William Bartlet of Tobago

Brother of Alexander Bartlet (q.v.), and original grantee of Orange Valley (with Drewry Ottley) in St Patrick, of Belvoir in St George, and of a further lot under St David no. 37, all in Tobago. William Bartlet was dead by 1778. Almost certainly connected with the William Bartlet who later collected slave compensation for enslaved people on Grenada in the 1830s, but how has not yet been traced.

1. According to Mark Quintanilla, the partners in Alexander Bartlet & George Campbell purchased two 100 acre plantations in the Queens Bay division in the northeast of Tobago for £890 in 1771, and established the Friendship estate 'in the extreme interior of the island.' Roderick Williamson, a partner with Alexander Bartlet and George Campbell, purchased on 15/05/1771 Queens' Bay (St Paul) Lots nos. 41 and 42: in 1773 these were shown as 'Campbell & Williamson', and must be the 'two 100 acre plantations' referred to by Quintanilla (a footnote in Quintanilla's article identifies one of their estates as 'Friendsfield' rather than 'Friendship'). Before 1778, the partners had reportedy added additional estates including two in the Courland division, at the opposite end of the island, and another in the Northeast division.

RBS holds 'Papers relative to Alexander Bartlet & Co., West India merchants', http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/content/dam/rbs/Documents/History/Hub/wc-41.pdf accessed 08/11/2013, which gives a death-date of 1778 for William Bartlet.

1. Mark Quintanilla, 'Mercantile connections in the Ceded Isles: the Alexander Bartlet & George Campbell Company', International Social Science Review 79.1 & 2 (2004), pp. 14-26; ibid p. 25 fn 44.