Charles Wyatt (1758 – 13 March 1819) was an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Sudbury, Suffolk.

Life

He was the son of William Wyatt (died 1780, steward to Lord Uxbridge in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

), nephew to the architects James Wyatt and

Samuel Wyatt Samuel Wyatt (8 September 1737, Weeford, Staffs. – London, 8 February 1807) was an English architect and engineer. A member of the Wyatt family, which included several notable 18th- and 19th-century English architects, his work was primarily in a ...

, and cousin to Sir Jeffry Wyattville. He joined the

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

in 1780 as a cadet, sailing for

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

aboard the ship ''Mount Stewart'' on 27 June of the same year, but the ship was captured by the French and Spanish fleets and returned to England. His second attempt to reach India was successful, arriving in 1782. He joined the

Bengal Engineers The Bengal Engineer Group (BEG) (informally the Bengal Sappers or Bengal Engineers) is a military engineering regiment in the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The unit was originally part of the Bengal Army of the East India Company's Ben ...

, eventually being promoted in 1800 to captain and commissioner of police. His opportunity to design buildings came in 1798 when The Marquess of Wellesley arrived in

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

Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...

and selected Wyatt to design the new Government House, Calcutta, which opened in 1803. The design was based on Kedleston Hall. Wyatt also designed alterations to Wellesley's country residence at

Barrackpore Barrackpore (also known as Barrackpur) is a city and a municipality of urban Kolkata of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA ...

. In June 1803 he was made Superintendent of Public Works. Having made a fortune in India, Wyatt retired in October 1806, buying the country villa Ealing Grove outside London called, not far from Sir John Soane's villa at

Pitzhanger Manor Pitzhanger Manor is an English country house famous as the home of neoclassical architect, Sir John Soane. Built between 1800 and 1804 in Walpole Park Ealing, to the west of London), the Regency Manor is a rare and spectacular example of a b ...

. He was elected as

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

MP for Sudbury, Suffolkpage 939, ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840'', Howard Colvin, 2nd edition 1978, John Murray in two successive parliaments, serving from 1812 to 1818. He died in 1819 at Foley House, his London home in

Portland Place Portland Place is a street in the Marylebone district of central London. Named after the Third Duke of Portland, the unusually wide street is home to BBC Broadcasting House, the Chinese and Polish embassies, the Royal Institute of British A ...

. He had married Charlotte (née Greentree) Drake, widow of George Drake of the Bombay Marines, in 1787.

Gallery of architectural work

File:Rajbahavan.jpg, Government House (now Raj Bhavan),

(

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

) File:FraserCalcuttaGovernmentHouse.jpg, East view of Government House (now

Raj Bhavan Raj Bhavan () is the common name of the official residences of the governors of the states of India and may refer to: List of Raj Bhavan See also * Raj Niwas *Rashtrapati Bhavan *Rashtrapati Nilayam *Rashtrapati Niwas The Rashtrapati Niwas ...

(

) File:KolkataRajbhavanGate.JPG, Gate, Government House (now Raj Bhavan),

(

)

References

* ''The Wyatts An Architectural Dynasty'' by John Martin Robinson 1979, Oxford University Press
History of Parliament WYATT, Charles (c.1759-1819) of Foley House, Portland Place, London
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wyatt, Charles 1758 births 1819 deaths Bengal Engineers officers 18th-century English architects 19th-century English architects People from Sudbury, Suffolk Architects from Suffolk

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...