John Call

Life

Call was born at Fenny Park, Tiverton, Devon. He was educated at Blundell's School and went to India at the age of 17 with Benjamin Robins, the chief engineer and captain-general of artillery in the East India Company's settlements. After the death of Robins, Call became engineer-in-chief, and eventually chief engineer with a seat on the Governor's Council. Robert Clive strongly recommended Call for the Governorship of Madras, but he had to return to England on the death of his father on 31 December 1766.

He was the leader of the Nawab of Arcot's creditors and when he stood for parliament in 1784 it was as part of a wider campaign to gain approval for a repayment scheme for those creditors.

On his return, he became High Sheriff of Cornwall for 1771–72 and was elected MP for Callington in 1784, a seat he held until his death. In 1784 he also became a partner in the Pybus and Son banking house and was created the 1st Baronet Call in 1791.

Call built Whiteford House near Stoke Climsland, Cornwall (demolished in 1913) and the nearby folly, Whiteford Temple, now owned by the Landmark Trust. He also built the reproduction Civil War fort on the summit of Kit Hill and was responsible for the construction of Bodmin Gaol in 1779.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1775, left|thumb|180px|Monument to Sir John Call

He married Philadelphia, the daughter and coheiress of William Batty of Kingston upon Thames; they had two sons and four daughters. His eldest son, William Pratt Call, succeeded him, becoming the 2nd Baronet Call on his father's death in 1801. He became blind seven years before he died, of apoplexy, at his home in Old Burlington Street, London, and was buried at St Margaret's old churchyard, Lee, Kent (now in the borough of Lewisham), where there is a grade II* listed monument to his memory.

References

(of Whiteford)

References

1. [http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~alan/family/N-JohnCall.html] {{webarchive. link. (29 September 2007)
2. (1984). ""Our Execrable Banditti": Perceptions of Nabobs in Mid-Eighteenth Century Britain". Cambridge University Press.
3. {{London Gazette. (18 June 1791)
4. (June 2025). "Library and Archive catalog". Royal Society.
5. [http://www.whitefordfestival.co.uk/location_whitefordhistory.php] {{webarchive. link. (14 September 2007)
6. "The Landmark Trust". Landmarktrust.org.uk.
7. and a Fellow of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London. Society of Antiquaries]] in 1785.D. L. Prior, 'Call, Sir John, first baronet (1732–1801)’, [[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]], [[Oxford University Press]], September 2004; online edn, January 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4393 Retrieved 18 September 2008]
8. "CALL, John (1732-1801), of Whiteford, nr. Callington, Cornw.". History of Parliament Online.
9. (1906). "The Complete Baronetage, Volume V". Pollard & Company.