AdminHistory | John Charles Mason (1798-1881) was the marine secretary of the colonial Indian government between 1837 and 1867. His career spanned the 1857-1859 Indian uprising as well as the subsequent decline of the East India Company and the transfer of government to direct rule under the British Government. John Charles Mason was the only son of Alexander Way Mason, the chief clerk in the secretary's office of the East India Company's home service. In 1817, after working in a solicitor's firm, he received an appointment in the secretary's office at East India House. After twenty years employed upon confidential duties under the committee of secrecy he was made secretary of the newly established marine branch of the secretary's office in 1837.
As secretary of the marine branch, Mason made a number of improvements to the Indian Navy and the coasts of India were surveyed. When the government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown in 1858, Mason retired from service. The following year he was recalled and appointed secretary of the marine and transport department at East India House, and afterwards at the India Office in Whitehall. In 1865 he was appointed the member to represent the government of India on the committee on the Indian overland troop transport service, in recognition of the evidence he furnished to the select committees on the transport of troops to India. He retired from service in 1867. [Source: G.C. Boase, 'Mason, John Charles (1798-1881)', rev. Katherine Prior, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]
The East India Company was first granted a licence to trade by Elizabeth I in 1600. A shipyard at Blackwall (in the Hamlet of Poplar and Blackwall, a constituent Hamlets of the Parish of Stepney). The Company first established a hospital-cum-almshouse at Poplar, close to the its dockyard in 1627. Almshouses for the relief of aged and infirm sailors and their widows continued to exist at Poplar for another 240 years. In 1654 the Company helped to finance the building of a chapel for the inhabitants of the Hamlet of Poplar and Blackwall which was erected adjacent to the hospital. In time the Poplar Chapel, as it was known, came into the full control of the Company.. In 1802 the old almshouses on the south side of the chapel were pulled down and new buildings erected in their place, capable of accommodating 38 lower grade pensioners (i.e. petty officers of seamen, or their widows); on the north side of the chapel 12 better class houses were erected for higher grade pensioners (officers or their widows), and a further 6 were added in 1808. Pensioners receiving money from the "Poplar Fund" as it was known, could either live in the almshouses, or live elsewhere as "out-pensioners". A waiting list usually existed for those wishing to be admitted to residence in the almshouses on the death or removal of the inmate. The Poplar Fund furnishing the charitable donations to pensioners was financed from a variety of sources (including a levy on the wages of Company seamen, and the regulations governing the Fund were revised from time to time over the years. According to the last set of regulations issued in 1832, no officer or seaman was entitled to a pension unless he had served a full 10 years and was physically unfit for further duty; an exception to this rule was made for those killed or disabled - in such cases a pension was granted to mariners or their widows irrespective of time served. To qualify, widows had to be married more than a year and be over 40 (unless incapable of earning a living). Children born during the father's maritime service were entitled to a pension until they reached the age of 18. Pensions varied according to rank and were "means tested", a reduction being made according to any other sources of income. In 1801 another fund was created, called the Poplar Contingent Fund; this aimed to assist a select number of commanders and their families who did not strictly qualify for relief under the existing Fund regulations. The Contingent Fund was abolished in 1821 but pensions continued to be paid after that date to those qualifying for relief at the time of its abolition. In 1858 the government of India passed to the Crown and pensions were then paid by the Accountant General's Branch of the India Office. In 1866 the Poplar almshouses were pulled down and the land sold to the Poplar District Board of Works, compensation being given to the existing tenants. Poplar Chapel became the parish church of St Matthias in 1867; the church closed as a place of worship in 1878 and is now used as a community centre.
Most surviving records of the East India Company are held at the British Library. These include a number of records relating to the Poplar Fund. For more details about these see I. A. Baxter's article "Records of the Poplar Pension Fund" in the East London Record no. 8 (1985) pp. 30-33, from which much of the information in this Administrative History has been extracted. There is also a collection of Mason's papers in the University of Manchester Special Collections.
Tower Hamlets Local History Library holds a considerable number of books, pamphlets, cuttings and illustrations concerning the East India Company.
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CustodialHistory | Most of the records were purchased by Poplar Borough Council from G. Harding and Co. Ltd. in January 1949, being described as coming from "the library of an official of the East India Company who held office in the late 19th century". See East End News, 21 Jan 1949 for a summary list of the documents purchased, some of which were later transferred to the India Office Library and Records (now held at the British Library). The Poplar and Blackwall Trophy Tax assessment book for 1715 was catalogued as part of the records of the Parish of All Saints Poplar and former Hamlet of Poplar and Blackwall]. The transcipt of the burial register of the Poplar Chapel had been purchased by Poplar Council in 1917 (see Poplar Libraries Committee minutes for 5 June 1917). For some records, notably loose papers, the provenance is not apparant but these were propabley part of the purchase made in 1949. The transcript of Stepney Vestry minutes was purchased from a dealer in 1991.
Many of the documents are official East India Company records and it is assumed that Mason kept these in his possession to facilitate writing some sort of history of the marine branch of the East India Company that was never realised. |