1. Sir Robert John Wilmot-Horton, 3rd Baronet, GCH, PC, FRS, born Robert John Wilmot, was a British politician, sociopolitical theorist, and colonial administrator.
16 Facts About Robert Wilmot-Horton
1. 2.
Robert Wilmot-Horton was Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies between 1821 and 1828, and Governor of Ceylon between 1831 and 1837.
3.
Robert Wilmot-Horton is most widely known for his writings on assisted emigration to the colonies of the British Empire.
4.
Robert Wilmot-Horton was the only son of Sir Robert Wilmot, 2nd Baronet, of Osmaston, near Derby, and his first wife Juliana Elizabeth.
5.
Robert Wilmot-Horton was educated at Eton, and at Christ Church, Oxford.
6.
Robert Wilmot-Horton sat as a Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1818 until 1830.
7.
Robert Wilmot-Horton served under the Earl of Liverpool, George Canning and Lord Goderich as Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1821 to 1827 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1827.
8.
Robert Wilmot-Horton reorganised the Colonial Office, including dividing the Empire into areas with a senior clerk responsible for administering each area.
9.
Robert Wilmot-Horton forwarded one of Moody's reports on the West Indies to Canning in 1824, and subsequently advocated the contentions expressed in Moody's reports, to the Parliamentary Commission on West Indian Slavery, between 1825 and 1828.
10.
Robert Wilmot-Horton is best remembered for advocating that poor British and Irish families should be allowed to emigrate to the colonies and be granted land there, and was mainly responsible in securing two parliamentary grants in 1823 and 1825 to fund an experiment where poor Irish families settled in Canada.
11.
Robert Wilmot-Horton managed to establish a parliamentary committee on emigration and served as its chairman between 1826 and 1827.
12.
However, the plans were dropped after Robert Wilmot-Horton left the Colonial Office in 1827.
13.
In 1831 Robert Wilmot-Horton was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Order by William IV and appointed Governor of Ceylon.
14.
Robert Wilmot-Horton married Anne Beatrix Horton, daughter and co-heiress of Eusebius Horton, of the Catton Hall estate in Derbyshire, in 1806.
15.
Robert Wilmot-Horton's beauty inspired Lord Byron to write the poem "She Walks in Beauty" after they first met at a party in June 1814.
16.
Robert Wilmot-Horton's memorial is located in St John the Baptist's Church, Croxall.