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The group consists, for the most part, of papers, [c. 1750’s]-1771, connected with the general routine military administration but also includes some papers, 1756, relating to Clive’s own active service. Being few in number however, they provide only a fragmentary record of his military role with little for the early years of his service and his first governorship (1758-1760), but slightly more for his second administration (1765-1767). A few papers, dated 1764 and 1771, refer to events that occurred when Clive was not in India but are, nonetheless, pertinent to his service there.

Weekly, monthly and general returns of troops, ordnance, ammunition sepoys, lascars, coolies and artificers etc. relating to the various companies making up the East India Company’s army for the years [c. 1750s], 1760 and 1764-1767 with the notable exception of one return [c. 1757] relating to French army casualties. The companies’ returns include a roll, [c. 1750s], of the detachment of the Company’s troops victualled by Ensign Davies at Trivady [presumably during the war in the Carnatic known also as Dupleix’s war, 1749-1754], a return, 1760, of troops, etc., at Rajmahal under the command of Major John Caillaud (1724-1812), [presumably during the defence of Patna, 1759-1761], and returns, 1765-1767, of the three brigades established by Clive’s reforms of the military under the commands of Sir Robert Barker, General Carnac and Colonel Richard Smith and stationed at Patna and Allahabad. There are also returns, 1764 and [1765?], of the Company’s troops on board the Prince of Wales (at the Cape of Good Hope) and the Speke. The returns are mostly statistical but sometimes give the names of the troops and even their country of origin. The casualty return relates to the numbers of French killed and wounded at Chandernagore, [post 1757, March 23].

Weekly, monthly and general returns of troops, ordnance, ammunition sepoys, lascars, coolies and artificers etc., of the garrison at Fort William, Calcutta (including its detachments to Patna and at Allahabad), and of the troops in general on the Bengal establishment during Clive’s second governorship, 1765-1767.

Includes a weekly return of the workmen employed on the new fort, 1766, Feb. 24- March 3.

Lists of existing and proposed military establishments for 1763 and [c. 1765].

Lists of the numbers and ranks of the regiments, etc., of the British and Irish establishments of H. M. Land Forces for 1763.

Notes, memoranda, etc. relating to proposed military establishments mainly at Bengal but also at Bombay and Madras.

Scope and content: Original and contemporary copy regulations and general orders with regard to the military, artillery and sepoys in Bengal, staff and other officers’ pay and allowances, and the difference in pay between the military in the Royal Forces and the Company’s service.

A contemporary copy of CB4/1.

A further contemporary copy of CB4/1.

Papers relating to the Bengal expedition, 1756, and to the siege of Madurah, 1764.

Papers relating to Clive’s involvement in the Bengal expedition, despatched in 1756 from Madras (where he was deputy governor of Fort St. David) to Bengal to recapture Calcutta following the infamous ‘Black Hole’ incident. The papers include returns and an invoice of stores shipped for the expedition, Sept.-Oct. 1756, a warrant for the commander-in-chief to appoint courts martial and judge advocates, Oct. 1756, three copies of the journal of the proceedings of the land forces commanded by Clive, Oct. 1756, instructions from the Select Committee of Fort St. George to Clive, Oct. 1756, and a narrative [post-Nov. 1756] of the ‘Quarrel re Bengal’ from 9 April to 8 Nov. 1756.

Journal containing a day-to-day account with correspondence and despatches, March-Nov. 1764, relating to the siege of Madurah in the Presidency of Madras.

Miscellaneous military papers, [1750s]-1771.

Intelligence, communications, and memoranda, etc., on a variety of matters, largely undated, but deriving from the military situation prevailing in the late 1750s and in 1765-1766 during Clive’s second and third tours of duty in India. It includes the declaration, [c. 1756x1757], of Francis Sykes [at the time assistant to William Watts, chief of the factory at Cossimbazar] pertaining to Kissendas/Krishna Das [an Indian trader whose protection by the English following his embezzlement of the revenues of Siraj-ud-daula, the Nawab of Bengal, contributed to the war between the latter and the East India Company] taking up residence in Calcutta, intelligence relating to the strength of Chandernagore [presumably before its capture in March 1757], Clive’s statement on the undesirability of carrying arms beyond Bengal [presumably a reference to the policy of his second and last governorship commencing in 1765] and a memorandum relating to an officer’s resignation during the Batta mutiny, 1766.