William Hedges, our Diarist, was born 21st October 1632, at Coole, co. Cork. He, as well as his father and grandfather, are formally styled “Lacy alias Hedges”. The great-grandfather was John Lacy, but under what circumstances the name was changed to Hedges we have not been able to trace. The eldest son of John Lacy is styled William Lacyalias Hedges of Kingsdown in Wilts (1571-1646); and the third son of the latter, Robert Lacyalias Hedges of Youghal, in Ireland, but also styled of Kingsdown, was born at Bourton, Berks, 23rd July 1604, died 23rd December 1670, and was buried at Cloyne Priest, co. Cork. Robert married (1630) Catharine, daughter of Edward Wakeman, Esq., of Mythe in Gloucestershire, and their eldest son was William aforesaid.

The first that we know of William Hedges' career is that he was a “Turkey merchant”, i.e., we suppose, in the service of the Levant Company. Some such circumstance may be gathered from obscure allusions in his Diary, and from the complacence with which he refers to his colloquial knowledge of Arabic and Turkish, and the impression which he represents these acquirements to have made at the Nawáb of Dacca's court and elsewhere. But we also find evidence as to this passage of the Hedges biography in the Life of Sir Dudley North.

Even after the settlement of the Factory at Húglí, it was long before the Company's ships began to ascend the river from the roadsteads in the Bay, nor indeed does this appear to have been practised, unless exceptionally, till after Húglí had been more or less superseded by Calcutta. The lading for the Company's ships was habitually brought down to Balasore from Húglí and Kásimbázár–and, as regards saltpetre, from Patna,–mainly in country craft of various kinds, known as patellas, boras, purgoes and what not, and partially in the sloops and pinnaces which the Company maintained on the river.

Still from an early period we see that the Court recognised the possibility and expediency of making their ships proceed up the Ganges (i.e., the great delta branch which we call the Húglí), in order to avoid the expense, delays, and risks of this transhipment, and they repeatedly made suggestions on this subject to their servants in the Bay. They also maintained something of a Pilot establishment for the conduct of the sloops, and of such larger craft as occasionally ascended the River, and with some view no doubt to the eventual realisation of their desire that their sea-going ships should habitually proceed up to the chief depots of their trade.

In the Preface to the First Volume of this collection, containing the Diary itself, which was issued in 1887, I have explained how that work came into the hands of the Society, and how the editing of it eventually devolved upon my shoulders.

In the process of seeking further information regarding the history of William Hedges, and of numerous persons mentioned in his Diary, I was led to make rather a wide and protracted search in the records of the India Office, as well as elsewhere. The result has been the addition of two volumes of illustrations to the one of Diary. As to which element represents the bread, and which the sack, I will not venture an opinion; but unquestionably a number of the extracts now furnished are of considerable interest.

In one section (Part II) I have collected a variety of original documents concerning Job Charnock, the Founder of Calcutta, most of which I believe to be now published for the first time; and the same may be said of the details given in Part III, regarding other individuals of less note. Among these may be specified Sir John Gayer, Sir John Goldsborough, Sir Thomas Grantham, Sir Streynsham Master, and Sir Edward Littleton, respecting none of whom will anything be found in existing biographical dictionaries, whatever may be the case hereafter.

ALLEY, Captain. A noted interloper from 1679, or perhaps from 1676, onwards; very persistent, defiant, and obnoxious to the Company.

No private traders, interfering with the Company's privileges of exclusive trade, had appeared in the field for many years after the renewal of the Charter by King Charles II in 1661. They reappeared in the latter part of next decade, and Alley was the most prominent in this renewal of “interloping” adventure. Alley's project was to load a ship at Cadiz with European wares, and to bring back Eastern produce for sale in continental markets.

I give some extracts regarding this adventurer, but I have not come upon notices of him of later date than those in Hedges. He is more than once spoken of by the Court as “the late interloper Alley”, which at first I took as indicating his death; but as the phrase occurs once in a letter quoted under Bridger (below), which is dated 1681, when we know that Alley was alive and active, this can only mean “the interloper who lately went out to India”.

Three voyages of Alley's are traced in the passages which we have observed, viz., in 1675-6; in 1679-80; and in 1682-3.