The British Library
The British Library holds important materials related to the 1762 British occupation of Manila, including documents from the East India Company and maps from the royal collection. Among these is a single "Libro de Consultas" from the San Agustin Monastery, explicitly marked by Captain Hyde Parker as having been taken during the British capture of Manila. He noted that the manuscript offers a “curious illustration” of monastic governance in the Spanish colonies and confirmed it was seized by the English squadron under Admiral Draper, later passing through Alexander Dalrymple, Hydrographer to the Admiralty, before being acquired on Parker’s behalf. This volume, along with other Manila-related materials, entered the British Library through complex imperial networks of collection and dispersal.
Also held in the Library is the highly detailed Roxas Map, which was lodged in King George III’s topographical collection in sequence with the first British-drawn map of the city, A Plan of Manila Bay, 1762. The Roxas Map includes English annotations identifying the locations of British batteries and the breach in Intramuros, suggesting it may have been used to document or present an account of the expedition. These items illustrate both the administrative and military dimensions of British involvement in Manila and the intertwined histories of warfare, collecting, and knowledge production.
