Sir George Staunton, 2nd Baronet
Sir George Staunton | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for Mitchell | |
In office 1818-1826 | |
Member of Parliament for Heytesbury | |
In office 1830-1832 | |
Member of Parliament for South Hampshire | |
In office 1832-1835 | |
Member of Parliament for Portsmouth | |
In office 1838-1852 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Near George Leonard Staunton (father) | 26 May 1781
Occupation | Orientalist, politician |
Sir George Thomas Staunton, 2nd Baronet (26 May 1781 – 10 August 1859) was an English traveller and Orientalist.
Early life
Born at Milford House near
In the employ of the East India Company
In 1798 was appointed a writer in the
In 1801 he succeeded his father to the baronetcy and in April 1803 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[4]
Many people came to ask for help in both learning the Chinese dialect there and staying, including Robert Morrison and Thomas Manning.[5]
In 1816 Staunton proceeded as second commissioner on a special mission to
The embassy was unsuccessful - and suffered a serious ship-wreck on the return journey - and shortly afterwards Staunton decided to leave Canton permanently.[2]: 28
Back in Britain
George Staunton had been looking for a country home for some years before his permanent return from China and in 1818 put in a bid for Newstead Abbey but was outbid by Thomas Wildman.[2]: 29 In 1820 he purchased the Leigh estate in Hampshire[2]: 39 which included what was to become Staunton Country Park. He lived there for part of each year and made substantial alterations to the buildings and the landscape.
Three years later he was heavily involved with the founding of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.[2]: 43 Their Sir George Staunton Prize is awarded annually.
Between 1818 and 1852 he was MP for several English constituencies, finally for
From 1829 until 1856 he was a member of the Society of Dilettanti[2]: 71
He had never married and the baronetcy became extinct on his death (in London). He left his Irish estate, Clydagh House, to his eldest cousin George Staunton Lynch (who took the additional surname of Staunton) and Leigh Park and his London house (17, Devonshire Street, Marylebone) to George Staunton Lynch's younger brother, Captain Henry Cormick Lynch.
Publications
His publications include translations of Great Qing Legal Code, known as the Fundamental Laws of China (1810)[7] and of the Narrative of the Chinese Embassy to the Khan of the Tourgouth Tartars (1821); Miscellaneous Notices Relating to China and our Commercial Intercourse with that Country (1822); Notes of Proceedings and Occurrences during the British Embassy to Peking (1824); Observations on our Chinese Commerce (1850). For the Hakluyt Society he edited Juan González de Mendoza's History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China.
- González de Mendoza, Juan (1970). Staunton, Sir George Thomas (ed.). The History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China and the Situation Thereof, Volume 1. Compiled by Juan González de Mendoza, Sir George Thomas Staunton Contributor Sir George Thomas Staunton (reprint ed.). B. Franklin. ISBN 0833723618.
References
- ISBN 978-0691225456.
- ^ ISBN 1-873793-07-3.
- ^ Golden, Sean (2000). Society of Jesus to the East India Company: A Case Study in the Social History of Translation (PDF). State University of New York at Binghamton. p. 210.
- ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 21 October 2010.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Platt, Stephen. Imperial Twilight. pp. 87, 140.
- ISBN 9789622099449.
- ISBN 978-88-8303-843-3.