John Stewart MP

MP for Arundel 1771-1774, associate of Sir George Colebrooke (q.v.) and Sir James Cockburn (q.v) whose West India business he helped manage [according to the Rochers] and with whom in 1765 he co-invested in Dominica [according to the History of Parliament entry for Sir James Cockburn]. 'In 1775 a codicil to his will shows the deterioration of his financial position: ‘my fortune is greatly dependent on a West Indian property’; and on his death his brother was granted administration, all other legatees waiving their claims.' [This 'property' has not been identified: a John Stewart had been the original purchaser of 190 acres as Lot no. 15 in St Andrew Dominica].

1. The History of Parliament entry for John Stewart shows him as also having had 'common speculative interests' with Lauchlin Macleane (q.v.), strongly suggesting that he was the same man as the 'John Stuart' appearing in a syndicate of 1769 with Lauchlin Macleane, Sir Thomas Charles Bunbury, Clotworthy Upton and George Ridge, which owned shares in the La Tante, Saint Cloud (Saint Cloux), Le Grand Bras, Chantilly, Saint Maur and two other plantations in Grenada, and Balamonly [sic] and 11 other estates on Dominica and which in 1769 issued a power of attorney to the London merchants Simond and Hankey. The History of Parliament entry for Lauchlin Macleane, however, identifies John Stuart as his partner and the two as medical men in Philadelphia in 1756, the latter detail apparently inconsistent with the career of John Stewart MP.

Lucy S. Sutherland, 'Stewart, John (c.1723-81)', History of Parliament online, accessed 05/09/2016; Rosane Rocher, Ludo Rocher, The Making of Western Ideology: Henry Thomas Colebrooke and the East India Co. (2012), p. 4.

1. https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/stewart-john-1723-81 [accessed 03/10/2019]; The Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection at Hamilton College, M196; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/macleane-lauchlin-1727-78 [accessed 19/12/2015].