Mss Eur,Reginald ORTON, letters India to Yorkshire

Reginald ORTON, Military Surgeon, India

British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections, Mss Eur. D.1036..................

Reginald ORTON (d. 1835), military surgeon: letters to his family about life in India, his career prospects and his book An Essay on the Epidemic Cholera of India 1810 - 1821.




A transcript of letters from Reginald Orton (d 1835), surgeon's mate on the East Indiaman 'Armiston' 1810, assistant surgeon and surgeon with H M 34th Regiment 1810-27, telling his family about life in India and his career propects, and about his book 'An Essay on the Epidemic Cholera Of India' (Madras 1820; 2nd edn London 1831).

Bombay Septr. 10th 1810

My dear Mother
I am afraid the wonderful things which I am just going to tell you about will give you a great deal more pain than pleasure. My last, if it has reached you, will partly have prepared you to hear of them, what I then thought "unlikely" has now come to pass - (not to keep you longer in suspense) I have left the Armiston and am appointed Assistant Surgeon to H.M's 65th Regiment! - this is not all!! I have another equally great piece of news, which you shall hear as soon as you have digested this; let me now explain how this wonderful event has happened. James and I began as soon as I arrived here and left no stone unturned to bring it about. We applied to a member of Council that he has interest with, who recommended us to a member of the Medical Board - he could do nothing, so we went back to the other great man and got him to write a letter to the Capt of the ship desiring him to set me at liberty - this he positively refused, and I had lost all hopes of succeeding when a most extraordinary and unexpected event brought about all my schemes in a moment - the Compy's regular ship Earl Cambden was burnt, and the Surgn mate of her gladly accepted a situation which I as gladly gave up - an exchange was made - all the formalities got over - and I received the permission of Governt. to remain in India. Half my plan was now executed - it only remained to get an appointment. An Assistant Surgeon was wanted for H. M's 34th Regt. lying at Jaulnah a place about 30 miles in the interior of the country and I fully expected to get that situation till a few days ago when we received a letter informing us that it was likely to be filled from Madras. That being the case I applied for and obtained this which I now fill in the 65th which regiment will in the course of a day or two sail for the Isle of France! -- I assure you my dear mother, it was not without the greatest reluctance I gave up hopes of seeing you again for so long a time as it is likely to be - but all-powerful interest carried everything before it. If I had remained in the service it was most likely it would have been a number of years before I should have got to be surgeon of a large ship, till which happened it wd. have been scarce possible for me to save anything --- indeed the products of the voyage I had begun would hardly have paid my debts, much less have enabled me to prosecute my studies in London. --- On the other hand by accepting this appointment I am put in possession of a salary of upwards of Thirty Pounds a Month --- an unanswerable argument. That is the Pay at present and will be as long as they remain on active service, or are stationed at any distance from Bombay, and if the Isle of France is taken there is little chance of our returning for some time. But it is not so easy to save money here as you will imagine -- one is obliged to live like other people -- to mess with the officers which is very expensive; however I hope to be able to pay my debts soon, which are by the by much greater than you think. I have had a great deal of money of James, for with fitting out and one thing and another (everything so dear at this place) I have been at a great expense. James has been proposing to me a plan which will contribute much to your comfort, and which I hope we shall be able to put in execution ere long -- but let us be just be........... are generous. -----It is now about five weeks since I was released from the Armiston, all which time I have been spending at Versovah (pleasantly enough you may be sure) in expectation of the appt. in the 34th Regt. ..... have got a very good house and are living Ta........... you very comfortable. -----I wish you could see what a fine little fellow my namesake is! I should be afraid of his being spoiled if I did not foresee that he would have a rival before ---- hush! This letter has to go to Versovah before it is sent off. Give my kind respects to Mr & Mrs Goodwin and the Gales ---- I intend to write to Anne if I can possibly find time before we sail which will most likely be in two or at farthest three days; I am to go in the small Company's cruizer Thetis; perhaps you will see it mentioned in the account you will receive by & bye of the capture of the Isle of France. Give my best love to Fanny who I hope is still (with Anne) doing very well in the way of business - not forgetting my dear little creditor Bessy---------Farewell my dear Mother, I hope no rascally cannon-ball or pistol-bullet will make this the last letter you have to receive from

