The Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, established 1774, sitting in Calcutta with jurisdiction over British subjects.
Description
The Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, established 1774, sitting in Calcutta with jurisdiction over British subjects. Its records are public, which makes it the one serious archive in the city that needs no introduction and no bribe, only patience.
Notable Features
- Coroners’ inquests. Cause of death, witnesses, and the verdict. Two returns from the Zorab godown sit here. See Zorab Sale.
- Wills and estates. Europeans die constantly and their effects are catalogued in detail.
- Insolvencies. The slow public death of a merchant house is fully documented, which is how a firm’s decline becomes readable.
- What it will not give you. The court has no jurisdiction over Indians outside Calcutta, so nothing at Baranagar is here. That gap is itself informative.
The Senses
- Smell. Wool, wigs, hot bodies, dust, and sealing wax.
- Sound. One voice at a time, and a clerk’s pen, and outside the window everything else.
- Colour. Dark panelling, white bands and wigs, and the strong flat daylight of a room built with tall windows and no shutters.