[24] The East India Company was a famous joint stock trading corporation, formed in England early in the seventeenth century, to carry on commerce with the East Indies. They established stations in various places, and in 1702, were newly chartered as "The United Company of Merchants Trading to the East Indies." The executive power of the Company was vested in a court of twenty-four directors, each of whom must own L2000 of stock, and held office four years. This Company became a great territorial power, and laid the foundation of the British Empire in India. Its monopoly of the China trade was abolished in 1833, and the Company was then deprived of its original character as a commercial association. The Sepoy Mutiny, in 1857, combined with other causes, induced Parliament to transfer the dominion of India to the Crown. This change was effected in 1858, after strenuous opposition from the Company. Trading companies to the East Indies were also chartered by Holland, France, Denmark, and Sweden; that of Holland being the oldest. [25] In this sample invoice the amount seems extraordinary. The editor of this volume, however, considers his duty ended when he gives a faithful transcript of the manuscript in his possession, allowing the facts alone to appear. [26] Sir Brook Watson, a merchant of London, and Lord Mayor in 1796, born in Plymouth, England, February 7, 1735, died October 2, 1807. Early in life he entered the sea service, but, while bathing in the harbor of Havana, in 1749, a shark bit off his right leg, below the knee, and he was obliged to abandon his chosen profession. A painting, by Copley, represents this scene. Watson then became a merchant, and was a commissary to the British troops in Canada, in 1755 and in 1758. Visiting the American colonies just before the Revolution, he professed himself a Whig, but intercepted letters showed his true character to be that of a spy. In 1782, he was commissary-general to his friend, Sir Guy Carleton, in America; held the same office with the Duke of York, in 1793-95, and that of Commissary-General of England, in 1798-1806. He was a member of Parliament from London, in 1784-93; sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1785, and was made a baronet December 5, 1803. As a reward for his services in America, Parliament voted his wife an annuity of L500 for life. [27] Hon. Thomas Walpole, merchant, banker, and member of Parliament, second son of Horatio, first Lord Walpole, and nephew of the famous statesman, Sir Robert Walpole, died at Chiswick, March 21, 1803. He was born October 25, 1727. [28] William Ancrum, was a loyalist, of Charleston, S.C., He was banished in 1782, and his property was confiscated.