Bot at 03:40, 19 May 2022

2022-05-19T03:40:56Z

New page

{{Infobox person
| pre-nominals =
| name = Frederic Charles Danvers
| post-nominals = [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|ComC]]
| image = Frederico Danvers - O Occidente (11Dez1893).png
| caption = Engraved portrait by [[:pt:Caetano Alberto da Silva|Caetano Alberto da Silva]], after a photograph by J. Robinson & Sons
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1833|07|01|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Hornsey]], [[London Borough of Haringey|Haringey]], [[Greater London|London]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1906|05|17|1833|07|01|df=y}}
| death_place = Broad Oaks, [[Addlestone]], [[Surrey]]
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Civil servant
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
'''Frederic Charles Danvers''' (1833–1906), often '''Frederick''', was a British civil servant and writer on engineering. The Superintendent of the [[India Office Records]] between 1884 and 1898, he was also a historian and wrote works on [[India]].<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB12|wstitle=Danvers, Frederic Charles|volume=1}}</ref>

==Life==
Born at [[Hornsey]] on 1 July 1833, he was second son of Frederick Samuel Danvers of Hornsey, an officer in the [[East India Company]]'s service, and his wife Mary Matilda Middleton, daughter of H. Middleton of Wanstead, Essex. After education at the [[Merchant Taylors' School, London]], [[King's College, London]], and [[Addiscombe College]], he studied for two years as a civil and mechanical engineer. Then he became, on 26 January 1853, a writer in the old East India House.<ref name="DNB"/>

On the creation of the India Office Danvers was, in September 1858, made a junior clerk there. Deputed in 1859 to Liverpool and Manchester to report on the fitness of [[traction engine]]s for use in India, where railway construction was still in its infancy, he was transferred on account of his technical knowledge to the public works department of the India Office in 1861. He there rose to be senior clerk in June 1867, and assistant secretary in February 1875.<ref name="DNB"/> He attended the [[Exposition Universelle (1867)|Exposition Universelle]] of 1867 in Paris, reporting in the ''[[Quarterly Journal of Science]]'' that other European nations were closing the technology gap with the United Kingdom.<ref>Graeme Gooday, ''Precision Measurement and the Genesis of Physics Teaching Laboratories in Victorian Britain'', The British Journal for the History of Science Vol. 23, No. 1 (Mar., 1990), pp. 25–51, at p. 44. Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The British Society for the History of Science {{jstor|4026801}}</ref>

Plans by Danvers for a tunnel under the [[Hugli River]] to continue the East India railway into Calcutta were forwarded by [[Sir Stafford Northcote]] to India in 1868. In 1877 he was transferred as assistant secretary to the revenue department of the India Office, and was in January 1884 made registrar and superintendent of records.<ref name="DNB"/> He undertook sorting and binding of records. A start was made on their publication, with lists, calendars and catalogues also produced.<ref>Rajeshwari Datta, ''The India Office Library: Its History, Resources, and Functions'', The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy Vol. 36, No. 2 (Apr., 1966), pp. 99–148, at p. 123. Published by: The University of Chicago Press {{jstor|4305637}}</ref> Work on the archive continued into the 1930s, but the scale was large, and projects, even though selective, were left incomplete. Another scholarly effort began in the 1960s.<ref>Vahé Baladouni and Margaret Makepeace, ''Armenian Merchants of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries: English East India Company Sources'', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 88, No. 5 (1998), pp. i-xxxvii+1-294, at p. 7. Published by: American Philosophical Society DOI: 10.2307/1006664 {{jstor|1006664}}</ref>

Danvers was sent to [[Lisbon]] in 1891 to study records of Portuguese rule in the East. His report, based on research in the [[Torre do Tombo]] archives and the public libraries in Lisbon and Evora, was published in 1892. He retired from the India Office in July 1898.<ref name="DNB"/> His work on Portuguese records and history was recognised with the [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|Order of Christ]], knight commander. Archival researches 1893–5 at [[The Hague]] into Dutch maritime history were the subject of a further report, published in 1945 as ''Dutch activities in the east''.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=32709|first=Robert|last=Sharp|title=Danvers, Frederick Charles}}</ref>

Danvers died on 17 May 1906 at Broad Oaks, [[Addlestone]], Surrey, and was buried at All Saints' Church, [[Benhilton]].<ref name="DNB"/>

==Works==
Danvers published ''History of the Portuguese in India'' (2 vols. 1894), an ambitious work. Sydney Ernest Fryer wrote in the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' that it "was marred by want of perspective and incomplete reference to authorities.<ref name="DNB"/>

