Patrick Colquhoun is often referred to as the Father of Glasgow and was a former Lord Provost of the city. This article from Glasgow Museums shows that he was also heavily involved in slavery. He had a close relationship with Henry Dundas who features on the Melville Monument in Edinburgh. Colquhoun also had interests in Jamaica which this article refers to as well being the agent for a number of slave owners in other islands in the Caribbean – Patrick Colquhoun, Father of Glasgow
It would be good to have a database of Scots people like this man as we talk about reparations and acknowledgement of slavery. The UCL Legacies of British Slavery website is useful, but it’s mainly on people who received compensation ‘for the loss of their slaves’ at abolition…
Hi Alex, that is an interesting idea indeed. The UCL site is good because it shows how widespread slave ownership was rather than thinking it was confined to the very upper echelons of society.