1885 – C. W. Bardsley:

1965 – E. Hughes:

1981 – J. V. Beckett:

The East Indies became enmeshed in Cumbrian life in the eighteenth century with well over 400 Cumbrian men and women identified as directly involved in East Indies trade, the East India Company or East Indies sojourns. They were connected to, and supported by, many more Cumbrians. This chapter analyses the characteristics of the Cumbrians involved in the East Indies encounter, the structure of their relationships, and heralds the continuities as well as the heterogeneity of their East Indies encounters. It starts with a chronological overview of the context in which Cumbrians were operating, focusing on the alignment between the numbers of Cumbrian men appointed and licensed by the East India Company, the changing operations of the East India Company, and events shaping the British Isles in the global world.

The second section focuses on the patterns of encounter, compares rates of Cumbrian involvement in the East Indies with other counties, and explores the social characteristics and place origins of enumerated Cumbrian men. The social structure of Cumbria's encounter with the East Indies is uncovered by a systematic mapping of the networks between East Indies-involved families. The final section presents six chronologically arranged biographical narratives that highlight the way in which the pursuit of success in the East Indies comprised profound and persistent continuities, despite the social heterogeneity of Cumbrian sojourners, the diversity of their trajectories and outcomes for their families, and the chronological stretch of the long eighteenth century.