JOHN ARRIVED home in August 1785, four and a half years after sailing from the Downs, to find everything had changed. He was probably prepared for the sad family circumstances. News of his father's death must have reached St Helena where Nassau had anchored in May. At the Jerusalem everyone regretted the passing of this kindly, reliable man, who was respected by all for his skilful seamanship. Heartening news from Calcutta lifted the family's spirits at this sad time. William's wife had at last given birth to a son. He had been christened Warren Hastings after his godfather and was the idol of a doting father. Thomas was a businessman. He had had Warren Hastings's bottom coppered at great expense. Before his death William had purchased an Admiralty prize which had been refitted at Barnard's as an Indiaman and named Clinton. Thomas renamed her Dover and tendered her to the Company before sailing for China, leaving the management of affairs in the hands of his mother, Christian, until his return.

John found changes in the Company no less momentous. In the months following the brothers’ departure in 1782 the various Indian wars and the rising costs from losses and delays in shipping had brought the Company close to financial collapse. For two years the Company's government – or misgovernment – of India had dominated Parliamentary business, generating three bills and bringing down successive administrations. A change of government aborted the first bill. The second passed the House of Commons in December 1783 but was rejected by the Lords. It proposed replacing the Court of Directors by a Commission appointed by and responsible to Parliament. Opposition mounted against this attack on chartered rights and the acquisition by politicians of the valuable Company patronage. The day after the bill was passed to go into committee the King intervened, declaring that anyone who voted for the bill was not only not his friend but would be considered by him as an enemy. The bill was defeated on second reading and on 11 December the King dismissed the government. The twenty-four year old son of the great Chatham, William Pitt, untainted by the shifting and unnatural coalitions of the previous few years, became First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.