Description
Fifty-two, thin and yellowed, and quiet in a way that makes people fill silences at him. Twenty-six years in Bengal and has not been home since the Peace of Amiens. Calcutta is his world now, entirely, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
He knows where every body is buried because he filed the paperwork.
Background
Revenue department. Twenty-six years of assessments, land settlements, subscriptions, charitable foundations and their accounts. Every financial record in this Presidency for a generation has passed under his hand.
Married to Harriet Courtney, who came out at twenty and never went back either. Between them they could destroy any reputation in the settlement, and they are too polite to do it, which makes everyone slightly nervous around them.
What Meg Says
The Courtneys are Calcutta. They were here before anyone and they’ll be here after everyone. Harriet knows every scandal for thirty years. Edmund knows every financial record for the same period. Between them they could destroy any reputation in the settlement, and they’re too polite to do it, which makes everyone nervous.
Connections
- Harriet Courtney — his wife
- Charles Ashworth — a colleague of long standing
- Writers Building — where he has worked for twenty-six years
- Ashworth Dinner Garden Reach
In Play
Chapter 4, Session 9 (9 October 1814) — at the Magistrate’s table, and gloomy about it. He declared the loss of the Company’s trade monopoly under the new Charter Act to be doom for all of them, and was cheerfully contradicted from the far end of the table by the drunk Percy Cartwright.
His revenue records have not been raised. Thirty years of filings, never laid side by side, and the Absentee Account Pattern is in them. Still available.
Chapter 4, Session 11 (11 October 1814) — the ledgers, released. At the Writers Building he granted Freddy access to the syndicate’s records connected to Hawthorne Surlish and the Wentworth accounts, and ordered runners to retrieve stacks of dusty ledgers bound in red tape — the records behind Freddy’s major discovery this session (see Absentee Account Pattern and Temple Subscription Ledger).
Appearances
Connections
People
Family
- Harriet Courtney NPC warmTwenty-eight years in Bengal together2 sessions, The Magistrate's Table to By Command of His Excellency
Knows
- Charles Ashworth NPC neutralLong-standing colleague; dines at his table2 sessions, The Magistrate's Table to By Command of His Excellency
Places
Located at
- Writers Building Location neutralRevenue department2 sessions, The Magistrate's Table to By Command of His Excellency
Visited
- Garden Reach Location1 session: The Magistrate's Table
Events
Participated in
Papers
Owns
- Syndicate Charitable Disbursements Document neutralFiled in the revenue department, where he has filed every one of them for twenty-six years