Patrick Craufurd Bruce
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Patrick Craufurd Bruce (24 January 1748 – 30 March 1820) was an East India Company merchant and Member of Parliament in the early 19th century. He represented three constituencies: Evesham, Rye and Dundalk.[1]
Life
In 1768, Bruce joined the service of the East India Company as a Writer in the Bombay Presidency, eventually returning to Britain in the mid-1790s. He planted vast forests in Berkshire, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Hampshire. Bruce's Wood was planted around the estuary of the River Bourne, which later became Bournemouth.[2][3]
Family
Bruce was the fifth son of Sir Michael Bruce of Stenhouse and Mary Bruce (nee. Agnew).[4] In 1785, he married Jane Smith, daughter of the Lancashire industrialist Edmund Smith.[5]
His son Michael Bruce was also an MP, and was known by contemporaries for his connection to Lady Hester Stanhope.[6]