On February 18, 1665, British representative Humphrey Cooke walked across the rocky stretches of Bombay island and formally asserted British sovereignty over the territory in a symbolic ceremony that would alter the future of western India forever.
More than 360 years later, as Maharashtra celebrates its 66th anniversary of its formation on Friday, a Pune-based researcher uncovered a rare Portuguese manuscript in Lisbon last month that reconstructs this defining moment in the birth of modern Mumbai.
The ‘Instrument of Possession’
The 10-page Portuguese document, titled ‘Instrument of Possession’, was traced by researcher Yashodhan Joshi in the archives of DigitArq Portugal — the digital repository of the Portuguese National Archives that preserves centuries-old administrative and colonial records. Historians HT spoke to independently, confirmed that the manuscript is among the rare surviving Portuguese accounts documenting the formal transfer of Bombay from Portuguese control to the British Crown in 1665.
Joshi, 41, discovered the document in March 2026 while researching Portuguese activities around the Sindhudurg fort and studying the larger contest between the Portuguese, British and Marathas along India’s western coast.
“What survives widely in public memory is the later British story of Bombay’s rise. But this document records the Portuguese side of the transfer — the negotiations, the anxieties, the conditions imposed and the actual ceremony through which possession was handed over,” he said.
The manuscript records the transfer of the Port and Island of Bombay from the Portuguese Estado da Índia (Portuguese state of India) to representatives of the British Crown as part of the marriage treaty between King Charles II of England and the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza.
According to historians, the document captures the moment when Bombay’s scattered islands began to be treated as a single strategic and administrative territory. Before the transfer, Bombay largely existed as a fragmented cluster of fishing villages, estates and military outposts overshadowed by the Portuguese stronghold of Baçaim (Vasai).
It puts focus on consolidation of territories, including Mazagaon, Parel and Worli under a unified authority — a shift that eventually laid the foundations for Bombay’s transformation into a major colonial port city.
The Maratha factor
One of the most striking references in the document concerns the growing influence of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj along the Konkan coast.
One section of the manuscript underlines how Portuguese officials stressed the urgency of completing the transfer quickly “to avoid the danger of Sivagy,” referring to Shivaji Maharaj.
Abhijit Ambekar, superintending archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), said, “The reference reflects the extent to which European colonial powers were unsettled by the rapid rise of Maratha power in western India during the mid-17th century.”
“The Portuguese administration feared losing Bombay to the Marathas. The document makes that anxiety very clear. It shows that even before Shivaji Maharaj’s coronation, European powers considered his rise a serious strategic challenge,” Joshi said.
Transfer of power
The document also reveals the conditions under which the transfer took place. Portuguese authorities ensured continued access to Bombay’s harbour for their fleet and secured guarantees for its subjects’ rights to navigate the regional waters without additional taxation.
Another clause barred British authorities from interfering in religious matters, reflecting Portuguese concerns about protecting Catholic institutions and residents in Bombay. The manuscript details about compensation if private lands were acquired for military purposes.
Joshi said one of the manuscript’s most vivid sections describes the ceremonial assumption of possession by Humphrey Cooke. The act of walking the land, examining fortifications, and physically handling soil and stones formed part of a symbolic European legal tradition used to establish territorial control.
The discovery also revisits the turbulent events preceding the transfer. In 1662, King Charles II dispatched a fleet under British official Sir Abraham Shipman to take possession of Bombay. However, Portuguese authorities delayed the handover because of disputes over terms in the treaty.
British troops were stranded for nearly two years on Anjediva island off the Karwar coast, where malaria devastated the expedition. Shipman died before Bombay could be transferred and authorised Humphrey Cooke to act on behalf of the British Crown.
Joshi said Cooke ultimately became the first British official to physically assume control of Bombay in 1665.
The manuscript also reveals an unusual discrepancy in dates. Portuguese records mention the transfer as February 18, 1665, while British records refer to February 8, 1665. Historians attribute the difference to the use of separate calendar systems — Portugal followed the Gregorian calendar while England still adhered to the Julian calendar.
Joshi, an IT professional who also holds an MA in Indology and a diploma in museum studies, specialises in archival research related to Maratha history, particularly its social and cultural dimensions. He frequently works with primary-source material from Indian and international archives.
His earlier works include ‘Aathavanitil Shikar’, an anthropological study of hunting practices in the princely state of Kolhapur; ‘Muktyari Samarambh’, based on a 1895 document related to the installation ceremony of Rajarshi Shahu Chhatrapati Maharaj of Kolhapur; and ‘Marathyancha Darara’, which examines Maratha expansion into Bengal and Orissa during the 18th century.
Historian Nitin Salunkhe, who researches Mumbai’s urban history and has authored the ‘Agyat Mumbai’ series, said the manuscript documented a decisive turning point in the city’s evolution. “This is not merely a legal transfer document. It captures the moment when geography, trade, empire and politics intersected in a way that changed the future of western India,” said Salunke.
Ambekar said such documents help historians understand the political compulsions behind major colonial decisions.
“Documents like these are extremely valuable because they help reconstruct the political thinking of the period. They give context to the transfer of power and explain the pressures operating on colonial administrations at the time,” he said.
Just three years after the transfer, in 1668, the British Crown leased Bombay to the East India Company for an annual rent of 10 pounds in gold — a move that transformed the island into a commercial outpost that would eventually emerge as colonial India’s most important port city.
More than three-and-a-half centuries later, the fragile Portuguese manuscript discovered in Lisbon now offers a rare glimpse into the ceremony, negotiations and anxieties that marked the moment Bombay changed hands — and the beginnings of the city that would become modern Mumbai.
