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{{Short description|British politician, sociopolitical theorist and colonial administrator}}
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{{Use British English|date=January 2017}}
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'''Sir Robert John Wilmot-Horton, 3rd Baronet''', [[Royal Guelphic Order|GCH]], [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|PC]], [[Royal Society|FRS]] (21 December 1784 – 31 May 1841), born '''Robert John Wilmot''', was a [[British Empire|British]] politician, sociopolitical theorist, and colonial administrator. He was [[Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies]] between 1821 and 1828, and [[British governors of Ceylon|Governor of Ceylon]] between 1831 and 1837. He is most widely known for his writings on assisted emigration to the colonies of the British Empire.
 
==BackgroundEarly life and education==
HisRobert nameJohn at birthWilmot was Robertborn Johnon Wilmot21 December 1784. He was the only son of [[Sir Robert Wilmot, 2nd Baronet]], of [[Osmaston, Derby|Osmaston]], near Derby (see [[Wilmot baronets]]), and his first wife Juliana Elizabeth (née Byron).<ref name="ADB"/>

He was educated at [[Eton College|Eton]], and at [[Christ Church, Oxford]].<ref name="ADB">[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010514b.htm ''Australian Dictionary of Biography, Online Edition'' Horton, Sir Robert Wilmot (1784–1841)]</ref>
[[File:Tom Quad, Christ Church 2004-01-21.jpg|thumb|right|[[Christ Church, Oxford]]]]
 
==Career==
==Political and administrative career==
Wilmot-Horton was a [[Canningite]] supporter of [[free trade]] and [[Catholic emancipation]] among the [[Tory (political faction)|Tories]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=13827|title=Horton, Sir Robert John Wilmot-|first=Eric|last=Richards}}</ref> He sat as a [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Newcastle-under-Lyme (UK Parliament constituency)|Newcastle-under-Lyme]] from 1818 until 1830.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20090810231441/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Ncommons1.htm leighrayment.com House of Commons: Na H-Eileanan An Iar to Newport]}}</ref> He served under the [[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|Earl of Liverpool]], [[George Canning]] and [[Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich|Lord Goderich]] as [[Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies]] from 1821 to 1827 and was sworn of the [[Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council|Privy Council]] in 1827. He reorganised the Colonial Office, including dividing the Empire into areas with a senior clerk responsible for administering each area.
[[File:Robert_Wilmot_Horton.jpg|thumb|left]]
Wilmot-Horton's [[aide-de-camp]] at the Colonial Office was his friend [[Thomas Moody (1779-1849)|Thomas Moody, Kt.]], with whom he maintained an extensive correspondence throughout his life.<ref name="Emancipation">{{cite book|last1=Hall|first1=Catherine|last2=Draper|first2=Nicholas|last3=McClelland|first3=Keith|title=Emancipation and the Remaking of the British Imperial World|date=1 November 2015|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> Wilmot-Horton forwarded one of Moody's reports on the West Indies to Canning in 1824,<ref name="Emancipation"/> and subsequently advocated the contentions expressed in Moody's reports, to the Parliamentary Commission on West Indian Slavery, between 1825 and 1828.<ref name="Rupprecht">{{cite journal|last1=Rupprecht|first1=Anita|date=September 2012|title='When he gets among his countrymen,they tell him that he is free': Slave Trade Abolition, Indentured Africans and a Royal Commission|journal=Slavery & Abolition|volume=33 |issue=3 |pages= 435–455|doi= 10.1080/0144039X.2012.668300|s2cid=144301729}}</ref> Wilmot Horton and [[Thomas Hyde Villiers|Thomas Hyde Villiers MP]] also wrote articles - under the pseudonym 'Vindex', which Moody had also used - to the''The Star'' newspaper, in which they refuted the objections that others had made to Moody's philosophy and defended Moody.<ref name="Lamont"/> Moody performed special service in the Dutch Colonies of the West Indies for Wilmot Horton between 1828 and 1829.<ref name="Lamont">{{cite web|url=http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30676/1/SP%20Lamont%20thesis%20-%20electronic%20version.pdf|title=Robert Wilmot Horton and Liberal Toryism|author=Lamont, Stephen Peter|publisher=University of Nottingham|year=2015}}</ref> Moody named one of his sons, Wilmot Horton Moody, after Wilmot-Horton.<ref name="Will of Major Thomas Moody, UCL">{{cite web|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/6650|title=The Will of Major Thomas Moody, PROB 11/2101, Codicil of 09/01/1843; The Carlisle Patriot 22/09/1849, accessed via Legacies of British Slave-Ownership: Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Moody: Profile and Legacies Summary|publisher=University College London|access-date=6 June 2016}}</ref>
 
Wilmot-Horton is best remembered for advocating that poor British and Irish families should be allowed to emigrate to the colonies and be granted land there, and was mainly responsible in securing two parliamentary grants in 1823 and 1825 to fund an experiment where poor Irish families settled in Canada. He managed to establish a parliamentary committee on emigration and served as its chairman between 1826 and 1827. In this position he pushed for a plan where so called paupers gave up their rights to parish maintenance in return for grants of land in the colonies. However, the plans were dropped after Wilmot-Horton left the Colonial Office in 1827.<ref name="ADB"/>
 
