Humphrey Bland’s early military career had included campaigns fought under the command of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough and loyal service to the Hanoverian cause during the Jacobite uprising of 1715. He also published a ‘Treatise on Discipline’ in 1727, which went through many editions and was regarded as the standard text book for drill and discipline in the British Army for the greater part of the eighteenth century.

Bland was sent to Gibraltar in 1749 ‘to redress the several Grievances which the Inhabitants of that City had loudly complained of (from the Arbitrary Proceedings of their former Governors)’, as he himself puts it. He took his task seriously and began the process of establishing a city administration alongside the military garrison. The ten Articles contained in this manuscript were to prove his most important legacy to the colony, remaining in use for over sixty years. They cover property rights, duties on wine and spirits, the markets, rules for bakers, rubbish collection, linen imports, relations with Spain and Morocco, quarantine, and the governor’s powers in civilian affairs. Copies of this work also exist in the Gibraltar Archive and in the British Library.