{{Short description|Member of Legislative Council of India}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}} {{Use British English|date=January 2017}} {{Infobox person|name = William Chichele Plowden|honorific_prefix = Sir|birth_date = 1832|death_date = 4 September 1915|occupation = Civil Servant and Member of the Legislative Council in India}}
'''Sir William Chichele Plowden''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|KCSI}} (1832 – 4 September 1915) was a Civil Servant and Member of the Legislative Council in India, and subsequently a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1886 to 1892.
==Early life and education== William Chichele Plowden was born in 1832,<ref name=Plowden1882>{{cite web |title=Report on the census of British India, taken on the 17th February 1881. |url=https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay/alma999879524401631/44MAN_INST:MU_NUI |website=www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk |publisher=Eyre and Spottiswoode |language=en |date=1883}}</ref> to William Plowden FRS MP of Ewhurst Park and his wife Jane Annette Campbell, daughter of Edward Campbell. He was educated at Harrow School and Haileybury College.<ref name=Welch1894>{{cite book |editor1-last=Welch |editor1-first=R. Courtenay |title=The Harrow School Register, 1801-1893 |date=1894 |publisher=Longmans, Green |page=140 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qupRAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA140|language=en}}</ref>
==Career== Plowden arrived in India in 1852.<ref name=NWP1881>{{cite book |author=Govt. Sectt., N.W.P. and Oudh |title=History of services of gazetted officers employed under the government of the N.W.P. and Oudh |date=1881 |publisher=North-Western Provinces and Oudh Govt. Press |location=Allahabad |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofservice00alla/page/13/mode/2up?q=Plowden|page=13}}</ref> He was in the Bengal Civil Service as Census Commissioner for India and Secretary of the Board of Revenue of the North West Provinces. He was also a member of the Legislative Council in Calcutta.<ref name=TWP1891>{{cite book |title=The Windsor Peerage for 1891 (second Year) |date=1891 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |page=407 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=stPWgWLwU64C&pg=PA407 |language=en}}</ref>
==Later life== Plowden retired in 1885.<ref name=Whitcombe1971>{{cite book |last1=Whitcombe |first1=Elizabeth |title=Agrarian Conditions in Northern India: the United Provinces under British Rule, 1860-1900 |volume=1|date=1971 |publisher=Thomson Press |location=New Delhi |pages=xxvi-xxvii |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.13242/page/n27/mode/2up?q=Plowden |chapter=Notes on careers of prominent officers mentioned in the text}}</ref>
In 1886, he was knighted as KCSI.<ref name=IOL>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3VQTAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22William+CHichele+Plowden%22&pg=RA2-PA140 The India and India Office lists]. Accessed 7 January 2023.</ref>
In the 1886 general election, Plowden was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Wolverhampton West and held the seat until 1892.<ref>{{hansard-contribs | sir-william-plowden | Sir William Plowden }}</ref>
==Family== Plowden married Emily Frances Ann Bass (1841–1915), the eldest daughter of Michael Thomas Bass Jr., MP for Derby and his wife, Eliza Jane Arden. Emily was the sister of Lord Burton and Hamar Alfred Bass. The Plowdens lived at Aston Rowant House, Oxfordshire, and at 5 Park Crescent, Portland Place. They had a daughter, Margaret who married Hubert Mostyn, 7th Lord Vaux.{{citation needed|date=October 2020}}
==Publications== *{{cite web |title=Report on the census of British India, taken on the 17th February 1881. |url=https://www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk/discovery/fulldisplay/alma999879524401631/44MAN_INST:MU_NUI |website=www.librarysearch.manchester.ac.uk |publisher=Eyre and Spottiswoode |language=en |date=1883}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs | sir-william-plowden | William Plowden }}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title= Member of Parliament for Wolverhampton West | before= Alfred Hickman | after= Sir Alfred Hickman | years= 1886–1892 }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plowden, William Chichele}} Category:1832 births Category:1915 deaths Category:British people in British India Category:People from the Bengal Presidency Category:People educated at Harrow School Category:People educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:UK MPs 1886–1892 Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India