Sir John Macpherson, 1st Baronet

The Right Honourable Sir John Macpherson Bt MP
Captain John Macpherson (1726 - 1792) by anonymous (circa 1772-1792)
Acting Governor-General of the Presidency of Fort William
In office 8 February 1785 – 11 September 1786
Monarch	George III
Preceded by	Warren Hastings
Succeeded by	The Earl Cornwallis
Personal details
Born	1745 (1745) Sleat, Isle of Skye
Died	12 January 1821 (1821-01-13) Brompton Grove
Nationality	Scottish
Alma mater	University of Aberdeen University of Edinburgh

Sir John Macpherson, 1st Baronet (c. 1745 – 12 January 1821), from Sleat, Isle of Skye, Scotland, was a Scottish administrator in India. He was the acting Governor-General of Bengal from 1785 to 1786.

Macpherson was born in 1745 at Sleat in the Isle of Skye, where his father, John Macpherson (1713–1765), was minister.

His mother was Janet, daughter of Donald Macleod of Bernera. The father, son of Dugald Macpherson, minister of Duirinish, distinguished himself in classics at Aberdeen University (M.A. 1728, and D.D. 1761), and was minister of Barra in the presbytery of Uist (1734–42), and of Sleat (1742–65). He published Critical Dissertations on the Origin, Antiquities, Language, Government, Manners, and Religion of the Ancient Caledonians, their Posterity, the Picts, and the British and Irish Scots, London, 1768, and paraphrased the Song of Moses in Latin verse in Scots Magazine, vols. i. ix. xi. He upheld the authenticity of the poems assigned to Ossian, and Samuel Johnson declared that his Latin verse did him honour. Martin Macpherson (1743–1812), Dr. Macpherson's elder son, succeeded him at Sleat, and won Dr. Johnson's regard when the doctor visited the highlands.

John, the younger son, was educated at King's College, Aberdeen, and at the University of Edinburgh.

In March 1767 he sailed for India, nominally as purser of an East India ship, commanded by his maternal uncle, Captain Alexander Macleod. Macpherson landed at Madras, where he obtained an introduction to Mohammed Ali, Nawab of the Carnatic. The latter, whose affairs were in great disorder, had borrowed large sums of money at high interest from the East India Company's officials at Madras. Hard pressed by his creditors, he entrusted Macpherson with a secret mission to Britain, with the object of making representations on his behalf to the home government. Macpherson arrived in Britain in November 1768. He had several interviews with the prime minister, Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, who eventually despatched Sir John Lindsay, as king's envoy extraordinary, to effect a settlement of the Nawab's claims. This commission being novel and unwarrantable, the company protested, and Lindsay was recalled.