Shee, Sir George (1754–1825), 1st baronet, East India Company official, politician, and landlord, was born in January 1754 in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, elder son of Anthony Shee (1701–83), merchant, of Castlebar, and his wife Margery (m. 1748), daughter of Edmund Bourke of Curry, Co. Sligo. He had one brother and seven sisters. His uncle Martin Shee was father of Sir Martin Archer Shee (qv), PRA. Descended from merchants, burgesses, scholars, and MPs, the Shees moved to Castlebar in the latter part of the seventeenth century, having forfeited their Kilkenny estates.
George Shee left Ireland at an early age to join his uncle John Bourke, a London merchant and close friend of his kinsman Edmund Burke (qv), statesman and orator. He became a writer in the Bombay presidency of the East India Company on 6 October 1769, probably through the influence of Edmund Burke, part of the security of £500 being provided by John Bourke. In Bombay he was noted for military gallantry and success with the ladies. He saw further military action as a volunteer at the siege of Pondicherry in 1778.
After his transfer to Bengal in May 1776, he lived at the Calcutta home of his friend Philip (later Sir Philip) Francis (qv), Warren Hastings' long-time enemy, occasionally acting as Francis's private secretary. Although well regarded by Hastings, on whose patronage he depended, he was not his secretary, contrary to popular belief. The wild young Irishman helped Philip Francis escape when the latter was discovered in the bedroom of the 16-year old wife of M. Georges Grand on 8 December 1778. George Shee himself was held captive until M. Grand returned home, sword in hand. Shee was an unwilling and embarrassed witness at the ensuing trial, at which the judge deemed his behaviour to have been reprehensible. Francis, father of six, eventually agreed to pay £5,000 in damages to avoid further scandal. The young lady later married Talleyrand. The episode was celebrated in verse, causing great mirth in Calcutta.
Shee held the following posts from 1776 to 1788: writer, deputy commissioner, factor and collector of assignments at Furruckabad, junior merchant and paymaster, judge of the diwani (civil) court at Dacca, and senior merchant. In 1788 he became a senior merchant at home, having amassed a considerable personal fortune in India, probably by trading on his own account. He married Elizabeth Maria (c.1765–1838), daughter of James and Elizabeth Crisp of Dacca, at Hughli on 2 August 1783. Their eldest son, George, was born 14 June 1784 in Calcutta.
The wealthy nabob, still in the prime of life, able, ambitious, and charming, was readily welcomed by London society on returning there in 1788. Despite his catholic background he now held ‘sound views in church and state’. The Shees travelled to Ireland in late 1789, armed with letters of introduction from Edmund Burke. Noted for kindness, Shee helped launch the career of his young cousin Martin Shee (later Sir Martin Archer Shee) by introducing him to Edmund Burke and Sir Joshua Reynolds and by getting his influential friends in London to sit for him.
In 1791 Shee bought an 11,000-acre estate in Dunmore, Co. Galway. He was granted arms on 20 January 1794 and created a baronet of Ireland two days later. On 1 November 1794 he read a memoir on the construction of ships to the RIA, suggesting improvements to cargo and passenger ships, including the Dublin–Holyhead mailboat. He was admitted as the 232nd member of the Academy on 29 November 1794.
From 1797 to 1799 he was surveyor of the ordnance in Ireland, and from 1798 to 1800 served as MP for Knocktopher, Co. Kilkenny, strongly favouring the union. He resided at this time at St Stephen's Green, Dublin. He became secretary of the treasury in Ireland in 1799. He was under-secretary at the home department 1800–03, and for war and colonies briefly in 1806. From late 1806 to 1810 he was receiver and paymaster-general of all his majesty's revenues in Ireland, based at the Custom House. In 1811 he matriculated and received an MA from Cambridge. He does not appear to have held any public office from 1810 until his death at Brighton, Sussex, on 3 February 1825. He was succeeded by his son George (qv).
His widow died at their estate at Lockleys, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, on 13 September 1838. He was also survived by his sons Charles (1789–1856), lt.-col. in the army, and Henry (1796–1856), and daughters Elizabeth (c.1800–1861) and Letitia (c.1803–1852), poet and wife of Robert Dering.