Caldwell Craig of Tobago

Large-scale slave-owner on Tobago, who appears to have assigned his estates to his creditors shortly before his death in London (where he had married in 1774) in 1794.

1. Original grantee in Tobago (as C. Craig, with P. Campbell) of Barbados Bay division (St George) Lot no. 39, which became Spring Hill, and which the two of them held in 1773. By 1773 Caldwell Craig was shown also as the Present Proprietor of: Courland Bay (St David) Lot no. 18 which had originally been granted to John Burn and which became Craig Hall; (as C. Craig) of Courland Bay (St David) Lot no. 34 originally granted to Charles Mackay, which became King Peter; (with heirs of Gray) of North-east Division (St John) Lot no. 46, originally granted to G. Stevens and W. Gray; and (as C. Craig) with P. Campbell of Sandy Bay division (St Patrick) Lot no. 4 originally granted to P. Campbell & A. Anderson, which became Prospect.

2. [Marriages] 27 March [1774] Caldwell Craig Esq. West India Merchant to Miss Aiskell, daughter of Francis Aiskell Esq.

3. Conveyance of Estates in the island of Tobago. (Conveyance of the Prospect, Mount Pleasant and Craig Hall Estates in Tobago, from Caldwell Craig to Ralph Woodford and others in trust for the creditors.) (Lots of Land: King Peter's Bay, Spring Estate, Bloody Bay Lot.) 9 me[m]branes of vellum, joined at foot, with 32 seals (outer membrane somewhat stained). Dated 1 July 1794.

4. Burial of Caldwell Craig at St Olave Hart Street 31/10/1794.

5. Caldwell Craig's widow remarried Alexander Campbell of Tobago and Millhill after Caldwell Craig's death in 1795.

1. '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); 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. 34-35, 37, 41 and 51.

2. The Lady's Magazine Vol. V (1774) p. 223.

3. Caribbean Documents Collection, Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Florida, Drawer 7 Folder 42.

4. Ancestry.com, London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]

5. Wilfred Jordan (ed.), Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania Vol. iv p. 85.