738 HERA 
Ali, narrowly efcaped from becominghis prifoners: Hy- 
der Ali was, at the time, ravaging the Carnatic. Da¬ 
ring Mr. Macpherfon’s ftay at Madras, he became known 
to the nabob Mahomed Ali, who, finding that his piir- 
fuit was a voyage of literary and local inquiry, opened 
to him all the calamitous circumftances of the country, 
and charged him with a confidential commifiion to his 
majefty’s firft minifter; a commifiion which afterwards 
led, in 1769, to the nomination of a Britifii minifter at 
the durbar, or court, of the nabob. 'The Mansfield 
Indiaman having been fent from Bombay to convey 
troops to the fiege of Mangalore, fir John, then about 
twenty-two years of age, affifted as a volunteer at the 
florming of the Odtagon tort, at the entrance of the har¬ 
bour of Mangalore, and was charged by commodore 
Watfon, who fuperintended the expedition, to carry the 
account of its fuccefs to the earl of Shelburne. He 
arrived in England in the year 1768, in the Lionefs 
Indiaman, and in the year 1770, he embarked a fecond 
lime for India, having been appointed to the company’s 
civil fervice, under the. prefidency of Fort St. George. 
In the year 1773, he was appointed paymafter tothe 
army in the field in the Carnatic, commanded by general 
Jofeph Smith, and was prefent at'the fiege and reduc¬ 
tion of Tanjore. Returning a fecond time to his native 
country in 1777, he was charged with a molt important 
confidential million, and communication from the na¬ 
bob to his majefty, and his majefty’s firft minifter, lord 
North. That communication laid open the fecret offers 
of the'French, government to the nabob, offers which 
aimed at the total overthrow of the Britifii power in 
the Carnatic. It was in confequence of that confidential 
communication , that the fecret orders of the 15th of April, 
1778, were fent to India, diredting the attack upon 
Pondicherry before any declaration of war had taken 
place. Had not thole orders arrived in India at the 
moment they did, Hyder Ali, who had made a truce 
with the Marhattas in order to join the French in the 
Carnatic, would have been in time to prevent the'reduc- 
tion of Poqdicherry, and the confequent eventual dif- 
comfiture of all the projects of France againft the Britifh 
power in India. In January 1781, fir John Macpherfon 
was appointed by the court of directors, and confirmed 
under his majefty’s commifiion, a member of the fu- 
preme council of Bengal, in the room of Richard Bar- 
vvel), efq. Having embarked for India in the.fleet un¬ 
der the command pf go vernor Johnftone, he was in the 
memorable aftion of the 16th of April 1781, in the Va¬ 
lentine E.aft Indiaman, at Porto Praya, one of the Cape 
de Verd iflands ; an action in which the attack of ad¬ 
miral Suffrein, who commanded five French fhips of the 
line, was repulfed effectually. Arriving, in Auguft 1781, 
at Madras, which was then invefted by the forces of 
Hyder Ali, who had overrun the Carnatic, Mr. 'Mac¬ 
pherfon,'in conjunction with lord Macartney, governor 
of Madras, fir Eyre Co.ote, commander of the forces on 
the coaft, and fir Edward Hughes, admiral of the fleet, 
opened a negotiation with'the Marhatta government, a 
negotiation which, fortunately, led to an immediate 
ceffation of hoftilities with the Marhatta nation, and 
terminated in a regular, treaty of peace with the Mar¬ 
hatta ftate. Mr. Haftings, governor-general of India, 
having laid down his office, and embarked for England, 
on the ill of Feb. 1785, Mr. Macpherfon fucceeded him 
in that high office by virtue of different arils of parlia¬ 
ment pafl'ed in his prefent 'majefty’s reign. He con¬ 
tinued to prefide at the head of the affairs of India, till 
it-was thought expedient in England, to unite the offices 
of governor general and commander in chief of the forces 
in one perfori, when lie was accordingly fuperfeded by 
earl Cornwallis, in September 1786. During the period 
of his adminiftration of twenty months, he conciliated 
the native ftates, maintained the company’s dominions 
in peace, made an annual reduction of one million two 
■hundred rhoufand pounds fterling in the expenditures 
of the. Bengal government, arid concluded with the 
L D R Y. 
