Sir John Pollard Willoughby, 4th Baronet

Sir John Pollard Willoughby (1799-1866), 4th Baronet, was born at Baldon House, Oxfordshire, on 21 April 1799, the younger son of Sir Christopher Willoughby (1748-1806), 1st Baronet. He was educated at the Merchant Taylor's School, 1809-1812, and, after serving for a brief time at sea, at Haileybury College, 1815-1818. Willoughby entered the Bombay Civil Service in 1819, and was appointed assistant resident at Baroda in 1820. In 1822 he married Eliza, only daughter of Colonel Michael Kennedy (d. 1831), a member of Bombay Presidency's army. He became political agent at Kathiawar in 1828, and held this post until 1835.

During the early 1830s, Willoughy acted as government prosecutor on a commission of enquiry investigating claims of fraudulent accounting and peculation against his predecessor as political agent, Colonel Fretcherville D. Ballantyne. Ballantyne, an old Indian army man, was well connected in Bombay and at home, and mounted counter claims against Willoughby, his principal accuser, who became increasingly aggrieved at the lack of support he received from the Bombay authorities. Ballantyne was eventually found guilty and fined.

...