George Dewar

A self-made slave-owner in St Kitts, son of John Dewar (according to Burke's the Postmaster of Leith and Edinburgh), father of David Dewar and grandfather of David Albemarle Bertie Dewar (both of whom q.v). George Dewar's second wife was Lady Caroline Bertie, the daughter of the second Duke of Ancaster.

1. Will of George Dewar Esq. of Kings Enham in the County of Southampton proved 14/07/1786. He began the will with a preamble about the impudence and extravagance and resulting difficulties of his eldest son John, but left him and his wife Caroline two annuities, one of £100 p.a. and one of £400 p.a. in trust (the trustees were Thomas Maitland, Thomas Boddington and James Dewar of Clapham, the latter presumably a brother or cousin of the testator), secured on George Dewar's 'lands and estates' [and enslaved people] on the islands of Dominica and St Christopher. He also sought to impose constraints on the ability of John Dewar to anticipate or assign these new annuities, which were to replace an earlier annuity of £400 p.a. secured on George Dewar's estates in St Kitts and settled by him on John Dewar which, he said, John Dewar had alienated or assigned and which George Dewar had bought or intended to buy back the annuity, 'but my right thereto is disputed.' George Dewar separately left in trust: a further annuity of £400 p.a. to John and Caroline Dewar's daughter, also called Caroline; an annuity of £100 p.a. rising to £200 p.a. at the age of 12 for his grandson John, son of the wayward John Dewar; and an annuity of £200 p.a. between his sisters Ann Napier and Margaret Dewar. He left his real and personal estate including his estates in Dominica and St Kitts subject to these annuities to his son David Dewar, 'now or late in India or other parts beyond the seas.' He left his late wife's 'Brilliant Diamond earrings' to Lady Mary Bertie, daughter of the Duke of Ancaster, and his dressing table plate to Lady Jane Mathew (his sisters-in-law). He left his residuary estate in trust for his son David, to be delivered to him by the trustees on his return to England or to his representatives after 5 years even if he did not return: if he did not return but died before the 5 years, the estate was to pass equally at 21 to the children of the wayward John Dewar, failing whom it was to go to George Dewar's sister Ann Napier. In a codicil written in 1786 he bequeathed a farm he had recently bought, Finkley [?] Farm near Andover Hampshire, to David Dewar, and failing him to his grandson John Dewar.

1. PROB 11/1144/122. This will appears under 'George Derrar' in TNA's online index of wills.