The trial of Warren Hastings, 1788, accused of corruption and impeached in 1787, but after a long trial acquitted in 1795. Warren Hastings, 1732 - 1818. English statesman, first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and thereby the first de facto Governor-General of India from 1772 to 1785. From Hutchinson's History of the Nations, published 1915.