOR/L/PJ/1-2, IOR/L/PS/3. The records of the Accountant General's Department (IOR/L/AG) contain a good deal of information about the proprietors of the Company's stock and the series IOR/L/AG/44 includes material concerning the election and attendance of directors 1815-1874; and minutes of the Court of Directors, General Court of Proprietors, and Committees 1858-1874.