Charles Justin MacCarthy

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Sir Charles Justin MacCarthy
Tombstone of Charles Justin MacCarthy on the Spa cemetery in 2015.
12th Governor of British Ceylon
In office
22 October 1860 – 1 December 1863
MonarchQueen Victoria
Preceded byCharles Edmund Wilkinson
(Acting governor)
Succeeded byTerence O'Brien
(Acting governor)
Acting
18 January 1855 – 11 May 1855
MonarchQueen Victoria
Preceded byGeorge William Anderson
Succeeded byHenry George Ward
Acting
18 October 1850 – 27 November 1850
MonarchQueen Victoria
Preceded byThe Viscount Torrington
Succeeded byGeorge William Anderson
12th Accountant General and Controller of Revenue
In office
28 May 1847 – 1 October 1851
Preceded byHenry Wright
Succeeded byW. C. Gibson
Personal details
Born1811 (1811)
Brighton, England
Died15 August 1864(1864-08-15) (aged 52–53)
Spa, Belgium

Sir Charles Justin MacCarthy (1811–1864)[1] was the 12th Governor of British Ceylon and the 12th Accountant General and Controller of Revenue. He was appointed on 22 October 1860 and was Governor until 1 December 1863. He also served as acting governor on two separate occasions. He was first appointed in 1850.[2][3]

Life[edit]

His parents were Donough and Mary MacCarthy, and he was born in Brighton.[4][5] He was a relation of Nicholas Wiseman, and in the early 1830s was in Rome, with a view to entering the Roman Catholic priesthood. Under the influence of the ideas of Lamennais, however, he ceased theological studies. In Rome through Wiseman he met Monckton Milnes, who became a lifelong friend. Milnes then helped him into a colonial career.[1][6]

MacCarthy was knighted in 1857.[1] In office he adopted a policy of financial retrenchment. His main aim was to promote railway construction.[7] He left Ceylon in December 1863, in poor health.[8] He died at Spa, Belgium, on 15 August 1864.[9]

Family[edit]

MacCarthy married in 1848 Sophia Brunel Hawes, botanist and eldest daughter of Sir Benjamin Hawes.[5][10][11] They had a son, Charles Philip.[12]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c William Ewart Gladstone (15 February 1969). The Gladstone Diaries: 1825–1832 : 1833–1839. Oxford University Press. pp. 325 note 1. ISBN 978-0-19-821370-3.
  2. ^ "Sri Lanka". Rulers.org. Retrieved 20 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Former Auditor Generals". auditorgeneral.gov.lk. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  4. ^ O'Hart, John (1892). "Irish Pedigrees". Internet Archive. p. 134. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  5. ^ a b Robert P. Dod (1862). The Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland for 1862. p. 385.
  6. ^ Stoddard, Richard Henry (1891). "The Life, Letters, and Friendships of Richard Monckton Milnes, first Lord Houghton. Introd. by Richard Henry Stoddard". Internet Archive. p. 123. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  7. ^ K. M. De Silva (January 1981). A History of Sri Lanka. University of California Press. pp. 285. ISBN 978-0-520-04320-6.
  8. ^ L. E. Blaze (1938). History of Ceylon. Asian Educational Services. p. 237. ISBN 978-81-206-1841-1.
  9. ^ William Skeen (1870). Mountain Life and Coffee Cultivation in Ceylon: A Poem on the Knuckles Range, with Other Poems. Edward Stanford. p. 179.
  10. ^ Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, of Great Britain and Ireland, for ...: Including All the Titled Classes. S. Low, Marston & Company. 1865. p. 393.
  11. ^ D. E. Allen (November 1980). "The Women Members of the Botanical Society of London, 1836–1856". The British Journal for the History of Science. 13 (3): 240–254. doi:10.1017/S0007087400018057. ISSN 0007-0874. JSTOR 4026198. Wikidata Q113958660.
  12. ^ "MacCarthy, Charles Philip (MRTY877CP)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
Government offices
Preceded by Acting
Governor of British Ceylon

1850-1850
Succeeded by
Preceded by Acting
Governor of British Ceylon

1855-1855
Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of British Ceylon
1860–1863
Succeeded by
Terence O'Brien
acting governor
Legal offices
Preceded by Accountant General and Controller of Revenue
1847–1851
Succeeded by