Sir George Barlow, 1st Baronet

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He was appointed to the Bengal Civil Service in 1778, and in 1788 carried into execution the permanent settlement of Bengal.

When the Marquess of Cornwallis died in 1805, Sir George Barlow was nominated provisional governor-general, and his passion for economy and retrenchment in that capacity has caused him to be known as the only governor-general who diminished the area of British territory; but his nomination was rejected by the home government, and Lord Minto was appointed. Subsequently, Barlow was created governor of Madras, where his want of tact caused a mutiny of the British officers of the Madras Army in 1809, similar to that which had previously occurred under Clive. The main cause of the discontent was the abolition of certain purchase contracts for camping equipment which involved some money being embezzled by the officers.{{cite book|title=Memoir and correspondence of General James Stuart Fraser of the Madras Army|author=Fraser, Hastings|year=1885|publisher=Whiting & Co.|place=London|url=https://archive.org/stream/memoirandcorres01frasgoog#page/n32/mode/2up/|page=4}} In 1812 he was recalled, and lived in retirement until his death in Farnham, Surrey, in December 1846.

File:George Hilaro Barlow 2023.jpg in Farnham, Surrey]]

He was created a baronet in 1803.{{London Gazette |issue=15595 |date=21 June 1803 |pages=740–741 }}{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Barlow, Sir George Hilaro}} In October 1806 he was appointed a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (KB),{{London Gazette |issue=15970 |date=28 October 1806 |page=1421}} which on the reconstitution of the Order in 1815 became Knight Grand Cross (GCB).{{London Gazette |issue=16972 |date=4 January 1815 |pages=17–20 }}

He was portrayed in a bust by Bertel Thorvaldsen when he visited the sculptor in Rome Spring 1828.{{Cite web|url=https://arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/people/barlow-george-hilaro|title=George Hilaro Barlow – The Thorvaldsens Museum Archives|website=arkivet.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk}}

He married Elizabeth, daughter of Burton Smith, in Calcutta on 16 April 1789{{citation needed|date=December 2022}} and had fifteen children. They returned to England in 1813. Not long after, Miss Page, the children's governess, surprised Lady Barton in a compromising position with Major George Pratt Barlow, a young kinsman who had been Sir George's aide-de-camp. Miss Page later intercepted love letters, and faced with the evidence, Lady Barlow admitted that one of their children had in fact been fathered by her lover. The marriage was dissolved in 1816.{{cite book |last1=Brendon |first1=Vyvyen |title=Children of the Raj |year=2015 |publisher=Orion |isbn=978-1-78022-747-4 |page=}}

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{{wikisource|Barlow, George Hilaro (DNB00)}}

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{{succession box | title=Governor-General of India, acting | before=The Marquess Cornwallis | after=The Lord Minto | years=1805–1807}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Baronet
(of Fort William) | years=1803–1846}}

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Category:1763 births

Category:1846 deaths

Category:Governors of Madras

201

Category:Governors-general of India

Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath

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