Harriett Colquhoun (née Ferrer)

Harriett Colquhoun, of Marseilles in France, a widow and executrix of Robert Colquhoun, counterclaimed unsuccessfully for the compensation for Mayers estate in Antigua claiming £3000 unpaid purchase money.

1. An indenture of 1802 gives evidence of land in Antigua previously owned by John Mayer but then sold to Walter Colquhoun. In addition, John Wickham Mayer (son of John Mayer senior who inherited Mayer's in turn from his father Samuel Mayer in 1743) mentions in his will debts from Walter Colquhoun of £500 and £3000 currency for the sale of a plantation. Walter Colquhoun of Antigua and of Camstradden in Scotland died in Antigua 12/02/1802. Walter Colquhoun and his wife Elizabeth had a son Robert baptised in St George's, Antigua, in 1777. Robert Colquhoun of Camstraddon [sic] married Harriet Farrer or Ferrer of Weymouth in 1803. Various legal actions were brought against Walter Colquhoun, his son Robert and grandson Robert Gilmour Colquhoun relating to entails, family trusts and bankruptcy.

2. Harriot Lavington, daughter of Robert Colquhoun and his wife Harriet was baptised 25/10/1807 at St John's, Antigua. However, the family seem to have been in Marseilles around 1830 where Robert died. In a letter from Margaret Haldane Colquhoun, Robert's aunt, mentions a letter she received from Robert's son Robert Gilmour Colquhoun: "where [his] mother and sister [are] in great distress after [his] father's death. Detailed account of [Robert Colquhoun's] last days in Gibraltar at house of his friend Powers. Robert [Gilmour] talks of being in Scotland soon, but Margaret Haldane] trembles at what his mother may persuade him to sign." A letter from Sir James Colquhoun to Duncan McFarlane dated 29/04/1836 refers to an earlier letter from Robert Gilmour Colquhoun saying his mother Harriet died 07/04/1836.

T71/877 Antigua claim no. 59 (Mayers).

1. T71/877 Antigua claim no. 266 (Lyons). Langford Vere Oliver, History of the Island of Antigua (London, Mitchell and Hughes, 1894) Vol. 1 p. 177, Vol. 2 p. 263 and Vol. 3 p. 130. See The Scottish Jurist (Edinburgh, Anderson, 1835), Vol. 7 pp. 281-284 for a legal overview.

2. See http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/manuscripts/search/results_n.cfm?NID=37927&RID=&Y1=&Y2= for a summary in MS Gen 1717/4 (Papers of Duncan Macfarlan (1771-1857 at the University of Glasgow Special Collections).