Eliot was born in
Cornwall, the son of Catherine (
c.1735–1804), daughter and heir of Edward Elliston of Gestingthorpe, Essex, an East India Company captain, and
Edward Craggs-Eliot (1727–1804), politician, created Baron Eliot in 1784. He went to
Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1775, becoming friends with the future
Prime Minister,
William Pitt the Younger, and graduated with an MA in 1780. He was elected
Member of Parliament for
St Germans, Cornwall from 1780 and for
Liskeard from 1784. He soon became a
Treasury minister from 1782, and was a member of the
government of the Younger Pitt from 1783, being appointed
King's Remembrancer in the
Exchequer of pleas in 1785. In 1793, having resigned from the Treasury on health grounds, Eliot was appointed joint commissioner for Indian affairs. He became an investor in the
British East India Company stock, and was expected to become governor-general of
Bengal. However, he suffered from a recurring chronic stomach disorder which made it impossible for him to take up that office. He had remained close to Pitt and Wilberforce, who both lamented his passing. His brother
John succeeded to the barony and in 1815 was created
Earl of St Germans. ==References==