Yr ever affectionate Regd Orton



Madras 29th March 1811

Here I am, my dear Mother, preparing to write to you again, from another quarter of the globe, & with a thousand more strange things to tell you of --- the first and greatest of wh. is that I am ordered to join my own corps at Jaulnah and consequently have to undertake a journey of 700 miles over the Plains of Hindostan. -- I am now all business and bustle preparing for it. I have the prospect and only the prospect of a companion on the way. I recd. a note this Evening from a Capt. of the 34th say[ing] that he had heard that I was going to join and should be very glad of my company as he intended leaving Madras for Jaulnah in a few days. I sent to him instantly & learnt that he goes on bd. ship tomorrow for Musulipatam, so if he can't wait for me this excellent opportunity must be lost, for I am not half ready - however I shall hear more in the morning....... I have not heard a word from Bombay since I left it so am all anxiety to hear from them and from you. I have wrote to Jas desiring him to send a letter to meet me at Hydrabad a place abt. 1/2 way to Jaulnah, wh. if he writes directly may be done very well. I expect a large packet of news. I flattered myself I shd. have been able to remit money to you from here; if I had gone to Batavia I might have done it very well, but am sorry to say that it is quite impossible now - my expenses now are enormous! You will hardly be able to believe me when I tell you they will amount to 150£! I will try to give you some idea of them -- hiring bullocks to carry my baggage, wh. I suppose is the best way, I have reason to believe will amount to abt. 30 £. I think I shall buy a poney or some low-priced horse just to carry me up, as I am told good horses are much cheaper there than here, wh. with a second-hand bridle & saddle will perhaps cost me 20 £. Then I am 40£ in debt - money taken up of paymaster of 84th at Port Louis and here - mess accts. on bd. ship & here, servants wages and things bought at sale of Asst. Surgn's effects that died. The prices of Europe articles here are incredible. I have given 2: 10 for a hat & 8£ for a scarlet coat.....Tavern expenses and Palanquin hire! Do you know it's impossible to walk a hundred yards in this heavenly climate! If you want to go out you must pay 5s a day for being carried on men's shoulders. I hear it will be my best plan to go by sea to Musulipatam (a sea port up the coast) as it cuts off 200 miles of the journey & the expense is very trifling; but it is difficult to meet with conveyances. I will do it if I can. I shall require five or six bullocks to carry my luggage wh. consists of a Tent, 3 Trunks, Table, Chair, Writing Desk, Cot, and Canteen i.e. Box containing my eating, drinking and cooking apparatus. It is customary to travel only frm ten to fifteen miles a day in India - the heat of the climate makes it impossible to do more with comfort as the only time in wh. one can bear to move is from 3 to 7 in the morning. So you see what a precious long jaunt I am to have of it...Two Months at least!

