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Archaeologist, Collector and Antiquities Agent: The Activities of Captain Robert Mignan of the Bombay European Regiment during the Early Nineteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2019

MALCOLM MERCER
MALCOLM MERCER*
Affiliation:
Curator of the Tower of London Armouries (Royal Armouries)[email protected]
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Abstract

The ancient site of Babylon has long attracted the interest of European visitors. With the expansion of British geopolitical interests into the Middle East and India during the eighteenth century those in the service of the East India Company were afforded new opportunities to examine and explore regional antiquities. The historiography of archaeological exploration has traditionally focused on the contributions of key Orientalists such as Claudius James Rich and Paul Émile Botta. This has been at the expense of other equally significant individuals who also undertook a range of supporting scholarly, archaeological and museological activities. This article will redress that balance by considering the work of one of these unsung heroes of the East India Company, Captain Robert Mignan.

Keywords

BabylonMesopotamiaMiddle-EastArchaeologyCollector
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 467 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2019 

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Footnotes

I am particularly grateful to Dr Jonathan Taylor of the Middle East Department at the British Museum for advising me upon a number of aspects of Babylonian and Mesopotamian archaeology that are discussed within this article.

References

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16 Mignan, Winter Journey II, p.120.

17 Mignan went on to observe about Malcolm that “the reputation of being a firm supporter of the humblest efforts of enterprise is a reputation which I must now humbly think he does not deserve”. Presumably his gift of a Babylonian brick did not have the desired results: BL, Additional Ms 80876, p.19; Mignan, Mignan, Travels in Chaldea, p. 192.

18 Mignan, Winter Journey, II, p.147; BL, Additional Ms 80876 p. 22.

19 Mignan, Winter Journey, I, pp. 140, 155. There were naturally other officers, too, who made a favourable impression on Mignan during the course of his travels and professional duties. On one occasion Captain Wyndham of the Indian Navy was noted for his kindness. The Mignan family stayed with Captain Minchin, commander of the Wynaud Rangers, at Manontoddy Station whilst travelling in southern India in 1833. Mignan described him as “particularly attentive and hospitable”. Mignan had a particular interest in seeing this station; his father had commanded there thirty-five years earlier: Mignan, Notes Extracted from a Journey, pp. 39–40.

20 Mignan, Winter Journey, II, p. 244; Mignan, Notes Extracted from a Journey, p. 71.

21 Mignan, Winter Journey, I, p. 142; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 17 (1860), pp. v-vii (Annual Report); Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2 (1835), p. xxxix; Royal Asiatic Society, Donations Register 1831–1843, p. 192; Madras Journal of Literature and Science, IV (1836), p. 183.

22 http://www.manfamily.org/PDFs/GrindlaySBank.pdf [Accessed 29.03.2017].

23 He also claimed the antiquarian John Robert Steuart as a friend. Steuart had a substantial collection of Near Eastern antiquities: Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, p. 193; ‘Cabinet of John Robert Steuart’ in The New Scots Magazine, No. IX, Vol. II (July 31, 1829), pp. 357–360.

24 ‘Some Account of the Ruins of Ahwuz. By Lieutenant Robert Mignan, of the First Bombay European Regiment; with Notes by Captain Robert Taylor, Resident at Bussorah’, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society (1830), 203–204, 208. Mignan managed to misidentify the sandstone ridge behind the town as part of the ancient city's walls: Curzon, G. N., Persia and the Persian Question (2 Vols, London, 1892), II, p. 351Google Scholar.

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30 Rich, Claudius James, Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon (London, 1818), pp. 25, 31Google Scholar.

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32 Mignan, Mignan, Travels in Chaldea, pp. 190–191.

33 Mignan, Mignan, Travels in Chaldea, p. 199.

34 Mignan, Mignan, Travels in Chaldea, p. vii.

35 Mignan, Mignan, Travels in Chaldea, pp. 162, 170–171, 186, 196. Mignan was clearly happy to verify Rich's evidence but also to point out quite categorically when he thought Rich was wrong. For instances where he states categorically that Rich is wrong see pp. 104, 203 (also Ker Porter), 224.

36 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, XXVII (1829), p. 725.

