John Crawfurd Balfour

Party to Farqhuarson v Balfour, deceased by the time of compensation (his will was made in 1823 and proved in 1829). The compensation for three estates on Tobago was paid into the Chancery suits of Farquharson v Balfour: in addition, Edward Ellice as executor and trustee of John Crawford [sic] Balfour claimed for Amity Hope, also in Tobago. Stephen Mullen has suggested that this John Crawfurd Balfour was the same man as the 'J. Balfour', the partner of Patrick Maxwell in buying in the early 1770s the estates in Tobago for which compensation was paid into the Chancery suit of Farquharson v Balfour, despite the passage of nearly 60 years (Patrick Maxwell of Grenada died c. 1787).

1. Will of John Crawfurd Balfour of Portland Place proved 09/03/1829. In his will he left his estates in Tobago in trust to secure an annuity of £1500 p.a. to his wife Eleanor, and the remainder of his estate after monetary legacies to his nephew John Balfour Atkinson, the son of Sir George Atkinson of Dublin 'by my niece Elizabeth Atkinson deceased.' After his death, his great-nephew (given as Crawford Balfour Atkinson) sought to extract the Powmill estate in Scotland from the creditors of his great-uncle.

2. An 1829 summary of the Probate lawsuit of Farquharson v Balfour and Ellice describes him as 'the deceased John Balfour of the Island of Tobago West Indies late of Portland Place Middlesex but [died] at Boulogne France.'

3. John Crawford Balfour late of the island of Tobago was buried aged 79 in Boulogne 17/05/1827.

Stephen Mullen The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy in the British Atlantic World [MS] pp. 172, 177 and 182.

1. PROB 11/1752/267; The Scottish Jurist 1831 pp. 501-2.

2. The National Archives PROB 18/123/7

3. Ancestry.com, UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1628-1969 for John Crawford BalfourRG 33: Foreign Registers and Returns, 1627-1960 Piece 037: Boulogne: Baptisms Burials, 1815-1833 [database online].