William Hodgson was born in Georgetown, USA. He studied oriental languages while working for the Department of State, became a dragoman in the Barbary States and was Acting Consul in Algiers from 1826-29. He returned to Washington in 1830 but in 1832 went to Constantinople and then on to Egypt in 1834. In 1836 he was in London. This is possibly when the manuscript was given to the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1837 he left Washington for Lima, Peru, but was taken ill at Panama. He also served in Tunis in 1842, but returned to America via many European countries in 1842 to marry Margaret Telfair. He became a mainstay of the Georgia Historical Society. He died in New York in 1871.
John Hodgson worked in the administration of the East India Company and served as the Surveyor-General of India from 1821-1823.
Susan Townsend (Townshend) married Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1869. Susan's mother had been an old school friend of Brian Houghton Hodgson's first wife, Anne, and Hodgson met Susan when visiting her mother. Though she was only 25 years old and he was in his 60s they seem to have had a happy marriage. She compiled this autograph book to show off the many achievements of her husband. Susan Hodgson was a photographer and exhibited at the (Royal) Photographic Society annual exhibitions.
Hisamuddin Alam Shah was educated at Malay College, Kuala Kangsor. He became the sixth Sultan of Selangor, on 4 April 1938, four days after the death of his father. On 26 January 1939 he was crowned at Istana Mahkota Puri in Klang. In January 1942, Col. Fujiyama, the Japanese Military Governor of Selangor, invited Sultan Hisamuddin Alam Shah to King's House in Kuala Lumpur. He was told to surrender the regalia to his older brother, and the Japanese proclaimed Tengku Musa Eddin as the new Sultan. Hisamuddin Alam Shah declined to work with the Japanese and from 1943, refused their allowance awarded to him and his children. He returned to the throne in 1945, and in 1957, was elected Deputy Yang di-Pertuan Agong of independent Malaya. He was elected the second Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 1960 and in July declared the end of the state of emergency in Malaya. He died on 1 September 1960, the day fixed for his official installation.