Law, Thomas, 1756-1834

Thomas Law (October 23, 1756 – 1834), was a British administrator, reformer, and intellectual who significantly influenced British India and the early United States. In India, where he served as collector of revenue for the East India Company. Working with Lord Cornwallis, governor-general of India, Law formulated a major policy known as the Permanent Settlement, which served as the basis for land tenure and taxation policy for natives during subsequent decades of British rule. He returned to England for his health in 1791, taking with him his three illegitimate sons borne of his Indian mistress. Three years later, Law emigrated to the United States and soon settled in Washington, D.C., then undeveloped but designated as the national capitol. Law became a major real estate investor and developer, as well as a prominent civic leader in the developing new capital after the demise of his fortune. A widely read intellectual, he had grand visions for bringing Enlightenment ideas to bear in reshaping both colonial British India and the early American republic. He eventually brought his sons to the US. The eldest, George, died in 1796. John attended Harvard and Edmund attended Yale. In 1796 Law married 19 year old Elizabeth Parke Custis, the eldest granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington. Before their separation in 1804, they had one daughter, Eliza Custis Law, who married Nicholas Rogers of Baltimore.