Colonial Despatches

Aiken, spelled as “Aikin” in the correspondence collection, was appointed British consul for California on April 26, 1851,1 and remained in the position until he retired in 1857.2 During that time he acted as the president of the San Francisco cricket club.3

As this and other documents show, Aikin reported to the Colonial Office on the gold deposits found in the Queen Charlotte Islands in 1852.

• 1. Daily Alta California, British Consul at San Francisco.
• 2. The New York Times [Archives], An Honourable Public Career: Sir William Lane Booker's Forty Years in the British Consular Service The New York Times.
• 3. LeCount & Strong LeCount & Strong's San Francisco city directory for the year 1854 (San Francisco: San Francisco Herald Office, 1854), 258.