Sir John Macpherson, 1st Baronet

Macpherson was born in 1745 at Sleat in the Isle of Skye, where his father, John Macpherson (1713–1765), was minister.[2]

His mother was Janet, daughter of Donald Macleod of Bernera. The father, son of Dugald Macpherson, minister of Duirinish, distinguished himself in classics at Aberdeen University (M.A. 1728, and D.D. 1761), and was minister of Barra in the presbytery of Uist (1734–42), and of Sleat (1742–65). He published Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, Language, Government, Manners, and Religion of the Ancient Caledonians, their Posterity, the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots, London, 1768, and paraphrased the Song of Moses in Latin verse in Scots Magazine, vols. i. ix. xi. He upheld the authenticity of the poems assigned to Ossian, and Samuel Johnson declared that his Latin verse did him honour. Martin Macpherson (1743–1812), Dr. Macpherson's elder son, succeeded him at Sleat, and won Dr. Johnson's regard when the doctor visited the highlands.

John, the younger son, was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, and at the University of Edinburgh.[3]

In March 1767 he sailed for India, nominally as purser of an East India ship, commanded by his maternal uncle, Captain Alexander Macleod. Macpherson landed at Madras, where he obtained an introduction to Mohammed Ali, Nawab of the Carnatic. The latter, whose affairs were in great disorder, had borrowed large sums of money at high interest from the East India Company's officials at Madras. Hard pressed by his creditors, he entrusted Macpherson with a secret mission to Britain, with the object of making representations on his behalf to the home government. Macpherson arrived in Britain in November 1768. He had several interviews with the prime minister, Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, who eventually despatched Sir John Lindsay, as king's envoy extraordinary, to effect a settlement of the Nawab's claims. This commission being novel and unwarrantable, the company protested, and Lindsay was recalled.[3]

Macpherson returned to India in January 1770 with the position of a writer in the company's service. He remained for six years at Madras occupied with administrative work. He also renewed his acquaintance with the nabob, for whom, as he himself confesses, he occasionally procured loans of money. In 1776 George Pigot, 1st Baron Pigot, the governor of Madras, obtained possession of a letter addressed to the nabob by Macpherson, in which details were given regarding the latter's mission to Britain. The paper contained severe reflections on the company's action, and indicated that Macpherson had engaged in a plot to set the home government against them. He was therefore dismissed the service. He returned to Britain in 1777, having previously furnished himself with fresh despatches to the home government from the nabob.[3]

Macpherson remained in England for four years. From April 1779 to May 1782 he sat in the House of Commons for Cricklade, and was one of six members suspected of being in receipt of a salary from the nabob of Arcot in return for pressing the latter's claims on the legislature.[3]

Macpherson had appealed to the court of directors against his dismissal by the Madras council. The former were by no means satisfied with the intrigues indulged in by their servants in the Carnatic, and reinstated him. In January 1781, however, before he could return to Madras, he was appointed by Lord North, whose government he had supported, to the seat on the Supreme Council of Bengal vacated by Richard Barwell. The appointment was severely criticised in public; and in 1782 a committee of the House of Commons declared that Macpherson's past conduct in supporting the pretensions of the nabob had tended to endanger the peace of India.[3]

Macpherson offered a regular but unintelligent opposition to the measures of Warren Hastings during the latter years of that governor-general's rule.[3]

In 1788 Macpherson was again elected to the House of Commons for Cricklade, but was unseated for bribery on the petition of his opponent, Samuel Petrie, and cast in penalties to the amount of 3,000 pounds. He now joined the whig opposition, and was till 1802 on intimate terms with the Prince of Wales.[3]

In 1789 he visited Florence, where his advice was asked by the Grand Duke Leopold on financial and administrative matters. When Leopold became emperor in 1790 he visited him at Vienna. Macpherson's tall figure, handsome face, and courtly manners made him a great favourite in society; and his wide knowledge and linguistic talents won him the respect of scholars.[3]

He obtained a seat for Horsham in September 1796, and continued in the house till June 1802.[3]

In 1806, in a discussion on Indian affairs, Whitshed Keene, the member for Montgomery, availed himself of the opportunity to censure his relations with the nabob of Arcot. Macpherson replied to the implied charges in an Open Letter to Whitshed Keene, Esq., M.P., dated 31 May 1806. He stated that in 1777 he had, through his intimacy with the nabob, obtained knowledge of secret overtures made to that prince by France, the exposure of which had been of great service to the British government. He also added that his claims on the nabob were still unpaid.[3]

Macpherson died unmarried, at Brompton Grove, on 12 January 1821, when the baronetcy became extinct.[3]

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Moriarty, Gerald Patrick (1893). "Macpherson, John (1745-1821)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 35. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• Steuart, Archibald Francis (1901), A short sketch of the lives of Francis and William Light: the founders of Penang and Adelaide, with extracts from their journals, Sampson Low, Marston & Co.

• James Noël MacKenzie MacLean (1967). The Early Political Careers of James "Fingal" Macpherson, 1736-1796, and Sir John Macpherson, Bart., 1744-1821. University of Edinburgh. OCLC 302412558.
• George McElroy (1987). "Ossianic Imagination and the History of India: James and John Macpherson as Propagandists and Intriguers". In Jennifer J. Carter; Joan H. Pittock (eds.). Aberdeen and the Enlightenment. Aberdeen University Press. pp. 363–374. ISBN 978-0-08-034524-6.

• Leigh Rayment's list of baronets
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs