John Halliday MP

London banker, MP for Taunton 1775-1784, and an investor in annuities secured on 'slave-property'. He was among a group of individuals purchasing, for a total of £15,000, annuities from John Mills secured on the latter's estates and enslaved people on Nevis in 1774, when for £3600 he purchased an annuity of £400 p.a. on his own life. He was also party to deeds of 1774 and 1775 under which a group of 16 annuitants each purchased an annuity from Jacob Kladen (q.v.) secured on Kladen's St Vincent property, including named enslaved people, to raise £11,000. His own investment is not clear to LBS in these deeds, but his will suggests he was himself an annuitant under this set of arrangements also.

1. Will of John Halliday of Taunton St James Somerset [made 1800] proved 22/11/1805. Much of the will is devoted to provision for his two natural daughters in England. In a codicil of 13/10/1804 he left to Mary Martin Halliday all the arrears of an annuity due from the estate the late John Mills of Nevis and also from the estate of Michael White lately Jacob Kladen's on St Vincent.

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/halliday-john-1737-1805; Common Records 1775-1776, British Library, EAP794/1/1/15, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP794-1-1-15 pp. 65-94; Deed Book 1770-1776, British Library, EAP688/1/1/25, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP688-1-1-25 pp. 528-540.

1. PROB 11/1433/184.