George Matcham, dubbed the most unsettled man alive, was born in East India Company controlled Bombay and undertook three epic overland treks between Asia and England before marrying the favourite sister of the not yet famous Horatio Nelson. Intimate details about George's life have been preserved because of his close relationship with Nelson and his famous paramour Emma Hamilton, whose rises and falls he observed first-hand.
Packed with period press clippings and eyewitness accounts, A Most Unsettled Man provides an unprecedented glimpse into the private life of a modest 18th century English gentleman, as well retelling the enduring love story of Nelson and Emma from an entirely new perspective.
George’s life had been mapped and pinned down from the moment his parents sent him to school in England. His further education in the Company’s required subjects of double-entry bookkeeping and mathematics had been part of his preordained career. When he’d returned home to Bombay, the Company viewed him as a freshly-milled cog to strengthen the workings of their ever-expanding, capitalist empire machine.
…With Scindia’s imminent return hovering as an ever-present black cloud, George set about overseeing the profitability of Broach’s calico production. This may, initially, have felt like an easy option compared with facing the Maratha army. However, the cloth-making process required the labour of thousands of local workers to churn out piece-goods in a similar fashion to present-day sweatshops. Though mercantile and privileged, George was deeply moved by “the misery of the people, and waste of fine agricultural land.” He filled journals with ambitious plans to improve conditions for Broach’s cotton workers.
On top of this, when not worried for the local workforce or the thunderous approach of Scindia’s elephants, young George likely felt bored stiff of being stuck, month after month, and year after year, in the backwater of Broach. After all, he was so innately restless that, in later years, Horatio Nelson’s wife described him as “ever the most unsettled man alive”.
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