Hastings, FRANCIS RAWDON-HASTINGS, MARQUIS OF

Hastings, FRANCIS RAWDON-HASTINGS, MARQUIS OF, Governor-general of India, was descended from an old Anglo-Norman family settled in County Down, Ireland, and was born on 9th December 1754. Entering the army in 1771, he was engaged in many of the chief operations of the war of American independence, fighting at Bunker Hill, in Long Island and New Jersey, at the siege of Charleston, and at the battles of Camden and Hobkirk's Hill, and attained the rank of adjutant-general under Lord Cornwallis. On his return home he was created (1783) Baron Rawdon, and afterwards became intimate with the Prince of Wales. A year after he had succeeded his father as Earl of Moira he carried (1794) an army corps of 10,000 men across to Holland, to reinforce the Duke of York; and in the following year participated in the attack on Quiberon. Under the Fox-Grenville ministry he was in 1806 appointed master-general of ordnance; and he took an active part in politics until his appointment to the governor-generalship of Bengal in 1813. This high office he held down to 1821. The most momentous events of his administration were the war against the brave mountaineers of Nepal, the Gorkhas, who by the peace of 1816 were converted from aggressive enemies into the staunchest of allies; and in the next year the wars against the Pindaris and the Mahrattas, both of which were speedily brought to a successful termination, with the result that a large addition was made to the territories of the East India Company. For his masterly treatment of the Gorkha question Lord Moira was created Marquis of Hastings (1816). His policy in India included the encouragement of native education and of the freedom of the press, a reform in the law system, and the elevation of the status of the civil service. His resignation was caused by imputations levelled against his public conduct in connection with the affairs of a banking firm. In 1824, the year after his return home, Lord Hastings was appointed governor of Malta, and he held this office until his death, at Baie, near Naples, on 28th November 1826. See his Private Journal, edited by his daughter (2d ed. 1858); Prinsep's Administration of the Marquis of Hastings (1825); Asiatic Journal (1823); and Ross's monograph in the 'Rulers of India' series (1893).