Anglo-Irish botanist, diplomat and planter (1737?1801)
Sir George Leonard Staunton, 1st Baronet
(10 April 1737 ? 14 January 1801) was an Anglo-Irish botanist, diplomat, physician, judge and planter who was an employee of the
East India Company
.
Life
[
edit
]
George Leonard Staunton was born in Cargin,
County Galway
,
Ireland
, the son of Col. George Staunton. He was educated at the Jesuit College in
Toulouse
,
France
, obtaining an
M.D.
in 1758, and subsequently studied at the
School of Medicine
in
Montpellier
. He was awarded a
DCL
by the
University of Oxford
in 1790.
[1]
Staunton initially worked as a physician in the
British West Indies
, where he acquired
slave plantations
on
Grenada
and
Dominica
.
[2]
He then switched to law and was made Attorney-General in Grenada in 1779. In 1784, he accompanied his lifelong friend
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney
, whom he first met in the West Indies, to
Madras
to negotiate peace with
Tipu Sultan
, for which service Staunton was created a baronet of Ireland, on 31 October 1785.
[3]
He was elected in February 1787 a
Fellow of the Royal Society
.
[4]
In 1793, Staunton was named Secretary to the British mission to the Chinese Imperial court. This diplomatic and trade mission would be headed by Lord
Macartney
. While the
Macartney Embassy
returned to London without obtaining any concession from
China
, the mission brought back detailed observations.
Staunton died at his London house, 17 Devonshire Street, on 14 January 1801 and was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument by
Sir Francis Chantrey
was erected to his memory around 1808.
[5]
The baronetcy, his Irish estate at Clydagh, County Galway and his London home were all inherited by his only son,
George Thomas Staunton
.
Works
[
edit
]
Staunton was charged with producing the official account of the Macartney Embassy, after their return.
It was published 1797 under the title
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China
. This multi-volume work was taken chiefly from papers of Lord Macartney and Sir
Erasmus Gower
, Commander of the expedition. Sir
Joseph Banks
, the
President of the Royal Society
, was responsible for selecting and arranging engraving of the illustrations in this official record.
[6]
References
[
edit
]
Citations
[
edit
]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
- Barrow
, John. (1807).
Some Account of the Public Life, and a Selection from the Unpublished Writings, of the Earl of Macartney,
2 vols. London: T. Cadell and W. Davies.
- Cranmer-Byng, J. L. "Lord Macartney’s Embassy to Peking in 1793."
Journal of Oriental Studies.
Vol. 4, Nos. 1,2 (1957?58): 117?187.
- Esherick, Joseph W. "Cherishing Sources from Afar."
Modern China
Vol. 24, No. 2 (1998): 135?61.
- Hevia, James Louis. (1995).
Cherishing Men from Afar: Qing Guest Ritual and the Macartney Embassy of 1793.
Durham:
Duke University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-8223-1637-4
- Peyrefitte, Alain
. (1992).
The Immobile Empire
(Jon Rotschild, translator). New York:
Alfred A. Knopf
/
Random House
.
ISBN
978-0-394-58654-0
Google Books
- Peyrefitte, Alain. (1990).
Images de l'Empire immobile ou le choc des mondes. Recit historique.
Paris:
Fayard
.
ISBN
978-2-213-02383-0
(paper)
- Robbins, Helen Henrietta Macartney (1908).
Our First Ambassador to China: An Account of the Life of George, Earl of Macartney with Extracts from His Letters, and the Narrative of His Experiences in China, as Told by Himself, 1737-1806, from Hitherto Unpublished Correspondence and Documents.
London : John Murray. [digitized by
University of Hong Kong
Libraries
,
Digital Initiatives
,
"China Through Western Eyes."
]
- Rockhill, William Woodville
.
"Diplomatic Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question I,"
The American Historical Review
,
Vol. 2, No. 3 (Apr., 1897), pp. 427?442.
- Rockhill, William Woodville.
"Diplomatic Missions to the Court of China: The Kotow Question II,"
The American Historical Review,
Vol. 2, No. 4 (Jul., 1897), pp. 627?643.
- Staunton, George Leonard
(1797).
"An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China"
. London: George Nicol.
.
-
"
Staunton, George Leonard
".
Dictionary of National Biography
. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885?1900.
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