Thomas Law (October 23, 1756 – 1834), was a reformer of British policy in India, where he served as collector of revenue for the East India Company. Working with Lord Conwallis, governor-general of India, Law formulated a major policy known as the Permanent Settlement, which served as the basis for land tenure and taxation policy for natives during subsequent decades of British rule. He returned to England for his health in 1791, and emigrated to the United States in 1794. He settled in Washington, D.C., where he became a major investor in property and a prominent civic leader in the developing new capital. A widely read intellectual, he had grand visions for bringing Enlightenment ideas to bear in reshaping both colonial British India and the early American republic.