In 1831 Wilmot-Horton was made a Knight Grand Cross of the [[Royal Guelphic Order|Royal Hanoverian Order]] by [[William IV of the United Kingdom|William IV]] and appointed [[British governors of Ceylon|Governor of Ceylon]]. In Ceylon he implemented the recommendations of the ''[[Colebrooke–Cameron Commission]]'' forming Ceylon's First [[Legislative Council of Ceylon|Legislative Council]] and [[Executive Council of Ceylon|Executive Committee]]; abolished the feudal practice of compulsory labour ; abandoned government's claims to free service (Rajakariya); recognised the right to private property ; abolished government's monopoly of the [[Cinnamon]] trade, dating to the Dutch period ; started the first newspaper of Ceylon, the ''Colombo Journal'', and the first mail coach in Asia ; reformed the education system, established Ceylon's first public school, the [[Colombo Academy]], which was renamed in 1881 as the [[Royal College, Colombo|Royal College]], the only school in the world outside England, to be granted Approvalapproval by Queen Victoria to use the word ROYALRoyal in a college name. It was also the only school in Asia which was Accredited by Her Majesty.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

In 1834 heWilmot-Horton succeeded his father as third Baronet.{{cn|date= March 2023}}
In his absence his plans on assisted emigration were ridiculed as those of an impractical dreamer by a succession of writers on colonial affairs, but Wilmot-Horton continued to write pamphlets advocating and defending his ideas. He returned to Britain in 1837.<ref name="ADB"/>
 
==Family==
Wilmot-Horton married [[Anne Wilmot-Horton|Anne Beatrix Horton]], daughter and co-heiress of Eusebius Horton, of the [[Catton Hall]] estate in Derbyshire, in 1806. Her beauty inspired [[Lord Byron]] to write athe poem "[[She Walks in Beauty]]" after they first met at a party in June 1814. They had four sons and three daughters. <br>
In 1823 he inherited the Catton Hall estate on the death of his father-in-law and pursuant to the latter's will added Horton as a second surname. He died at [[Sudbrook Park, Petersham|Sudbrooke Park, Petersham]], in May 1841, aged 56, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, [[Sir Robert Wilmot, 4th Baronet, of Osmaston|Robert]].<ref name="ADB"/>
 
==Death and legacy==
==Legacy==
Wilmot-Horton died at [[Sudbrook Park, Petersham]], in May 1841, aged 56, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, [[Sir Robert Wilmot, 4th Baronet, of Osmaston|Robert]].<ref name="ADB"/>
[[Horton Plains]] was named after Sir Robert in 1834 by Lt William Fisher of the [[78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot|78th Regiment]] and Lt. Albert Watson of the [[58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot|58th Regiment]].<ref>[http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/05/22/fea05.asp Vinod Moonesinghe, '''OMG! And the Fishers of Ramboda''', ''Ceylon Daily News'', 22 June 2012.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019170127/http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/05/22/fea05.asp |date=19 October 2012 }}</ref>
 
[[Horton, Ontario|Horton Township]] in Ontario, Canada, was named after Wilmot-Horton.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Horton Township in word |url=https://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/FWIO/FWIO003203344_0017p.pdf |website=images.ourontario.ca |access-date=29 July 2024 |date=18 December 1985}}</ref>
Horton Place in [[Colombo]] was named after the Governor.
 
[[Horton Plains]] was named after Sir RobertWilmot-Horton in 1834 by Lt William Fisher of the [[78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot|78th Regiment]] and Lt. Albert Watson of the [[58th (Rutlandshire) Regiment of Foot|58th Regiment]].<ref>[http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/05/22/fea05.asp Vinod Moonesinghe, '''OMG! And the Fishers of Ramboda''', ''Ceylon Daily News'', 22 June 2012.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019170127/http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/05/22/fea05.asp |date=19 October 2012 }}</ref>
His memorial is located in [[St John the Baptist's Church, Croxall]].
 
Horton Place in [[Colombo]] and Horton Plains National Park was named after the Governorgovernor.{{cn|date= March 2023}}
 
His memorial is located in [[St John the Baptist's Church, Croxall]].{{cn|date= March 2023}}
 
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
 
==Further reading==
*{{cite journal | last=Brynn | first=Edward | title=Politics and Economic Theory: Robert Wilmot Horton, 1820-1841 | journal=The Historian | publisher=Wiley | volume=34 | issue=2 | year=1972 | issn=0018-2370 | jstor=24442850 | pages=260–277 | doi=10.1111/j.1540-6563.1972.tb00411.x | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24442850}}
 
== External links ==
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[[Category:1784 births]]
[[Category:1841 deaths]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Newcastle-under-Lyme]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:British MPsPeople educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:People from Osmaston, Derby]]
[[Category:Tory MPs (pre-1834)]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1818–1820]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1820–1826]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1826–1830]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford]]
[[Category:British viceroys educated at Eton College‎]]
[[Category:Tory MPs (pre-1834)]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Newcastle-under-Lyme]]
[[Category:People from Osmaston, Derby]]
[[Category:British MPs educated at Eton College]]