George Bogle (diplomat)

George Bogle (26 November 1746 – 3 April 1781) was a Scottish adventurer and diplomat, the first to establish diplomatic relations with Tibet and to attempt recognition by the Chinese Qing dynasty. His mission is still used today as a reference point in debates between China and Tibetan independence activists.

George Bogle was the third son of a wealthy Glasgow merchant, George Bogle of Daldowie, one of the Tobacco Lords and Anne Sinclair, a gentlewoman directly descended from James I and James II of Scotland. His father had extensive connections in the Scottish landed, commercial, and governmental elite, as well as trading contacts across the British Empire.

The Scots gentry to whom he belonged were in turn, in the 18th century, a key feature in the British state. Their political allegiance was often managed through patronage. In particular, Henry Dundas was able to offer the younger sons of gentry opportunities in India. This was to be a significant feature in George's career.

Born in 1746 at the family seat of Daldowie, on the right bank of the River Clyde as the youngest of one of seven surviving children and the youngest of three brothers, his elder brother John Bogle eventually had a plantation in Virginia. His other brother, Robert, after the failure of a business adventure in London (the importing house of "Bogle and Scott"), established a cotton plantation in Grenada. Both these brothers were intimately involved in the slave trade. His four sisters married into their gentry network of traders, lairds and lawyers. His mother died when he was thirteen. The following year he matriculated at Edinburgh University where he studied Logic. He completed his education, when he was 18, at a private academy in Enfield, near London. Following this, he spent six months travelling in France. His brother Robert then took him on as a clerk in his London offices of Bogle and Scott where he spent four years as a cashier.

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