Chapter WOOD-APPLE to WUG of W by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

WRITER, s.

(a). The rank and style of the junior grade of covenanted civil servants of the E.I. Company. Technically it has been obsolete since the abolition of the old grades in 1833. The term no doubt originally described the duty of these young men; they were the clerks of the factories.

(b). A copying clerk in an office, native or European.

a.—

1673.—“The whole Mass of the Company’s Servants may be comprehended in those Classes, viz., Merchants, Factors, and Writers.”—Fryer, 84.

[1675–6.—See under FACTOR.]

1676.—“There are some of the Writers who by their lives are not a little scandalous.”—Letter from a Chaplain, in Wheeler, i. 64.

1683.—“Mr. Richard More, one that came out a Writer on y^e Herbert, left this World for a better. Y^e Lord prepare us all to follow him!”—Hedges, Diary, Aug. 22; [Hak. Soc. i. 105].

1747.—“82. Mr. ROBERT CLIVE, Writer in the Service, being of a Martial Disposition, and having acted as a Volunteer in our late Engagements, We have granted him an Ensign’s Commission, upon his Application for the same.”—Letter from the Council at Ft. St. David to the Honble. Court of Directors, dd. 2d. May, 1747 (MS. in India Office).

1758.—“As we are sensible that our junior servants of the rank of Writers at Bengal are not upon the whole on so good a footing as elsewhere, we do hereby direct that the future appointments to a Writer for salary, diet money, and all allowances whatever, be 400 Rupees per annum, which mark of our favour and attention, properly attended to, must prevent their reflections on what we shall further order in regard to them as having any other object or foundation than their particular interest and happiness.”—Court’s Letter, March 3, in Long, 129. (The ‘further order’ is the prohibition of palankins, &c.—see PALANKEEN.)

c. 1760.—“It was in the station of a covenant servant and writer, to the East India Company, that in the month of March, 1750, I embarked.”—Grose, i. 1.

1762.—“We are well assured that one great reason of the Writers neglecting the Company’s business is engaging too soon in

trade. … We therefore positively order that none of the Writers on your establishment have the benefit or liberty of Dusticks (see DUSTUCK) until the times of their respective writerships are expired, and they commence Factors, with this exception. …”—Court’s Letter, Dec. 17, in Long, 287.

1765.—“Having obtained the appointment of a Writer in the East India Company’s service at Bombay, I embarked with 14 other passengers … before I had attained my sixteenth year.”—Forbes, Or. Mem. i. 5; [2nd ed. i. 1].

1769.—“The Writers of Madras are exceedingly proud, and have the knack of forgetting their old acquaintances.”—Ld. Teignmouth, Mem. i. 20.

1788.—“In the first place all the persons who go abroad in the Company’s civil service, enter as clerks in the counting-house, and are called by a name to correspond with it, Writers. In that condition they are obliged to serve five years.”—Burke, Speech on Hastings’ Impeachment, Feb. 1788. In Works, vii. 292.

b.—

1764.—“Resolutions and orders.—That no Moonshee, Linguist, Banian (see BANYAN), or Writer be allowed to any officer except the Commander-in-Chief and the commanders of detachments. …”—Ft. William Consns. In Long, 382.

[1860.—“Following him are the kranees (see CRANNY), or writers, on salaries varying, according to their duties and abilities, from five to thirty roopees.”—Grant, Rural L. in Bengal, 138–9.]

WUG, s. We give this Beluch word for loot on the high authority quoted. [On this Mr. M. L. Dames writes: “This is not, strictly speaking, a Balochi word, but Sindhi, in the form wag or wagu. The Balochi word is bag, but I cannot say for certain whether it is borrowed from Sindhi by Balochi, or vice versâ. The meaning, however, is not loot, but ‘a herd of camels.’ It is probable that on the occasion referred to the loot consisted of a herd of camels, and this would easily give rise to the idea that the word meant loot. It is one of the commonest forms of plunder in those regions, and I have often heard Balochis, when narrating their raids, describe how they had carried off a ‘bag.’ ”]

1845.—“In one hunt after wug, as the Beloochees call plunder, 200 of that beautiful regiment, the 2nd Europeans, marched incessantly for 15 hours over such ground as I suppose the world cannot match for ravines, except in places where it is impossible to march at all.”—Letter of Sir C. Napier, in Life, iii. 298.

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