Holdings Information

Bibliographic Record Display

• Author/Creator:Bowrey, Thomas, approximately 1650-1713.
  
• Title:Thomas Bowrey logbook and journal, [17--].
  
• Physical Description:2 items.
  
• Links:View a digital version in the Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online database (Vol. 1)
  View a digital version in the Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online database (Vol. 2)
  

• Yale Holdings

  Holdings Record Display

  • Location:BEINECKE (Non-Circulating)
    Request for Use in the Beinecke Reading Room
    
    
  • Call Number: Osborn fc177
    
  • Status:Not Checked Out
    

   
• Notes:Binding: both volumes bound in tooled full reverse calf; logbook has red morocco spine label with "Account Book" in gilt letters.
  Journal has eighteenth century gold-stamped, red morocco label pasted on inside front cover: Thos. Bowrey Born Jan. 4 A.D. 1661. Autograph of Henry H. Goddard on front pastedown and front flyleaf.
  Purchased from Bonhams on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Fund, 2006.
  
• Biographical / Historical note:Thomas Bowrey (ca. 1650-1713), pilot, East India merchant, and investor, was the compiler of the first published Malay-English dictionary (1701).
  
• Summary:Two manuscript volumes containing logbook entries, journal entries, rental accounts, and descriptions of voyages by Thomas Bowrey. The logbook volume contains "Some particular Remarks at Kedgerry on Bengall River By Thos. Bowrey, Commander the Ship London," which are log entries from July 1 to November 4, 1701. Entries document weather conditions, arrivals and departures of other ships, supplies taken on, and trading. These are followed by seven astronomical and navigational charts, accompanied by an entry, dated December 23, 1695, recounting navigating through "fields of ice" and offering "a description of the plans of the country....during the course of my voyage endeavoring to find the northwest passage." This volume also contains a copy of Bowrey's will, as well as a drawing of the plans for Bowrey's monument and a copy of his contract with its mason; a three-page autobiography covering his life from birth to his retirement from sea in 1702; a chart of the Malabar Coast opposite Fort St. George; and copies of several poems by Shakespeare and others in a different hand.
  The journal volume contains "An Account of the Journall of a Voyage from England to Bengall...in the Worcester East Indiaman commanded by Captn. Thomas Bowrey...1689...1691;" "A Description & account of the Different Islands & bays on the NW Coast...and Likewise the Behaviour of the Natives from Each different place," with three coastal maps; drawings of an escutcheon and a burial monument; leasehold accounts; and extracts from Shakespeare.
  
• Format:Archives or Manuscripts
• Cite as:Thomas Bowrey Logbook and Journal. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
  
• Subjects:Bowrey, Thomas, approximately 1650-1713.
  East India Company.
  English Company Trading to the East-Indies.
  Astronomy--Observations.
  Explorers--Great Britain.
  Nautical charts--India--Malabar Coast.
  Spice trade--England--17th century.
  Spice trade--Great Britain--17th century.
  Bengal, Bay of--Commerce.
  Bengal, Bay of--Maps.
  Bengal (India)--Commerce.
  Bengal (India)--Description and travel.
  India--History--1526-1765.
  Malabar Coast (India)--Description and travel.
  Malabar Coast (India)--Navigation.
  Northwest Passage--Description and travel.
  Northwest Passage--Discovery and exploration--British.
  
• Genre/Form:Commonplace books.
  Drawings (visual works)
  Logbooks.
  Maps.