Hastings, Warren

Biography

Descended from a reduced branch of the ancient house of Hastings, Warren Hastings became the first Governor-General of India. He was educated at Westminster School, and in 1750 went out to India in the service of the Company. On his arrival at Bengal, he distinguished himself by an earnest application to his public duties, and was entrusted with many honourable, commercial and political employments. He returned to England fourteen years later, and in 1769 was appointed second in council at Madras. In 1772 he became president of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and in 1774 attained the high position of Governor-General of all British India, which post he held until 1785. Shortly after his return to England he was impeached by the House of Commons for various acts of his government, and his trial, held in Westminster Hall, continued for seven years. He was acquitted by a large majority on every separate article charged against him, on April 23rd, 1795. From this period he retired into private life, residing at Daylesford, Worcestershire [sic], upon an estate which had formerly belonged to his family, and which, at an early period of his career, he had determined to re-purchase. A few years before his death he was raised to the dignity of a Privy Councillor.

Around 1790, Hastings commissioned Sir Henry Raeburn to paint a portrait of his good friend, David Anderson, a fellow British official in India whom Hastings had met on the ship back to England in 1785. The picture is now in the NGA Widener Collection. [Compiled from sources and references recorded on CMS]

Bibliography

1903

Chamberlain, Arthur Bensley and Whitworth Wallis. Illustrated Catalogue of a Loan Collection of Portraits. City of Birmingham [England] Museum and Art Gallery, 1903: 46-47, no. 49.

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