---------30th Was ever poor devil so vexed with difficulties and dilemmas as I am! and so little able to deal with them! I have been laboring harder than a cart-horse ever since I came to town and am at this moment farther from my point than ever! I can't get any money! The paymaster general would not give money without an order - "Where was I to get it?" "From the Auditor Genl. Col. Bruce". Col. Bruce "has no authority to give me an order." It was necessary for me to get the sanction of Governt.! I must apply to Major Tylden, Deputy Adjutt. Genl. or to Col. Agnew, Military secretary to the Comr. in Chief. Major Tylden could do nothing! From Col. Agnew I at last heard something more satisfactory, but how satisfactory! I must write in to him requesting him to make application to the Comr. in Chief for his sanction to enable me to receive so and so ----my petition would be presented on Tuesday and I might think myself fortunate if I got an answer that day --- most likely it would be the end of the week -- well be it so! If by the end of the week or the end of the next week I surmount this mountain of difficulties I shall think myself fortunate and feel a sensible surprize that it has happened at all. What makes my case the harder is that I have four months pay due (abt. 133£) and can't get it!! because, forsooth I have not joined my regiment. Oh! How cordially I could send E[?]-------and all its dependancies to the D---------. Then again this Capt. Carnegie - he is gone off for Musulm. ; he has been so good as to promise to wait for me there 12 days - if I don't join him by that time he will sett off. How very probable it is that this annoying business will detain me longer than that & what a grevious disappointment it would be attended with! Capt. C. is an old traveller in India & is perfectly acquainted with everything relating to travel. He tells me there are the greatest thieves and most daring rascals in the world on the road & that I should be robbed of all I had & may-be my life into the bargain if the greatest precautions were not taken travelling alone and ignorant of everything. However don't let us look only on the dark side of the affair. I have furnished myself with a pair of pistols wh. may stand me in good part. And I know the natives of India are in genl. a set of weak cowardly wretches. Capt. C. recommends me by all means to go by sea to Musulm. & I certainly will if possible wh. is now more likely as I hear of a ship going to sail for there in a few days. I shall put off buying a horse till I get there. And now, d'ye know I am going to make a great boast and praise myself up to the skies; mighty indeed is the task wh. I have accomplished! Can you imagine a greater to one who is blessed with so little brass as I am, to have to call upon, introduce myself face to face, and tell my story to half a dozen great men, one after another, with their long grave phizres [?] . I had rather have walked ten miles even under the burning sun that is now shining in at my window, than have faced one of them! However, from evil cometh good. I find [I] have got a lesson in the school of the world wh. will be of great use to me. I got over it to my no small self-satisfaction.

------April 1st. Prospects brighten a little - my affair seems to be in a fair way and only wants a little patience. I have wrote the letter to Col. Agnew & have had a polite note in return; says he would lay it before the Comr. in Chief tomorrow. I have just heard a little news wh. however I was not quite ignorant of before---Mr Abercrombie the surgeon of the 34th is waiting for my joining to go to England and it seems my absence at the Isle of France cannot have detained him much for the other Asst. S. has been absent frm. the Regt. on a trial here, & indeed has hardly arrived at Jaulnah yet. So that is all well & good. The Senior Asst. surgn. will be put in charge on the surgeon's departure and I of course shall be his head Aid de Camp. I have scraped an acquaintance with a brother stick[?] at the tavern here from whom I have leant all this. I hear of a sailing for Musulm. too, in four or five days, wh. I think will just suit me.

April 3d. I'm in a hopeful way! I've got no money yet nor am I likely to do it - difficulties increase at every step & here I could grumble a whole page to you in the same style but I won't. I am resolved to set the best face I can on the affair, & hope that the next day, or if not the next, the next to that, will do my business. I fully expected to have it concluded this morning, instead of wh. I was told that a certificate of the last pay I had recd. & an extract fm. Genl. Orders & the duce knows what else was necessary. I got them all & sent them in again & am to hear more on Friday, the 5th. I find I can get a passage to Musulm. in four days, so if I can only manage the other affair I shall get on swimmingly. If I am detained longer I purpose sending my baggage & serv. by the ship & go myself in a Palanquin. I can do [it?] in a week but it will cost me 15£ or more! - Perhaps I may meet with another sea conveyance. I will now just astonish your weak minds a little with giving you an acct. of the reasonable charges of the tavern I am living at. In the 1st place my room and bed costs me 3"9 a day - my breakfast 3s. Tiffen or a lunch wh. is always eaten in India abt. 1 or 2 oclock is 3s 9d. and Dinner (at 7 oclock) 7s 6d.! A glass of brandy & water is 15d; a bottle of wine 7s 6d.; or a glass 15d; a bottle of beer 3s 9d. ---- but believe me I don't incur many of these expenses. I make my Tiffen serve me for a dinner & drink very little of this beer or wine.