French governor-general of Mauritius, in April t^86, 
the convention, by which the hoftile plans of the cabinet 
of France, againft the Britifh pofleffions in India, were 
efFeftnally counterarifed and defeated. For thefe fer- 
vices he received the,unanimous thanks of the court of 
directors and proprietors of the India company, and his 
majefty was' pleafed to raife him to the rank of a baro- 
met in June 1786. After transferring-the government 
.general to earl Cornwallis, he remained feveral months 
in the fupreme council. His health declining, he went 
for its' recovery from Calcutta to Madras, and the Cape 
of Good Hooe, and returned afterwards to Europe. In 
1789, he finally refigned the company’s fervice, and in 
the clofe of that year went to the continent, where he 
travelled till Auguft ^93 ; having vifited the principal 
capitals and courts of Germany, Italy, and Spain. He 
was elected in 1796 member for the borough of Her- 
fharn, and elected unanimoujly hy the freeholders ; having 
declared to the contending parties on the day of election, 
“ that his objerit in becoming a member of parliament, 
was not to obtain aiiy thing.for himfelf; but, after all he 
had feen in his travels on the continent, to aid the catife 
of a general peace.” He continued to fit till the diffolu- 
tion of parliament in 1802. Since that period he has not : 
appeared in any public fituation.—Motto, Sic narravere 
bardi. Thus the bards have told.—Family Seat, Ilency, 
Invernefsfhire. 
COLQUHOUN, of Lufs, Dumbartonfhire; created 
baronet of Scotland,-Aug. -1, 1625; and of Great Bri¬ 
tain, June 10, 1786.—Sir James Colquhoun, the fe— 
cond baronet, fucceeded his father, fir James, in 1803; 
married, in 1802, Mifs Sinclair, daughter to fir John 
Sinclair, bart. and lias ifiiie, a ion, born in 1804.—Tile 
traditional accounts of the origin of this ancient family 
are various. Some authors deduce their defeent from 
a younger fon ofConoch, a king of Ireland, who came 
.to Scotland in the reign of Gregory the Great, and ob¬ 
tained from that pri-nce fome lands in Dunibartonfiiire, 
to which he gave the name of Conochon ; which foou 
after came to be corrupted into Colquhoun, which name 
they have retained ever fince.—Mottoj Si je puis, If I 
can.—Family Seat, Rofedow, in Dumbartonfhire. 
DOUGLAS, of Springwood Park, Roxburgh.hire ; 
created June 10, 1786.—Sir George Douglas, the 
fecond baronet, fucceeded his father, fir James, in 1787; 
married, Oct. 16, 1786, Elizabeth Boyle> daughter of 
David, third earl of Glafgow, and by her (who died 
Feb. 15, 1801) had iffue, Elizabeth-Georgiana, born 
Sept. 20, 1782, died Aug. 22, 1795; Helen, born Dec. 
1790, died Jan. 1791; John-James, born July 18, 1792. 
—The late baronet entered into the navy, and was 
knighted for bringing home the news of the furrender 
of Quebec, in J759; he commanded a fleet at the Lee¬ 
ward Iflands, 1761; took Dominica,-and had a broad, 
pendant at the fiege of Martinico, in 1761. He was cre¬ 
ated a baronet in 1786, and was elerited reprefentative 
of the Orkneys in 1754, and. 1761.—Family Seat, Spring- 
wood, Roxburghfhire, North Britain. 
SHIRLEY 1 , of Oat Hall, Wivelsfield, Suffex ; cre¬ 
ated June 27,1786.—Sir William-Warden Shipley, 
the fecond baronet, a lieutenant in the royal navy, was 
born in 1772, and fucceeded his father, fir-Thomas.— 
Sir Anthony Shirley, fecond fon of fir Thomas'Shirley, 
of Whjfton, in Suffex, was one of the gallant adventurers 
who went to annoy tire Spaniards in their fettlements in 
the Weft Indies. He afterwards travelled to Pe.rfia, 
and returned to England,, in the quality of ambaffador 
from the fophi, in 1612. The next year he p,ubli(hed 
an account of his travels. He was, by the emperor of 
Germany, raifed to the dignity of a count; and the 
king of,Spain made him admiral of the Levant Sea. He 
died in the year 1.630. A fpirit of adventure ran through 
the family of the Shirleys. Sir Anthony had two bro¬ 
thers, who were noted adventurers. Sir Robert was in¬ 
troduced to the Perfian court by his brother, fir Antho¬ 
ny* 
