Sir George Leonard Staunton

Early purchaser of land and enslaved people on Grenada and Dominica. In the latter he was the original purchaser of St Andrew Lot no. 116 (216 acres); St John Lots no. 19 (with Lapit, 64 acres) and in his own name no. 21 (35 acres) and no. 24 (180 acres); and St Joseph Lot no. 80 (300 acres). In all cases new owners were shown by 1777. He has an entry in the ODNB as 'physician and diplomatist.'

1. George Leonard Staunton was the son and heir of Colonel George Staunton and his wife Margaret Leonard. He was born in Born Carra, Galway, Ireland. His ancestors were originally from Buckinghamshire, England and settled in county Galway in the mid 17th century. He finished his education in France where he graduated as a doctor of medicine. In London he wrote on medical subjects and was a friend of Dr Samuel Johnson.

2. George Leonard Staunton (1737-1801) was a slave-owner in Grenada until the fall of that island to the French in 1779. He originally travelled to the West Indies in 1762 and began work as a doctor. He used the money to buy land and enslaved people in Grenada. His sisters married Richard W. Cormick and Richard Blake also in Grenada. Staunton's estates were called Staunton Grange and La Fortune.

3. He travelled to England and married Jane Collins on 22 July 1771. They had two sons, but only George Thomas survived and became a politician.

4. Although trained as a doctor George Leonard Staunton adopted 'the profession of the law [and] was appointed a member of council and attorney-general of Grenada'.

5. He lost most of his property in 1779, when it was looted and then confiscated by the French; a friend in Jamaica continued to hold enslaved people, land and contracts for him.

6. A list published in 1780 shows George Leonard Staunton as the owner of a sugar estate in St Patrick that was 317 acres.

7. Staunton had mortgaged his estate for £4,000 to his father-in-law, Salisbury banker and owner of the Salisbury Journal, Benjamin Collins, of Milford in the county of Wiltshire. The disputes over this went to the court of chancery on Collins death.

8. Staunton used the money as well as the connections he made in Grenada to launch a career with the East India Company first in Madras, where he accompanied Lord Macartney, and then on the first British embassy to China. After his success in India he was given an Irish baronetcy (on 31 October 1785) and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He took his young son and "Benjamin, a negro" as his son's valet, with him to China. He is best known as the author of An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China.

9. Benjamin may have been the 12 year old boy mentioned in the following rather unusual anecdote recorded by Staunton of George Thomas' education: Children often learn how to take authority from watching how their parents relate to the servants and following their example. So I banned him from using any authority with the servants, still less hitting them. He tried to hit a boy of 12 who was my servant. I made them both come. I ordered the boy to hit my son twice for each blow he received. Then I turned to my son and asked him what right he had to raise his hand against another, and pointed out that I, the master, never beat this boy.

10. George Leonard Staunton was buried in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey and has a white marble memorial in the window splay of the north choir aisle. The inscription reads: "In the north aisle of Westminster Abbey are deposited the remains of Sir George Leonard Staunton, Baronet, of Cargin, County of Galway, Ireland; His life was devoted to his country's service in various parts of the globe; his conduct on all occasions was distinguished by firmness, prudence, and integrity, and in a peculiar manner displayed in the treaty of peace concluded with Tippoo Sultaun in 1784, by which the British interests in India were promoted and secured. Born 19th of April 1737. Died 14th of January 1801".

11. His estate at Clydagh, County Galway, passed to his son Sir George Thomas Staunton, an East India Co. man and MP for a series of English seats between 1818 and 1852.

John Byres, References to a plan of the island of Dominica as surveyed from the year 1765 and 1773 (London, 1777); Wheeler, Stephen, and Anne Bulley. 2008 "Staunton, Sir George Leonard, first baronet (1737–1801), physician and diplomatist." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2 Jul. 2019. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-26324.

1. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/sir-george-leonard-staunton (sourced 28 July 2015); Staunton/Lynch Staunton Estate, Landed Estates Database http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=987 (sourced 28 July 2015); http://genealogy.links.org/links-cgi/readged?/home/ben/camilla-genealogy/current+c-staunton48270+2-2-0-1-0 (sourced 28 July 2015)

2. Bodleian MS. Eng. misc. f 533 Lord Macartney's Commonplace Book. List made out by Sir George Staunton and sent to the Mandarins 3 Aug 1793.

3. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/sir-george-leonard-staunton (sourced 28 July 2015)

4. John Burke (1832) A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Volume 2

5. Staunton, George Thomas (1823) Memoir of the Life and Family of the Late Sir George Leonard Staunton Bart., Havant Press, pg. 25

6. A New Plan of the Island of Grenada from the Original French Survey of Monsieur Pinel; Taken in 1763 by Order of Government and now Published with the Addition of English Names Alterations of Property and other Improvements to the Present Year 1780: By Lieut. Daniel Paterson Assistant to the Quarter Master General of His Majesty’s Forces. London, Engraved and Published as the Act directs, Feb. 1st 1780: by William Faden, Charing Cross (123.112.a)

7. Christine Y. Ferdinand (1997) Benjamin Collins and the Provincial Newspaper Trade in the Eighteenth Century . Oxford: Oxford University Press, pg. 57; John Burke (1832) A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Volume 2

8. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/sir-george-leonard-staunton (sourced 28 July 2015); John Burke (1832) A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Volume 2; The London Gazette: no. 12699. p. 522. 12 November 1785 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/12699/page/522 (sourced 28 July 2015);Staunton, George [Leonard]. An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. London: W. Bulmer, 1796.

9. Staunton, George Thomas (1823) Memoir of the Life and Family of the Late Sir George Leonard Staunton Bart., Havant Press, pg. 317 (very rough translation from a French original)

10. http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/sir-george-leonard-staunton (sourced 28 July 2015)

11. Staunton/Lynch Staunton Estate, Landed Estates Database http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=987 (sourced 28 July 2015); http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/staunton-sir-george-1781-1859 [accessed 08/11/2017].

We are grateful to Professor Henrietta Harrison for her assistance in compiling this entry.