Inverawe & Argyle

These two estates were originally separate. Original purchasers of the lots that came to form Argyle were Duncan Campbell under Queen's Bay division (St Paul) nos. 6-8 and Saml. Sandbatch under Queen's Bay (St Paul) no. 9; original grantees of 'Inverawe' were Wm. Todd under Queen's Bay (St Paul) nos. 10 and 11 and Jas. and Dun. Campbell under St Paul no. 17. For both estates combined, 'Present Possessors' were Robert Gordon and 'Hon Jas. Kirk, part of Argyle.' In 1832 owners of Invera [sic] were shown as 'Heirs of Campbell and of Argyle as 'Heirs of J. Campbell.' Invera was still in cultivation in 1862, Argyle was 'Worked with Invera.' Invera was possibly a continuation of Rosebank (q.v.) although LBS has not established a continuous ownership history.

1. c. 1773 the Present Proprietor of Queen's Bay Lots nos. 10 and 11 was Robert Young, and of Lot no. 17 was 'Campbell & Williamson', the partnership of George Campbell and Roderick Williamson. The owner of Queen's Bay Lots nos. 6-9 (making up the Argyle estate) was James Campbell.

2. These estates - Argyle and 'Invoca' - were put up for auction in London in 1821 as 'formerly the property of James Campbell Esq.', with details available through D.H. and J.A. Rucker, Mincing Lane, and Mr Alexander Macdougall of Lincoln's Inn, solicitor (as well as through Glasgow merchants Archibald Newall and Duncan McGown). They appear to have remained unsold.

3. It is not yet clear whether the Jas. Campbell (whose property this formerly was in 1821) is the same man as the James McKinnnon Campbell who died in 1822. (The will of James Campbell of Westminster proved 21/02/1827 (PROB 11/1721/377) disclaims any ownership of real estate: he left his personalty to his nephew Duncan Campbell of Trinity College Cambridge.) Nor has the Duncan Campbell who was originally granted the land been firmly identified. Secondary souces suggest that the Duncan Campbell of Bedford Square owned estates both in Jamaica and in Grenada and Tobago, and was the son of Alexander Campbell 11th of Inverawe (and brother of Alexander Campbell of Blackhouse) and had married Harriet Young. The will of Duncan Campbell of Bedford Square, proved 06/03/1815, shows that he was the owner of unspecified property on Tobago, as well as Demerara and Grenada, but is inconclusive as to past property in Tobago. Jas. and Dun. Campbell were also awarded land for Ance Fourmi in St John Tobago under St John nos. 5 & 6; Present Possessor Barclay Cunningham.'

4. There was a Chancery suit running in 1820 of Campbell v Campbell involving the estate of Duncan Campbell the elder of Bedford Square who died in February 1815 and Harriet Campbell late of Bedford Square and late of Sidmouth, widow, who died in 1817.

'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971).

1. John Fowler, A summary account of the present flourishing state of the respectable colony of Tobago in the British West Indies illustrated with a map of the island and a plan of its settlement, agreeably to the sales by his Majesty’s Commissioners (London: A Grant, 1774) pp. 50 and 51

2. Times 19/11/1821 p. 1.

3. PROB 11/1566/80; National Probate Calendar 1865. See e.g. Alastair Campbell, A history of Clan Campbell: from the restoration to the present day (Edinburgh University Press: 2004, reprinted 2006) (Vol. 3) p. 216.

4. London Gazette17622 08/08/1820 p. 1536.

The provisioning of these estates has been the subject of detailed exploration in Nicholas Crawford (2016) ‘In the wreck of a master's fortune’: slave provisioning and planter debt in the British Caribbean, Slavery & Abolition, 37:2, 353-374, which draws on the reports under the Chancery suit of Campbell v Rucker.