William Reierson Arbuthnot (28 January 1826 – 31 May 1913) was a British businessman and legislator primarily operating in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Early life

William Reierson Arbuthnot was born at 14 Upper Wimpole Street, London, on 28 January 1826 to George Arbuthnot, of Elderslie, Surrey, and Elizabeth, daughter of Donald Fraser. The Arbuthnots were landowners and merchants of the Haddo-Rattray estate,

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, in Scotland for the previous two generations, and were formerly of Peterhead in that county. George Arbuthnot worked for 22 years (1800–23) as a merchant in Madras, and was a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judici ...

, before retiring to England and acquiring Elderslie; he also resided at Upper Wimpole Street in London during the winter.

Career

Arbuthnot served as a member of the

Madras Legislative Council Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was the upper house of the former bicameral legislature of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It began its existence as Madras Legislative Council, the first provincial legislature for Madras Presidency. It was initia ...

from 1861 to 1864 and 1866 to 1870. He worked with

Arbuthnot & Co Arbuthnot & Co was a mercantile bank, based in Madras, India. It had been founded as Francis Latour & Co in the late 18th century and then became Arbuthnot De Monte & Co. It failed spectacularly on 22 October 1906. In the last quarter of 1906, Ma ...

and was Chairman of the Bank of Madras, and the Chamber of Commerce of Madras. He was also Director of Commercial Union Insurance Co and of the Midland Bank Ltd.

Personal life

On 9 December 1858, Arbuthnot married Mary Helen Anstruther, the eldest daughter of Philip Anstruther, the

Colonial Secretary of Ceylon The Chief Secretary of Ceylon, was the Chairman and one of three officers of state of the Board of Ministers of the State Council of Ceylon from 1932 to 1947. The post succeeded that of ''Colonial Secretary'' which was one of six offices that hel ...

. They lived at Plawhatch,

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, and had eight sons and six daughters; one of their sons, Major Kenneth Wyndham Arbuthnot (1873–1915), of the

Seaforth Highlanders The Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany's) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, mainly associated with large areas of the northern Highlands of Scotland. The regiment existed from 1881 to 1961, and saw servic ...

, was father of the politician

Sir John Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet Sir John Sinclair Wemyss Arbuthnot, 1st Baronet, (11 February 1912 – 13 June 1992) was a British Conservative Party politician. Early life and education Arbuthnot was born in Kittybrewster, the son of Major Kenneth Wyndham Arbuthnot, who wa ...

, of

Kittybrewster Kittybrewster ( gd, Cuidhe Briste) is an area within Aberdeen, Scotland, north of the city centre and roughly south-west of Old Aberdeen. Transport Within the area the A9012 road joins the A978 road; there are also several railway tracks, on ...

.Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 1, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 113

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Arbuthnot, William Reierson 1826 births 1913 deaths British people in colonial India William Reierson Members of the Madras Legislative Council