1779-02-06 (static/transcriptions/1779/02/014.jpg)

1779. 1 Sittings. [Saturday] Feb. 6.

of the New Fort, which is consider’d as within the Town of Calcutta, and I consider Fort William to be the English Name of the Town. Calcutta is the Bengally name of One of many Villages of which the Town of Calcutta Consists.
Henry Cottrell Esquire now One of the Members of the Company’s Commercial Council, and late President of the Calcutta Committee of Revenue; who is a very accurate Man, informs me, on my asking him now, that in Calcutta, a Begah means Fourteen Thousand Four Hundred Square Feet, and that a Cottah is the Twentieth Part of a Begah, that is Seven Hundred and Twenty Square Feet.
Out of Calcutta, Mr. Cottrell says, the Measure of a Begah is not quite so precise, but is a Certain Number of what the Natives call Haut, and the English Cubits, which amount generously to about 14,400 Square Feet. Haut means hand and is the measure from the Point of the Elbow to the Tip of the Middle Finger. The Cubit by the Custom in Bengal, is taken in each Zemindarry, from
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