John Cartier (23 May 1733 – 25 January 1802) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

colonial governor in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. He served as

Governor of Bengal In 1644, Gabriel Boughton procured privileges for the East India Company which permitted them to build a factory at Hooghly district, Hughli, without fortifications. Various chief agents, Governors and presidents were appointed to look after co ...

from 1769 to 1772.

Early career

Cartier first arrived in India as a writer in the service of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

.Buckland, 75. He was expelled from

Dacca Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

in 1756 while serving there as an assistant. After fleeing with other fugitives to Fulta, he joined

Clive of India Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East ...

and helped in the retaking of

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

, for which he was praised by the Court of Directors of the British East India Company. Cartier's career accelerated after the

Battle of Plassey The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company, under the leadership of Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French Indies Company, French allies on 23 June 1757. The victory was made possible by the de ...

. In 1761, Cartier became chief of the Dacca factory. By 1767, he was Second in the

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

Council.

Governor of Bengal

On 26 December 1769 Cartier succeeded Harry Verelst as Governor of

. Cartier was governor at time of the

Bengal famine of 1770 The Great Bengal famine of 1770 struck Bengal and Bihar between 1769 and 1770 and affected some 30 million people, which was about ⅓ of the current population of the area. It occurred during a period of dual governance in Bengal. This existed ...

, during which one-third of the populace died. Cartier was blamed for ignoring warnings about the impending disasterIslam, ''"Cartier, John"''. but was able to use a magazine of grain to feed fifteen thousand people every day for some months. In response to the crisis, the Court of Directors sent a three-person commission to Bengal to assess the situation. En route, however, the ship carrying the three members foundered at sea.Malleson, pp. 95-96. The Court of Directors did not send a replacement and recalled Cartier.

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first governor-gener ...

was selected as his replacement; he took office on 28 April 1772. Cartier became a

High Sheriff of Kent The high sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown (prior to 1974 the office previously known as sheriff)."Sheriffs appointed for a county or Greater London shall be known as high sheriffs, and any reference in any enactment or instru ...

in 1789. Unusually the previous incumbent, James Bond, continued from the year before and Cartier served only for the latter part of the year. Cartier died in Bedgbury,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

on 25 January 1802 and was buried at Goudhurst, Kent. He was eulogized by

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...

for his government of Bengal. His wife Stephana, the daughter of

Stephen Law Stephen Law (born 1960) is an English philosopher. He is currently Director of the Certificate of Higher Education and Director of Philosophy at The Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford. Law was previously Reader in Philos ...

, survived him and also died in Bedgbury on 22 August 1825.''The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany'', 1825, p. 373
Retrieved 15 November 2007.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cartier, John 1733 births 1802 deaths British East India Company civil servants British governors of Bengal 18th-century British writers High sheriffs of Kent