Thomas Hislop, 1st Baronet

Sir Thomas Hislop, 1st Baronet ( July 5, 1762 - May 3, 1843 in Charlton ) was a British general and governor of Trinidad .

Hislop was born on July 5, 1762 to Lieutenant Colonel William Hislop and attended the Royal Military Academy .

In 1778 he joined the 39th Regiment of Foot as an ensign . From 1779 to 1783 he was stationed in Gibraltar . From 1793 to 1795 he was used in Ireland, Corsica and in the Roman-German Empire. From 1796 to 1802 he took part in the conquest of the West Indian colonies of the Netherlands . From 1803 to 1811 he was governor of Trinidad and was present when Guadeloupe was captured in 1810. His successor as governor was Hector William Munro . During the British-American War he was captured on December 29, 1812 after a battle between the HMS Java and the USS Constitution . During the battle he had stayed on deck and had supported the crew of the Java , for which he was later commended. On November 2, 1813 he was given the hereditary title of baronet , of Tothill in the County of Devon. He has been in since Salvador Bahia ( Brazil set) by the Americans at liberty and returned in 1814 back to Britain. In the same year he took up his post as commander-in-chief in Madras , which he should hold until 1820. During this time, from 1817 to 1818, the Third Marath War took place . Hislop commanded the Army of the Deccan , which succeeded in defeating the Holkar in the Battle of Mahidpur . He was accepted into the Order of the Bath as the Knight Grand Cross .

After the end of the campaign, there was a dispute over the division of the booty, the so-called Deccan Prize . The Bengal Army had not been involved in any combat operations under the command of Francis Rawdon-Hastings . In contrast, the Army of the Deccan under General Hislop had secured most of the booty. Nevertheless, Rawdon demanded a share of the sales proceeds for himself and his army. The matter came before the Privy Council . The latter decided that the Bengal Army was entitled to a share because it had been present and had tied up enemy forces.

In 1823 he married Emma Elliot, a niece of the Earl of Minto . The marriage produced a daughter. Since he had no sons, his title of nobility expired on his death in 1843.

Literature and web links

• HM Chichester: Hislop, Sir Thomas, first baronet. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . 2004.
• General Sir Thomas Hislop, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baronetage: HISLOP of Tothill, Devon at Leigh Rayment's Peerage