Sir Josiah Child, 1st Baronet

Sir Josiah Child, 1st Baronet, (c. 1630/31 – 22 June 1699) was an English economist, merchant and politician. He was an economist proponent of mercantilism and governor of the East India Company. He led the company in the Anglo-Mughal War.

Early life Child was born around 1630–31 and christened in St Bartholomew-by-the-Exchange on 27 February 1630–31, the second son of Richard Child,

He amassed a comfortable fortune, and became a considerable stock-holder in the East India Company.

Purchase of Wanstead Manor

Child purchased Wanstead Manor in Essex in 1673 from the executors of Sir Robert Brooke and spent much money on laying out the grounds of the manor house, Wanstead Hall. The diarist John Evelyn made the following characteristically waspish entry for 16 March 1683 "I went to see Sir Josiah Child's prodigious cost in planting of walnut trees about his seat and making fishponds many miles in circuit in Epping Forest in a barren spot as commonly these overgrown and suddenly monied men for the most part seat themselves. He from an ordinary merchant's apprentice & management of the East India Company's common stock being arrived to an estate ('tis said) of £200,000 and lately married his daughter to the eldest son of the Duke of Beaufort, late Marquis of Worcester, with £30,000 (some versions £50,000) portion at present, & various expectations. This merchant most sordidly avaricious etc."

According to Daniel Defoe, Child "added innumerable rows of trees, avenues and vistas to the house, all leading up to the place where the old house stood, as to a centre".

In 1678, Child was created Baronet Child of Wanstead in the County of Essex. In 1685 he was elected MP for Ludlow. He served as High Sheriff of Essex in 1689. In this latter capacity, he directed the company's policy as if it were his own private business. ) are sometimes credited with the change from unarmed to armed traffic, but the actual renunciation of the Roe doctrine of unarmed traffic by the company was resolved upon in January 1686, under Governor Sir Joseph Ash, when Child was temporarily out of office.

Economic philosophy Funerary monument of Child in St Mary the Virgin Church, Wanstead. Child contributed to the literature of economics, especially Brief Observations concerning Trade and the Interest of Money (1668), and A New Discourse of Trade (1668 and 1690). He was a moderate in the days of the mercantile system and has sometimes been regarded as a sort of pioneer in developing the free-trade doctrines of the 18th century.

Family Child married firstly, Hannah Boate, daughter of Edward Boate, on 26 December 1654 at Portsmouth, Hampshire. He had one surviving child, Elizabeth. Two other children died young. Elizabeth married John Howland of Streatham, and their daughter Elizabeth married the Duke of Bedford.

Child married secondly, c. 14 June 1663, Mary Atwood, daughter of William Atwood. The issues from this marriage are Rebecca (c. 1666 – 17 Jul 1712) who married firstly Charles Somerset, Marquess of Worcester and secondly John, Lord Granville); Mary who married Edward Bullock of Faulkbourne and died c. 1748; and his heir Josiah Child, 2nd Baronet (c.1668-20 Jan 1704).

Child married thirdly, c. 8 August 1676, Emma Willoughby (Willughby), widow of Francis Willughby of Wollaton Hall and daughter of Sir Henry Barnard. They had one child, a son, Richard Child (5 Feb 1680 – March 1750), who was created Viscount Castlemaine in 1718 and Earl Tylney in 1731.

Child died on 22 June 1699 and was buried at Wanstead, East London. His will dated 22 February 1696, was proved on 6 July 1699.

Heraldry The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states positively that he was not related to the Child & Co bankers of Osterley Park. The latter have very humble origins, at Heddington, in Wiltshire. It is not known why they used the same heraldry - Burke's Armorials 1884, for example, giving both families the same armorials: "Gules, a chevron ermine between 3 eagles close argent". (See Villiers family, Earls of Jersey, into which family the banking Child family married.) The earliest bearer of these Child arms was William Childe, sheriff of Worcestershire in 1585. Burke's Armorials, 1884, p. 193. Child & Childe; p. 1057 Villiers, Earls of Jersey.