April 5th. I find misfortunes, like doses of laudanum, lose a great deal of their effect by being gradually increased. When I found today that I had lost my passage to Musulipatam by sea, that I had lost the company of Capt. Carnegie on the road, that I must unavoidably be detained here four or five days longer, running all the time over head and ears in debt ---I say I perceived all these agreeable circumstances with perfect calmness and resignation! And to make the best of a bad bargain, set about forming my plans, and seeking for agreeable ideas from them to drive away those disagreeable ones. I would pack up all [......] directly and send them by the ship. I would buy a horse and go my[..............]; I could get a little poney for my boy for 50s. & he should [.......................] with a couple of clean shirts & some cold meat and bread wh. we would [.................] at every village we came to. I could eat it without either plate or knife & fork; when I had [.........] could fall asleep under a Mangoe Tree. I could get on twenty or five & twenty miles a day very well & so would get to Musulipatam before Capt. Carnegie had left it --- and would not that be better than lying sea sick and half dead with ennui on bd. ship?-----So it is you see, that my enviable disposition can accomodate itself to evils & even change them into good. This is the plan I have formed & wh. I am resolved to put in execution. I have sent my luggage on bd. ship & the day after I have got my money will set off as I have told you.

[The remainder of the letter mainly illegible].



Hyderabad June 21st 1812
My dear Sister

I have just been very highly gratified by the rect. of your letter of Decr. 18th containing one from my mother --- a ship is to sail early next month by wh. you will get this letter & most likely another I wrote four months ago to my mother wh. was too late for the ships I intended it to go by & is now at Madras --- an officer of the regiment went in those ships & I took the opportunity of sending by him eighty pounds to my mother; he was to have carried the letter but it arrived too late at Madras; however I had given him my mother's address & he promised to write to her on his arrival in England to enquire when the money was to be paid; so I hope you will have heard of it long before this letter reaches you; the ship he went in was the Wm. Pitt. If you should not have heard of it, write to him at Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland (Lieut. Collis), if that doesn't reach him, H.M 2nd Battn. 34th Regt., Portugal - but I hope he will not give you any trouble about it. I am now glad that that letter was detained as it would have alarmed you groundlessly about James. I am happy that I have a better account to give you of him now --- he has been quite well some time & has been up in Gurzerat & come back to Bombay on duty; however I know no more than I did about his illness -- one or more letters from him & one from Barba. have miscarried - the last I had was about a month ago when they were all well - his pay is now not near as good as it was which is owing to his being deprived of the charge of his corps (of course) when he was obliged to leave it on acct. of his health. I suppose he will regain it soon. His pay is now a good deal less than mine. I hear he has not yet paid my mother the money he borrowed wh. indeed is not to be wondered at. I robbed him of a considerable sum & he has lately been at great expense; however I suppose he will be able to send it off in the course of three months as in that ime I shall have paid him great part of what I owe him. We are still on full allowances & are likely to remain here long wh. is a most capital thing for us. But I am forgetting to tell you a piece of great & good news wh. I have heard lately --- my appointment to the 34th is confirmed in England so that I am now in possession of a regular commission dated 30th Sept. 1810....besides two Asst. Surgeons of the regt. have resigned, wh. makes me now second Asst. (I was 4th when I came in), wh. is reckoned great luck. I shall most likely soon be 1st when I should most probably get a surgency on its becoming vacant, wh. is equal to a Capt. in the army, an Esquire in his own right --- but that I am not sanguine enough to hope for in less than 5 years - as to making a fortune it is the farthest thing from my thoughts. I shall save a few hundreds during my stay in India, but that is all; however I am quite content. I have ensured to myself a comfortable & very honorable situation in life with a certain prospect of bettering it. I have no hopes of getting charge of a corps in this country, wh. is an immense thing -- the Asst. Surgn. in charge of ours has an income of 2500L per annum, yet he only came out exactly in the way wh. I did 6 years ago - without interest . I am very happy to hear of Charles Inman's good fortune tho' I should have recommended him to go into the army or navy & he will perhaps yet see the necessity of it --- then his prospects would be certain, besides in the line he has chosen I shd. think he would require a good deal both of interest & money; he may spend many years of the best part of his life in his prest. situation & find himself just where he set out. I should be very happy if circumstances would admit of our acquaintance being more intimate as I feel a most lively esteem & interest for him. I look forward to the time when the regiment will go home with that enviable kind of sensation with wh. one wishes for a thing wh. will make one very happy when it arrives, yet feels no anxiety or longing for it. This is just the setting in of the monsoon, or rainy season with us, the frequent showers have cooled the air so much that it is now no hotter than you have it in England at this time --- nor shall we have it much hotter for eight months to come, but the spring is always terribly hot ---this last has been reckoned very temperate tho' the thermometer was above 100 (I have seen it 110); exposure to the sun for an hour was sufficient to raise blisters on the hands & face & was very nearly hot enough to roast an egg --- the thermr. (Fahr.) is now abt. 70 wh. I think you will find no higher than it rises on a hay-making day with you. So you see we have not much to complain of - indeed our lives are pleasant enough and only too dissipated. We (the offrs. of the regt.) have parties every week or fortnight when every person is at liberty & expected to get drunk. On the 4th, the King's birthday, we gave a dinner to everybody at the station wh. cost about £100. -----My mother mentions having seen young Simpson & says nothing of the £ he was to have paid her; what can he mean?[ ?I hope] she will have no scruple in asking for it if [he does] not think proper to mention it. I think I mentioned it in one or two of my former letters. I also desired my mother to pay Robt. Bainbridge five pounds for a coat I had of him - I now find it has cost only four. Bessy will find out his address. I am very happy to hear so good an account of Bessy & will certainly write to her; however give my love to her & Fanny. I have recd. a letter frm. Jas. this day (the 22nd) enclosing my mother's wh. came by Simpson - it cnts. no news except his being appointed to do duty with an artillery corps but with little increase of pay. He hopes to get something better soon; all well & happy. I am glad to hear you are getting on so very tolerably well. My mother too seems pretty comfortable. I do not doubt that I shall have the pleasure of seeing you all again by and by. I have nothing to fill up this blank space except Love to my mother & assuring you that I am your ever affectionate Br. Regd Orton.

