The genius of Warren Hastings is shown in nothing more than in his rare insight in the selection of subordinates. He surrounded himself with young men of great ability and talent for administration, who worked for him with a zeal which was stimulated by warm personal attachment. Among those who were trained by and won distinction under the eye of the first and greatest of the Governors-General of India may be mentioned young Alexander Elliot, who was cut off in his prime; William Markham, the Resident of Benares, who assisted his revered chief during the trial; Jonathan Duncan, the Governor of Bombay; Claud Alexander, of Ballochmyle; David Anderson; Augustus Clevland, the civilizer of the Santhal tribes; and George Bogle, the subject of the present short memoir, whom Warren Hastings selected as his envoy to Tibet.

George Bogle was the son of George Bogle of Daldowie, a beautiful place near Bothwell, on the right bank of the Clyde. George, the elder, was born in 1700, was educated at Leyden, and became a merchant in Glasgow, where he was six times elected Lord Rector of the University between the years 1737 and 1748. He married Anne, daughter of Sir John Sinclair of Stevenson, by Martha Lockhart, heiress of Sir John Lockhart of Castlehill, in Lanarkshire, brother of Sir William Lockhart of Lee. Sir John “was a man of great parts and knowledge of our laws, and was appointed by Charles II. one of the Senators of the College of Justice, and a Lord of Justiciary, as Lord Castlehill.”