His father, also called Robert Arbuthnot (1728–1803), was an Edinburgh polymath and merchant, an earlier career as a banker having ended in "heavy pecuniary losses".
[1] Arbuthnot later found himself transferred to royal service, selected to act as a traveling companion in mainland Europe for the adolescent Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex, one of the British king's younger sons and, it appears, the least compliant of them all.
The British take-over was not universally welcomed by the Dutch colonist or the indigenous people, and a lengthy period of military and political manoeuvrings ensued.
[4] During the Dutch period European colonisation had largely been restricted to coastal parts of the island, but the British arrived with sufficient forces to effect, by 1818, a take-over of the entire territory.
The Governor and his Chief Secretary were not present at what was later described as the "massacre of British troops at Kandy", but when news reached them of the military set-back, one source states that Governor North, "whose coolness and presence of mind seem momentarily to have deserted him ... found his chief support and ... placed his utmost reliance in the calm judgment and fearless confidence of his secretary".