Certificate of Appointment to the Madras Civil Service. 1871

The parchment certificate measures 12 x 10 ins and is printed in palace script with manuscript insertions and alterations. The document has faint old fold marks but has been rolled with other certificates for a long time. It certifies that Mr James Thomas has been appointed to the Civil Service of India at the Presidency of Madras and permits him to travel out on the 11th October per Steamer “Singapore”  instructing him to report to the Public Department immediately on arrival and noting that he will only be paid from that moment onwards. It is signed on 5th September 1871 by the Permanent Under Secretary of State for India J Cosmo Melvill and countersigned John Downton. Although we have come across a few examples of Covenant documents for the I.C.S. in various archives we have handled we have never come across another example of this document.       dec22/3

The Hon St John Freemantle Brodrick [1856-1942] succeeded Lord George Hamilton as Saecretary of State for India and was in office from October1903 unitl December 1905. in 1907 he succeeded his father as 9th Lord Midleton and was later advanced in the Peerage to become 1st Earl of Midleton