Outside his official duties, Danvers wrote mainly on technical areas. He contributed articles on public works in India to ''Engineering'' (1866–75), and a volume "India" (1877) in the series ''Information for Colonial Engineers'' published by E. and F. N. Spon. He besides compiled memoranda on Indian coal, coal washing, and artificial fuel (1867–9), and publishing ''Statistical Papers relating to India'' (parliamentary paper, 1869), ''Coal Economy'' (1872), and ''A Century of Famines, 1770–1870'' (1877). He read papers before the [[Society of Arts]] on ''Agriculture in India'' (1878), ''Famines in India'' (1886), and ''The India Office Records'' (1889). The first and third of these papers gained the Society's silver medal. He was elected a fellow of the [[Royal Statistical Society]] in 1880, subsequently served on its council, and read papers before it on ''Agriculture in Essex'' (1897) and ''A Review of Indian Statistics'' (1901).<ref name="DNB"/> He was elected a member of the Society of Arts in 1890.<ref>''Obituary'' (unsigned), The Journal of the Society of Arts Vol. 54, No. 2792 (May 25, 1906), pp. 709-736, at p. 735. Published by: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce {{jstor|41335899}}</ref>

Danvers also wrote:<ref name="DNB"/>

*''Bengal, its Chiefs, Agents and Governors'', 1888.
*''The Second Borgian Map'', 1889.

He edited ''Memorials of Old Haileybury College'' (1894), and wrote introductions to ''Letters received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East'' (1896); ''List of Factory Records of the late East India Company'' (1897); and ''List of Marine Records of the late East India Company'' (1897). ''The Covenant; or, Jacob's Heritage'' (1877) and ''Israel Redivivus'', 1905, an endeavour to identify the [[Ten Tribes]] with the English people, belong to the literature of [[British Israelism]]. The latter is mentioned in the ''[[Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics]]'' article "Anglo-Israelis".<ref name="DNB"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Hastings |first1=James |last2=Selbie |first2=John Alexander |last3=Gray |first3=Louis Herbert |title=Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics|volume=1 |url=https://archive.org/details/b29001225_0001/page/n509 |page=483 |publisher=Edinburgh : T. & T. Clark; New York : C. Scribner's Sons |date=1908}}</ref>

==Family==
Danvers married in 1860, at [[Hove]], Louisa (b. 2 November 1837), daughter of [[Elias Mocatta]]. She died at Sutton, Surrey, on 29 May 1909, and was buried beside her husband. They had three sons and five daughters.<ref name="DNB"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Macnamara |first1=Francis Nottidge |title=Memorials of the Danvers family (of Dauntsey and Culworth): their ancestors and descendants from the conquest till the termination of the eighteenth century; with some account of the alliances of the family and of the places, where they were seated |url=https://archive.org/details/memorialsofdanve00macn/page/465 |page=466 |publisher=London, Hardy & Page |date=1895}}</ref> Lilian, the youngest daughter, married in 1901 Charles William Danvers-Walker and was mother of [[Bob Danvers-Walker]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Howard |first1=Joseph Jackson |last2=Crisp |first2=Frederick Arthur |title=Visitation of England and Wales |url=https://archive.org/details/visitationofengl19howa/page/6 |page=6 |volume=19 |publisher=[London] : Priv. printed |date=1917}}</ref> The eldest son, Alan, was also honoured by [[Carlos I of Portugal]] in 1893, as [[:pt:Lista de baronatos em Portugal|Baron Danvers]], Knight (Cavaleiro) of the Order of Christ; he was a telephone engineer, manager in [[Lisbon]] of the [[Edison Gower-Bell Telephone Company of Europe, Ltd.]] He was born in 1861, and married in 1885 Alice Isabel Bowerbank.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Electrical Engineer|volume=4 |date=1885 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rn09AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA120 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fox-Davies|first=Arthur Charles|title=Armorial Families|edition=7th|year=1929–30|publisher=Hurst & Blackett|location=London|page=495|volume=1}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/indiaofficeselect/EMSEnqList.asp?txtName=DANVERS India Office: Frederick Charles Danvers]

;Attribution
{{DNB12|wstitle=Danvers, Frederic Charles|volume=1}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danvers, Frederick Charles}}
[[Category:1833 births]]
[[Category:1906 deaths]]
[[Category:British Israelism]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of Christ (Portugal)]]
[[Category:Civil servants in the India Office]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Addiscombe Military Seminary]]
[[Category:British non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:British historians]]

Frederic Charles Danvers - Revision history

Bot at 03:40, 19 May 2022