Richard Barwell (8 October 1741 – 2 September 1804) was an early trader with the East India Company and amassed one of the largest fortunes in early British India. Barwell was the son of William Barwell, governor of Bengal in 1748, and afterwards a director of the East India Company and Sheriff of Surrey in 1768. His family, which apparently came from Kegworth, Leicestershire, had been connected with the East for generations. Biography Barwell was born in Calcutta in 1741 and appointed a writer on the Bengal establishment of the East India Company in 1756 and landed at Calcutta on 21 June 1758. After a succession of lucrative appointments, he was nominated in the Regulating Act (13 Geo. III, c. 63) a member of council in Bengal, with Philip Francis as one of his colleagues, General John Clavering as commander-in-chief, and Warren Hastings as governor-general. The statute is dated 1772–3, but the members of council did not take their seats until 20 October 1774. In 1776 he married a Miss Sanderson, the reigning beauty of Calcutta; but she died in November 1778, leaving one son. A portrait of Barwell, seated in his library with this son by his side, was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and engraved in mezzotint by William Dickinson. Barwell is known to history for his constant support of Hastings, in opposition to the party led by Francis. Barwell wrote of him, "He possesses much experience, a solid judgment, much greater fertility of resources than I have, and his manners are easy and pleasant." Francis differed, writing, "He is rapacious without industry, and ambitious without an exertion of his faculties or steady application to affairs. He will do whatever can be done by bribery and intrigue; he has no other resource." Barwell has been cited for sharp business practices. Writing in the Cambridge History of India, H.H. Dodwell says: He made a great fortune in India, and, as Sir James Stephen says, this fact of itself raises a presumption against his official purity. ... his standard was low. We find him writing to his sister in 1769: "I would spend 5,000 to secure to myself the chiefship of Dacca, and to supervise. the collection of the revenues of that province". In another letter he states that he considers himself justified in evading the law which prohibited the Company's servants from trading, by engaging in salt contracts under