John Cartier (23 May 1733 – 25 January 1802) was a British colonial governor in

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 ...

. He served as Governor of Bengal 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 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 South ...

.Buckland, 75. He was expelled from

Dacca Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

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 ...

and helped in the retaking of

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

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

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 ...

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 Bengal Famine of 1770 was a famine that struck Bengal and Bihar between 1769 and 1770 and affected some 30 million people. It occurred during a period of dual governance in Bengal. This existed after the East India Company had been granted ...

, 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-General ...

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 instrum ...

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 county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

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

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...

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 in Higher and Education and Director of Philosophy at The Department of Continuing Education, University of Oxford. Law was previously Reader in Ph ...

, 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