The letter I mentioned is on board the Barossa.

PS. I have heard nothing of my prize money yet but am sure to get it sooner or later whatever it is. My pay in England is 7s 6 a day - a tolerable [ ] a surgeon's 11s.



Madras 6th May 1821

My dear Anne,
I have at last got this long talked of charge of the regiment. The Surgeon embarked for England a month ago. It is not of so much advantage to me as you may think from what I have told you; for though I am nominally in receipt of an immense income, there is not much of it falls to my share, as I was obliged to agree to give up the principal part of it to the Surgeon to induce him to go home, which he would not have done else. Half a loaf is better than no bread. However I get about 900£ a year, and will save 700 of it; and if the regiment remains in India a year and a half or two years longer, I shall have realized quite enough to enable me to go on half pay and spend my time as I like. I have fully made up my mind to go on half pay when I get my promotion to Surgeon, which I am very confident of doing. When I go home I will find out some pleasant place to set myself down in -- probably Richmond or some place in your neighbourhood, maybe Hauxwell itself. You will be disappointed to hear me talk of remaining so much longer in the country, and I really should be almost as well pleased if the regt. were to go home now, though it would put a stop to all my present pains. But I should be very much to blame to sacrifice such an opportunity as now have of making myself easy for life, by bearing the evils of this country a little longer. Rely on it however nothing shall hinder me to stay more than about a couple of years more. There is now less prospect than there was years back of the regiment going home soon, but I could almost at any time get home without it. My constitution is a good deal weakened by the climate, but without proving the least danger to my life, and I have only to get another medical man to give me a certificate that it would be advisable for my health to return to Europe, which would certainly procure me leave.

