Hugh Hamilton Lindsay (1802–1881) was a businessman with interest in China, perhaps the first British person to visit Shanghai.
Hugh Lindsay, a director of the East India Company and Jane Gordon,[2] Lindsay went to China in 1820 and was a supercargo for the East India Company.
Lindsay led a clandestine reconnaissance of Chinese ports in 1832 along with a Lutheran missionary Karl Gützlaff.
Both speaking good Chinese, they visited Amoy, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai and the Shandong coast throughout the six-month expedition He was also vociferous supporter of war against Qing China to advance business interests.
[4] Having been one of the founding directors, he succeeded John MacGregor as Chairman of the Eastern Archipelago Company in 1851.