37 Mignan, Winter Journey, pp. 26–29. He also gathered more bricks from Ctesiphon: ibid, p. 90.

38 BL, Additional Ms 80876, p. 26.

39 ‘Idols of Bamean’, Morning Post, Wednesday September 11, 1833.

40 Mignan, Mignan, Travels in Chaldea, pp. 223–225, 229; Wallis Budge, Assyriology, pp. 31–32; Larsen, M. T., The Conquest of Assyria: Excavations in an Antique Land (Copenhagen, 1994), pp. 79–87Google Scholar, 177–227; Adkins, L., Empires of the Plain: Henry Rawlinson and the Lost Languages of Babylon (London, 2003), pp. 74–85Google Scholar, 89–103, 216–225.

41 I would like to thank Dr Jonathan Taylor for confirming that Wasit was generally identified with Cascara by 19th century scholars.

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43 Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register 31 (1840), p. 90.

44 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register, XXXVIII (1842), pp. 62, 245; Allen's Indian Mail (1849), p. 379.

45 Henry Willock's brother, Captain Frank Gore Willock of the Royal Navy, probably visited the region's antiquities where he had acquired some pieces for his own collection. In 1834 eight casts of sculptures from Persepolis, a brick from Babylon, a Cylinder and, rather curiously, a whistle that had belonged to the recently deceased Willock were donated to the Royal Asiatic Society on his behalf by his brother, Sir Henry Willock. Henry Willock, for example, created a modest coin collection which he later donated to the India House Museum: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2 (1835), p. xxxix; Royal Asiatic Society, Donations Register 1831–1843, p. 192; Madras Journal of Literature and Science, IV (1836), p. 183.

46 Mignan, Mignan, Travels in Chaldea, pp. 192, 229–230.

47 ‘Some Account of the Ruins of Ahwuz. By Lieutenant Robert Mignan, of the First Bombay European Regiment; with Notes by Captain Robert Taylor, Resident at Bussorah’, Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society (1830), p. 208.

48 Reade, J. E., ‘Tablets at Babylon and the British Museum’, in Babylon: Myth and Reality, (ed.), Finkel, I. L. and Seymour, M. J. (London, 2008), p. 75Google Scholar. I am also grateful to Dr Jonathan Taylor of the Middle East Department at the British Museum for determining that there is no surviving correspondence between Mignan and the Museum about the sale or gift of his personal collection of antiquities.

49 The National Archives, PROB 11/2162/122. Mignan had married Mary, daughter of the London merchant and ship owner, Joshua Jepson Oddy, an active member of the Russia and Levant Companies as well as a writer on political economy. Between them Mignan and his wife went on to have at least six children: The General Weekly Register of News, Literature, Law, Politics and Commerce (1822), p. 251.

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54 Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, pp. 192–193.

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57 Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, pp. 46, 51–52, 68–69.

58 Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, p. 171.

59 Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, p. 103.

60 Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, p. 196.

61 Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, pp. 228–229.

62 Mignan, Travels in Chaldaea, p. 293.

63 Mignan, Winter Journey, II, p. 27.

64 Mignan, Winter Journey, II, p. 27.

65 Mignan, Winter Journey, II, p. 90.

66 Mignan, Winter Journey, II, p. 99.

67 In 1847 Newbold was approached by Frederick Madden at the British Museum who asked him to purchase ancient manuscripts, particularly Greek whilst in Syria and Egypt. Newbold was also corresponding with Austen Layard: BL, Egerton Ms 2844 f. 241, Additional Ms 38979, f. 106r.

68 Mignan was hopeful of election to the Linnaean Society: BL, Additional Ms 80876, pp. 17–23.

69 A. N. L. Munby, The formation of the Phillips Library up to the year 1840, Phillips Studies Series 3 (Cambridge, 1954), p. 56.

70 BL, Additional Ms 80876, pp. 1–3, 5–7, 9–11, 25–27.

71 BL, Additional Ms 80876, pp. 33–34, 37–38.

72 Mignan, Notes extracted…’, p. v.

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79 ‘Critical Notices’, The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal (1830), III, p.7.

80 ‘Literacy Criticism’, Edinburgh Literary Journal (1829), II no. 53, p. 335.

81 ‘Art VI’, The Monthly Review (1829), XII, p. 538.

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