43 Facts About Warren Hastings

Warren Hastings was born in Churchill, Oxfordshire, in 1732 to Reverend Penyston Hastings and his wife Hester, who died soon after he was born.

Warren Hastings quickly excelled as a top scholar but was forced to leave at sixteen, when his uncle died.

Warren Hastings's work won him promotion in 1752 when he was sent to Kasimbazar, a major trading post in Bengal, where he worked for William Watts.

Warren Hastings personally sympathised with Mir Jafar and regarded many of the demands placed on him by the company as excessive.

Warren Hastings had already developed a philosophy that was grounded in trying to establish a more understanding relationship with India's inhabitants and their rulers, and he often tried to mediate between the two sides.

Warren Hastings expressed his doubts to Calcutta over the move, believing they were honour-bound to support Mir Jafar, but his opinions were overruled.

Warren Hastings established a good relationship with the new Nawab and again had misgivings about the demands he relayed from his superiors.

Warren Hastings was personally angered when investigating trading abuses in Bengal.

Warren Hastings alleged that some European and British-allied Indian merchants were taking advantage of the situation to enrich themselves personally.

Warren Hastings felt this was bringing shame on Britain's reputation and urged the authorities in Calcutta to put an end to it.

Warren Hastings was fiercely criticised by other members, many of whom had themselves profited from the trade.

Ultimately, little was done to stem the abuses, and Warren Hastings began to consider quitting his post and returning to Britain.

Warren Hastings's resignation was only delayed by the outbreak of fresh fighting in Bengal.

Warren Hastings felt gradually more confident and in 1764 when a dispute broke out in the settlement of Patna he captured its British garrison and threatened to execute them if the East India Company responded militarily.

Warren Hastings left deeply saddened by the failure of the more moderate strategy that he had supported, but which had been rejected by the hawkish members of the Calcutta Council.

Once he arrived in London Warren Hastings began spending far beyond his means.

Warren Hastings stayed in fashionable addresses and had his picture painted by Joshua Reynolds in spite of the fact that, unlike many of his contemporaries, he had not amassed a fortune while in India.

Warren Hastings's application was initially rejected as he had made many political enemies, including the powerful director Laurence Sulivan.

Warren Hastings fell in love with the Baroness and they began an affair, seemingly with her husband's consent.

The process took a long time and it was not until 1777 when news of divorce came from Germany that Warren Hastings was finally able to marry her.

Warren Hastings faced the severe Bengal Famine, which resulted in between two and ten million deaths.

The combination meant Warren Hastings faced a formidable challenge, with only Oudh as an ally.

Suffren finally arrived in 1782 to discover that the Indian coalition had fallen apart, that Warren Hastings had captured all the French ports, and Suffren could achieve nothing.

In 1773, Warren Hastings responded to an appeal for help from the Raja of the princely state of Cooch Behar to the north of Bengal, whose territory had been invaded by Zhidar, the Druk Desi of Bhutan the previous year.

Warren Hastings agreed to help on the condition that Cooch Behar recognise British sovereignty.

Meanwhile, the Sixth Panchen Lama, who had imprisoned Zhidar, interceded on behalf of the Bhutanese with a letter to Warren Hastings, imploring him to cease hostilities in return for friendship.

Warren Hastings saw the opportunity to establish relations with both the Tibetans and the Bhutanese and wrote a letter to the Panchen Lama proposing "a general treaty of amity and commerce between Tibet and Bengal".

Warren Hastings proposed sending a mission to Tibet with a message of congratulation, designed to strengthen amicable relations established by Bogle on his earlier visit.

Warren Hastings was replaced by the Earl Cornwallis; Cornwallis served as Commander-in-Chief of British India and Governor of the Presidency of Fort William, known as the Bengal Presidency.

On return to England, Warren Hastings was impeached in the House of Commons for alleged crimes in India, notably embezzlement, extortion and coercion, and an alleged judicial killing of Maharaja Nandakumar.

At first thought unlikely to succeed, the prosecution was managed by MPs including Edmund Burke, encouraged by Sir Philip Francis, whom Warren Hastings had wounded during a duel in India, Charles James Fox and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Warren Hastings is rumoured once to have said that the punishment would have been less extreme had he pleaded guilty.

Letters and journals of Jane Austen and her family, who knew Warren Hastings, show they followed the trial closely.

Warren Hastings rebuilt the Norman church in 1816, where he was buried two years later.

In spite of substantial compensation from the East India Company, Warren Hastings was technically insolvent on his death.

Warren Hastings had great respect for the ancient scripture of Hinduism and set the British position on governance as one of looking back to the earliest precedents possible.

In short, under Warren Hastings there was a codification of Hindu laws, and a digest of Muslim law books.

In 1781, Warren Hastings founded Madrasa 'Aliya at Calcutta.

RIMS Warren Hastings was a Royal Indian Marine troopship built by the Barrow Shipbuilding Co.

Warren Hastings took an interest in seeing the Bhagavad Gita translated into English.

Warren Hastings's efforts led to a first translation by Charles Wilkins appearing in 1785.

The Warren Hastings career is much discussed in the historical mystery novel, Secrets in the Stones, by Tessa Harris.

Warren Hastings was rumoured to be the biological father of Eliza de Feuillide, the daughter of Philadelphia Austen Hancock and a cousin of Jane Austen.