Description

[003495] [Notice of a Death Sworn at Mansion House] . The Death of Charles Monk a Sailor. London: No Publisher, 1792. First Edition. 8vo. Unbound. Note. Good. Single sided manuscript note, approximately 185mm x 215mm in size.

Creased from old folds, otherwise fairly bright and clean.

Affidavit sworn at Mansion House on the 17th September, 1792, of ?Searles Wood, second mate on board the Essex East Indiaman, lately arrived from Bombay, affirming the death of a Charles Monk, late fifth mate on board the same ship, and that Monk had died on the island of Johanna, on or about the third day of October 1791.

There were several East India Company ships called Essex, this one was launched in 1780 (and was replaced by another Essex in 1803). Our unfortunate Mr. Monk died sailing on the fourth voyage, under a Captain Strover, which “sailed from Portsmouth on 17 May 1791, bound for Bombay. Essex reached Johanna on 28 September, and arrived at Bombay on 17 November. On 12 January 1792 she was at Surat, and she returned to Bombay on 22 January. Homeward bound, she was at Tellicherry on 27 February, and Anjengo on 8 March. She reached St Helena on 26 June and arrived at The Downs on 1 September” (Wikpedia).

Johanna is now known as Anjouan, an island in the Indian Ocean which forms part of the Union of the Comoros