HEAD, SIR GEORGE, Knight, was born in 1782 at the Ilermi Lege, a few miles north from Rochester, in Kent. James Roper Head, father of Sir George Head and Sir Francis Bond Head, was descended from Fernando Mendez, a Jew, who came from Portugal to England, and was physician to King Charles II. The father of James Roper Head, married a daughter of the Rev. Sir Francis Head, Bart., and assumed the name of his wife's father.
George Head spent his early years at his father's roaldeuce, tho Hermitage, and was afterwards educated ut the Charter ]louse School, London. Early in 1808 ho obtained a captain's commission in the West Kent Militia, and having obtained leave of absence, in the spring of 1809 went to Portugal, where ho accepted the humble situation of a commissariat clerk, and joined the British army under Lord Wellington at Badajoz. He was afterwards appointed to the commissariat charge of a brigade. After Massone. had retreated from the lines of Torres Vedras, and the battle of Fuentes d'Onor had been fought, May 5, 1311, he was appointed deputy assistant commissary geueral, and attached to Sir Brcut Spencer's division of the army. lu May 1813 he was directed to proceed to Monseuto da Beira to undertake the commissariat department of the third division under Sir Thomas Picton. He was present at most of the great battles iu the Peninsula, as well as the concluding victories iu France, after which he returned to England. Of this active period of his life he wrote an interesting narrative, which is attached to his second 'Home Tour.' In the autumn of 1814 George Head received orders to proceed to Canada, and having landed at Quebec, was sent to Lake Huron to euperintcud the commissariat department of a naval establishment intended to be formed on the Canadian lakes. Peace however was soon afterwards made with America, and in ten months he was again in England. In 1816 he was eent to Halifax in Nova Scotia, and
remained there five years on the peace establishment. After his return to England he described his experiences and adventures in America in his 'Forest Scenes and Incidents in the Wilds of North America, being a Diary of a Winter's Route from Halifax to the Canadas, and during Four Months' Residence in the Woods ou the Borders of Lakes Huron and Simcoe, by George Head, Esq.,' 12mo, London, 1829. In 1831 he received the honour of knighthood. En couraged by the favourable reception of his ' Forest Scenes,' ha published 'A Home Tour through tho Manufacturing Districts of England in the Summer of 1835, by Sir George Head,' 12mo, 1S36, which was followed by another volume 'A Home Tour through various Parts of the United Kingdom; • being a Continuation of the Home Tour through the ManufacturingDistricte : also Memoirs of an Assistant-Commissary General, by Sir George Iliad,' 12mo, 1837. The first Tour includes most of the larger manufacturing towns of the northern part of England ; the second, the Isle of Man, part of Scotland, the Channel Islands. and part of Ireland. They contain a large amount of information carefully collected and clearly stated concerning the places visited and the manufactures carried on in them. Both Tours were reprinted in one volume in 1810. In 1549 ho published ' Rome, a Tour of Many Days.' Ho was also the author of several articles in the Quarterly Review,' and translated from the Italian the ' Historical Memoirs of Cardinal l'acca,' 12mo, 1850, and from the Latin, ' The Metamorphoses of Apuleius,' 8vo, 1851. He died in London, May 2, 1855, unmarried.