An Armenian Tombstone in the South China Seas

February 11, 2017

According to papers stored at the Pondicherry archives, Coja David Sultan (or rather Sultan David Խոջա Սուլթանում դի Դավութխան) Shahamir Sultanum’s father is listed as having passed away in the French colonial outpost in the early hours of the morning of 30 September, 1754, aged 65 years. The laconic entry reads: “DAVID SULTAN (Coja) âgé de 65 ans, né à Julfa en Perse; avait abjuré le mème jour.” Apparently Sultan converted to Catholicism (avait abjure) on the same day in order to have a spot in the town’s Catholic cemetery. There was no Armenian church or cemetery in the French outpost. (See Resumes des Actes de l’etat civil de Pondichery depuis 1736 (Pondichery, 1919, p. 209). Unfortunately, Sultan David’s tombstone did not remain in Pondicherry for very long and is not there now. It ended up at the bottom of the South China Sea off the coast of southern Vietnam where it was discovered in 1997 when a marine archeological team from the Philippines found the remains of an English East India Company vessel that had hit the reef near the southern edge of the Thitu islands and gone to the bottom. The discovery team did not find things of great value. No hoards of gold or silver coins or antique vessels; rather they brought to the surface some musket shot, cannon balls, guns, anchors, iron utensils, spigots, and glass decanter stoppers, as well as a stone pillar from a Hindu Temple and three unusually large gravestones. One of these gravestones turned out to be Khwaja Sultan David’s ornately decorated tombstone that had fallen face down thus preserving its much of its inscription for posterity. Up until 1997, historians writing on Shahamir Shultanum Shahamirian had no idea where or when his wealthy father had died or how the family had acquired its wealth. Thanks to the investigative work of Susan Schoppe the tombstone’s whereabouts were revealed and the story of how it got to its watery grave in the South China Seas was carefully pieced together. The short and skinny version is that on 15 January 1761 at the height of the Seven Year’s War in India, the French garrison in Pondicherry finally surrendered to the British who then razed much of the European quarter of the town to the ground and turned its cemeteries to rubble. Later that year, when the British needed ballast for their East Indiamen sailing for Manila at a time of war they relied on Pondicherry as “an abundant source of stone.” It appears that Sultan David’s tombstone found its way on board the “Earl Temple” at this time and a few months later went straight to the bottom of the South China Sea as the vessel hit the reef in Thitu just weeks short of its intended destination of Manila. I plan to devote a whole chapter in my book on “The Final Voyage of the Santa Catharina” to Shahamir Shahamirian’s story where I begin with a detailed snapshot of how Sultan David’s tombstone ended up in Vietnam. The chapter is titled “A Lock of Hair” in reference to letter no. 1534 in the Santa Catharina Collection that I discovered in the spring of 2003. When I unfurled letter 1534 from its envelope I had goosebumps. It was a lengthy letter written by Sultan David’s beloved wife Anna Khatun (Shahamir Shahamirian’s mother) and contained her lock of chestnut colored hair. The letter was addressed to Sultan in “Madras or wherever he may be.” At the time (1747), Sultan David was a wanted man in Iran (there was a warrant for his arrest by Nadir Shah who wanted to extort his riches) and was in hiding in Madras. The following year, when Madras fell to the French and was partly razed to the ground, The occupying French forces under La Bourdonais singled out Sultan David as one of four wealthy Armenian merchants in town who were forced to relocate to Pondicherry in order to shore up the town’s commerce. Anyway, I know I said short and skinny but as usual got carried away.

His tombstone inscription reads:

ՆԵՐՔՈՅ ՏԱՊԱՆՍ Է ՀԱՆԳՈՒՑԵԱԼ ԴԱՎՈՒԹՎԱՆԻ ՈՐԴԻ ՊԱՐ[Ո]Ն ՍՈՒԼԹԱՆՈՒՄԸՆ ԱԶԳԱՒ ՀԱՅ ՊԱՏՈՒԵԼԻ ՎԱՃԱՌԱԿԱՆ ԾԸՆԵԱԼ Ի ՅԵՐԿԻՐՆ ՊԱՐՍԻՑ ՔԱՂԱՔՆ ԸՍՊԱՀԱՆ. ԵԿԱՑ Ի ՅԱՇԽԱՐՀԸՍ ՅԻՍՈՒՆ ԵՒ ԵՕԹՆ ԱՄ ԲԱՐԻ ՀԱՄԲԱՒՈՎ Ա ՈՐ ՎԱՂՋԱՆԵՑԱՒ Ի ՓՈՒՆԹԻՇԵՐԻ ՍԵՊՏԵՄԲԵՐԻ 19 ԹԻՒՆ 1754

UNDER THIS TOMB LIES THE DECEASED PARON SULT’ANUM SON OF DAVUTKHAN AN ARMENIAN BY NATION. A REPUTABLE MERCHANT, HE WAS BORN IN THE LAND OF PERSIA IN THE CITY OF ISPAHAN. HE LIVED IN THIS WORLD FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS AND DIED WITH A GOOD REPUTATION IN PONDICHERRY ON 19 SEPTEMBER 1754

Sultan’s age according to tombstone is 57 not 65 as the Pondicherry records indicate. Also, according to the tombstone, which I assume would be accurate, Sultan David passed away on 19 September 1754 and NOT 30 September as the Pondicherry records indicate.

Sultan David was a commenda agent for his brother in-law Coja Nazar Jacob Jan (Anna Khatun’s brother) who was an extremely rich merchant when he passed away in Madras sometime around 1740, leaving his estate to Khwaja Sultan David with his wealth earmarked as an inheritance for his nephew Shahamir Sultanum Shahamirian, then a minor. The inheritance was no small matter, for in addition to an estate in Madras, including a house in the white town of Madras which later became Clive’s residence and town residence of the Governor of Madras, Jacob Jan bequeathed to his Sultan David considerable estates back in Isfahan.
Shahamir alludes to his estate in Madras including to the house in the White Town in his unpublished petition to the Company’s Court of Directors in 1749 (stored under Miscellaneous letters in the IOR papers):

To the Honourable The Court of Directors for Affairs of the United Company of Merchants of England.

The humble petition of Shameer Sultan Son of Sultan David of Fort St. George, Merchant

Humbly sheweth,

That your petitioner for himself and his Father begs permission to represent to your Honours their unhappy Case and the misfortunes which have befallen them since the loss of Madras, in having greatly suffered in their fortunes in the capture of the Town by the French, by the carrying away of your petitioner’s father to Pondicherry, under the sad alternative of the utter confiscation of all he stood possess’d of Unless he went thither and all for having taken up arms against that Nation during the Time of the Seige [sic]; that your petitioners father is still detained there against his Will, under the same restraint, and only waits an opportunity of clearing himself from his Merchandize and then to return to Madras where he was once happy and prosperous, and where he so much tasted the Sweets of Liberty joined to the advantages of successful Trade.

That your petitioner his Father are under the most melancholy apprehensions on Account of an order received from your President and Council of Fort St. David wherein they have been pleased to Order and direct the Deputy Governor and Council of this place the 17 Nov last.

“With regard to the Armenians we do not think it proper that any of them be permitted to reside within the Walls of the White Town. Excepting Coja Petrus and therefore direct that the other [sic] be ordered immediately to quit; their houses &C, they have our permission to make sale of provided it is to an European Protestant. But the House of Coja Shameer in Charles Street, we desire may not be disposed of as yet: as we apprehend the Company may have occasion for it.
Given to Coja Shameer by Order of Maj. Lane [??]
John Walsh Secretary.