It is an age since I heard from you. Pray write oftener. Best love to my mother and Bessy, who I hope has quite recovered. I wrote to you in August last, and sent you some copies of this book of mine by an officer of the regiment, who was going to Hull. I hope you have received them long before this. The book has succeeded very well, and I must say (though it comes ill from me) has gained me credit. I have received the most flattering letters about it from all the Medical Boards of the three Presidencies. I have a good number of copies disposed of by private sale, and the Government have purchased from me 100 copies, for which alone I get about 140£. They are intended for distribution to Superintending (or Head) Surgeons all over the country; which is a very flattering thing for me. People tell me the book will sell well in England. I wish I had an edition of it printed in London, and have intended all along to have it done, but I hardly know whom to apply to to undertake it. I shouldn't wonder if someone was to print it in London without asking my leave, as they probably have a right to do if they like. It is a great pity I have not somebody to look after it; for it is likely the sale of it would be at least as productive at home as here, and might fetch several hundred pounds. James is highly delighted with my production; and tells me that whenever he feels low-spirited he reads it, and every cloud disappears -- which of itself is a gratification sufficient to repay me for the labour it has cost me. I should be bringing forth my second volume, but must defer it some time. The application which the first cost me has done my health no good. I think I shall not attempt to finish the other until I get home.

My life is a [ ] blank at present, and hangs rather heavily on my hands. In this country very few have quiet domestic female society; and that is certainly the greatest charm of a man's life. My almost sole amusements are books, and laying schemes of happiness to be put in practice some couple of years hence at home. I think I should like to live in the country and have a few acres of land - keep a cow or two, some sheep and pigs, a horse, a few hives of bees & very much in your style. I would take a trip to London now and then, and perhaps to France and Italy; or if I found myself cured of the itch of wandering, I might drive you or Bessy in a gig down to the sea-coast, and come quietly back again.---You would naturally be looking out for a wife for me, and I shouldn't be surprised if I found myself fairly coupled some fine morning - that is if I could find any body whose society I could value to have me, and it is not all a clear thing with me that I should, for you will find a vast change in my appearance since I saw you. I am always thin, and between the sun and the Seringapatam fever I have got a vile complexion. Besides this, I have within this year or two back made the unwelcome discovery of a number of curved lines in my cheeks, which had no business to be making [an appearance?] for many years to come. However, I hope breathing [ ]with you will fill them up again --- I think a gallop [ ] have on a frosty morning on Barden Moor would put new life in [ ].

I have no news to give you of James or his [ ]. He sometimes takes low fits and does not write[ ] a great while (as ....... I do myself) and that is the case at present. He is now in a very good situation, and I hope is laying by money fast to enable him to get our of this vile country. ----I would have sent you some money with this but there is a terrible loss in procuring bills on England at present.

God love you all, says Your ever affectionate coach

R. Orton.






WILL, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, PROB 11/1847 310
Reginald Orton Esquire
My last Will and Testament made at Dublin, June 16th 1830.
To my sisters Anne and Elizabeth, my nephew Reginald, and my nieces Anne, Emma and Catherine Orton I leave the sum of £500 each. I leave my little freehold at Murton in Westmorland to be the joint property of my sisters Anne and Elizabeth Orton. My personal effects and any other remaining property there may be I leave to my nephew Reginald Orton excepting a gold watch and chain which I leave to my sister Elizabeth Orton in memory of the affection she has always shown me, which I now appreciate if I did not always do so.
Reginald Orton[signed]
I appoint my sisters Anne and Elizabeth Orton joint Executrixes of my will.Reginald Orton[signed]
Witnesses present: Frans. Sullivan, Serena S. Morgan, G.M.Ellis.
Proved at London, 1 May 1835 before the Judge by the oaths of Anne Orton and Elizabeth Orton, spinsters, the sisters, the Executrixes to whom Admon. was granted being first sworn by comon. duly to administer.
For Anglo-European Ancestry in India, visit the site of Cathy Day.
For Probate records of other members of the ORTON Family, see Orton - Will Abstracts


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