History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. IL] PARSIT SHIPBUILDERS. 63

over without some particular mark of their favour,’ which the Government were directed accordingly to confer. In reward of the merits of these worthy sons of Lavji, the Government awarded, and the Court of Directors in 1776 approved of, an increase to their pay; and to the elder, Manakji, the Court directed a silver rule and a shawl to be presented in their name, as a testimony of their approbation of his past services, and to encourage him to behave with the same diligence and fidelity as his father.”

Lavji died in the year 1774. Two years before his death he was presented, by order of the Court of Directors, with a silver foot-rule as a token of their appreciation of his meritorious services, with the inscription :—“ A memorial from the East India Company of the long and faithful services of Lavji, their Master Builder at Bombay, Anno 1772.”

On Layji’s death his eldest son, Manakji, was appointed master-builder, and he and his younger brother, Bamanji, who was appointed assistant master-builder, gained by their skill and ability the highest approbation of the Government and the Directors of the Hast India Company. They received more than once special thanks from the Court of Directors, and were each presented in the year 1783 with a gold medal by Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, K.B., with a suitable inscription on one side and a model of the Swperb on the reverse, as a mark