Thomas Dunlop Douglas
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Identified as the last member of the
Douglas West India merchant dynasty in Glasgow (as Thomas Dunlop Douglas
of Dunlop), brother of John Douglas, Archibald Douglas and Cecilia
Douglas.
01/01/1776-30/01/1869 left £241,518. West India merchant
in Glasgow, landed proprietor (1861 census); address given as Dunlop
near Stewarton Ayshire (probate calendar). Father shown as
John Douglas,
mother as Katherine (surname unknown) or Cecilia née Buchanan. Married
Rosina (surname unknown). 'It is unclear whether his career was wholly
in Glasgow or whether he had lived in the West Indies'.
Born
1775. Originally apprenticed to a hat-maker and then in turn a hat-maker
in business himself. Became insurance broker and merchant, then a
partner in J., T., and A. Douglas. Married Rose Hunter of
Greenock, no surviving children. In 1845 bought the estate of Dunlop, Garnkirk House in Ayrshire.
When compensation was paid at the end of slavery, he made
unsuccessful claims for British Guiana 157 (Enfield and Nomen Nescio
(?)), British Guiana 2020, British Guiana 476 (Plntn Union) and British
Guiana 584 (Hope).
His claims for British Guiana 550 (Pln Better
Hope) £12,407 13s 2d and British Guiana 586A (Pln Belmont) £3,500 8s 6d
were both successful. See (1)
Thomas Dunlop Douglas, described as a a Glaswegian West India Company merchant, invested £396,100 in the railways around the Scottish Central Belt. Many of these were local Glasgow lines but he was also one of five beneficiaries of slavery compensation who invested over £130,000 in the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, which opened in 1842.
Left the bulk of his fortune to Thomas
Douglas Cunningham Graham (possibly a nephew). The value of estate
outside Scotland was over £200,000.
When Thomas Dunlop, who seems to have been
particularly close to the family of his brother Archibald, made
provision for the disposal of his personal property after the death
of the designated heir, Thomas Douglas Cunningham Graham, or earlier
if Graham predeceased him, he named first Helen Stewart, his
grandniece and daughter of his niece, Mrs. Helen Douglas, and the
late Robert Stewart of Glasserton, in southeast Wigtownshire, then
Mary Caroline Douglas Campbell, also his grandniece and daughter of
his niece Mrs. Anna Douglas Campbell, of Carradale. Though the
arrangement was slightly altered by one of the codicils, suggesting
that Mary Caroline Douglas Campbell had either died or incurred some
displeasure by February 1868, the family connection is interesting.
Named as heirs in the same section of the will and, initially, left
similar benefits, Mary Caroline Douglas Campbell and Helen Stewart,
both his grandnieces, were possibly daughters of two sisters, Helen
and Anna, and grandchildren of Archibald. Sir James in the Diary of
his 1864-65 trip mentions Archibald, whom he calls "of Glenart," and
says he knew him. As Archibald's children he clearly gives the names
of Mrs. Seaton Carr and John Douglas, Glenfinart. The entry "Widow,
Mrs. Douglas," referring no doubt to Archibald's widow, is correct,
since Archibald had died in 1860.
His coat of arms are
probably those in Dunlop Parish Church.
See also:
The Slave Trade
Douglas of Glenfinart
Notes:
1. T71/885: claim by Michael McTurk, 'attorney of J., T. and A. Douglas & co, The Board of Orphans representing the estate of Moses Buchanan decd, and Wm Arrindell (senior deceased?) as attorney of Agnes Corse Forbet (?) executrix of C. Douglas senior deceased'. Counterclaim from J. T. & A. Douglas, by virtue of a mortgage for £23477 2s 0d on moiety in possession of Orphan Chamber representing the Estate of Colin Douglas (deceased). 'Replication of the sd William Arrindell as Atty to Agnes Corse Forbet denying the validity of all and singular the documents upon which the counterclaim is founded and also the validity of the mortgage deed said to have been duly passed and registered in the sd Colony on the 8th Sept 1802'.
586B: £1750 4s 3d was awarded to the Board of Orphans, 04/08/1843.
T71/429 p. 174: enslaved persons were registered by John Lane, Board of Orphans and unadministered estates and Wm. Arrindell, in 1832.
2. Robert
Bogle of Shettleston's grandson, Allan (son of Michael, born
1734 and Janet Scott) married 1803 Janet Hunter. She married
secondly Graham of Gartmore, and had one son, Thomas Dunlop Graham,
who was brought up by his aunt (his mother's sister), Mrs. Thomas
Dunlop Douglas of Dunlop, whose husband at his death left him the
liferent of Dunlop. Robert Bogles ganddaughter married john
Campbell Douglas, 18th of Mains.
3. Extract from the minute book of the Board of Green Cloth: William Douglas of Leith married Catherine,
daughter of James Dunlop, third of Garnkirk, and Lilias Campbell, only daughter of Robert Campbell of North Woodside.^ William Douglas's second son, John, who became a merchant in Glasgow, married Cecilia, daughter of George Buchanan, brewer, and had by her seven sons and one daughter. Of these, Thomas Dunlop Douglas, born 1775, was the fourth son and fifth child. Amongst the other children were Sir Neil Douglas, G.C.B., a distinguished Peninsular officer, and Mrs. Cecilia Douglas of Orbiston, who succeeded to the Tontine at the Cross. Thomas Dunlop Douglas doubtless got his name from his granduncle, Thomas Dunlop, a Virginia merchant in Glasgow, under the firm of Thomas Dunlop & Co.,owner of a fine mansion in the Candleriggs, opposite the City Hall.
Hat making was an extensive and prosperous busi- ness in Glasgow during the latter half of last century and the beginning of this ; so young Douglas was put into the office of Mr. Thomas Buchanan (father of John Buchanan of Ardoch), then the most eminent maker, to learn the business. Afterwards he started as a hat maker himself. His factory was on a narrow
strip of ground running from Brown Street to Carrick Street, and his house at 27 Glassford Street, He afterwards became an insurance broker and merchant, and latterly his house in Glasgow was i Blythswood Place, now 140-142 St. Vincent Street, which he built for his own occupation. He married Miss Rose Hunter of Greenock, but had no issue.
He and his brothers, John and Archibald, who carried on business as merchants in Glasgow, under the firm of "John, Thomas Dunlop, & Archibald Douglas," feued about 18 16, from the Blythswood Trustees, the block bounded by St. Vincent Street on the south, Hope Street on the east, the Mews Lane on the north, and Wellington Street on the west. In 1845 he bought the estate of Dunlop, in the County of Ayr, which had belonged to his great-great-greatgreat-grandfather, James Dunlop. Mr. Douglas died
in 1869, aged 94, and was the last survivor of the Board of Green Cloth.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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