Dictionary of Indian Biography/Buchanan-Hamilton, Francis
BUCHANAN-HAMILTON, FRANCIS (1762–1829)
Doctor: born Feb. 15, 1762, son of Thomas Buchanan, doctor: took his degree of M.D. at Edinburgh in 1783: after serving on a man-of-war, joined the E.I. Co.'s service in 1794: employed on a mission to the Court of Ava, and on various botanical, zoological and statistical inquiries in Chittagong and Tippera, and, in 1800–1, through Mysore, Canara and Malabar, on which he wrote a full report: went to Nipal in 1802: he was Surgeon to Lord Wellesley, and accompanied him to England in 1805. The records of his subsequent inquiries in several Bengal districts and Assam were deposited at the India House in 1816 and not utilized for 22 years. He was Superintendent of the Botanic Garden, Calcutta, 1814–5, when he returned to Scotland and took the additional name of Hamilton on succeeding to his mother's property: F.R.S. and F.R.A.S., and contributed largely to the literary and scientific societies to which he belonged: wrote on the History of Nipal, the Genealogy of the Hindu gods, the Fishes of the Ganges, etc: died June 15, 1829.