George Swinton (botanist)

George Swinton FRSE (1780–1854) was a Scottish civil servant who served as Chief Secretary to the British government during their colonial rule of India. During this time he was also a noted botanist.

Life
Atholl Crescent in Edinburgh

He was born on 5 November 1780 the fifth son of John Swinton, Lord Swinton and his wife, Margaret Mitchelson of Middleton. YThey lived at the family estate of Swinton House in Berwickshire.

In 1802 he became a Writer (lawyer) to the East India Company in India. In 1814 he became "Persian Secretary" to the Governor General of India. In 1826 he took on the additional role of caring for the Botanical Gardens and began collecting plants for Nathaniel Wallich.[1] He was made Chief Secretary of Bengal in 1827.[2]

In 1827 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposer was Sir David Brewster.[3]

From 1827 to 1833 he was Chief Secretary to the Government, based in Calcutta. He was also President of the Indian Board of Trade. In 1833 he donated seven skulls of "thugs and stranglers of central India" to the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh.[4]

He retired in 1833 and lived his later life at 4 Atholl Crescent in Edinburgh's West End.[5] to 13 Great Stuart Street on the Moray Estate in west Edinburgh. He died there on 17 June 1854. He is buried in Dean Cemetery.[6]

Family

He married his cousin, Anne Elizabeth Swinton. They had seven children.[7][8]

Publications
  • Papa's Keepsake (a private printing as a gift to his children)

References
  1. https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.person.bm000009055
  2. Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturalists, Ray Desmond
  3. Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
  4. "Papa's keepsake".
  5. Edinburgh Post Office directory 1854
  6. "George Swinton grave monument details at Dean 2f Cemetery, Edinburgh, Lothian,Scotland".
  7. "Anne Elizabeth Swinton".
  8. swintonfamilysociety.org


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