John Graham of Grenada

Slave-owner on Grenada, co-owner with David Graeme (q.v.) of several estates on the island. Dougalston was put up for sale by John Graham's executors in 1790. To date he has not been further identified, but he was possibly the John Graham of Dougalston (identified as the father-in-law of Patrick Home of Wedderburn) whose health had been ruined in the West Indies and who had suffered a bilious attack in April 1782, according to the Cullen papers, which gives a death-date of 1788, although online genealogical sources refer to this man dying in 1788 as John Graham-Campbell.

1. LBS has concluded that he was the same man as the 'John Graham of Antigua' [sic] shown as the purchaser of two lots in Tobago from the heirs of Alexander Brown in 1768. 'J. Graham' was an early purchaser of land in Tobago with John Beardwell Barnard (q.v.). J. Graham and J.B. Barnard 09/05/1769 bought Great River division (St Mary parish) Lot no. 27 (70 acres); by 1773 the two also owned Great River division Lots nos. 2 & 3 (200 and 300 acres respectively) which had been bought originally by Alex. Brown on 12/05/1776 [sic, presumably 12/05/1766], which became the Glamorgan estate. This man was shown as John Graham of Antigua [sic] in the indenture made in Grenada of 1768 under which John Graham bought the two lots from the heirs of Alexander Brown. In further indenture recorded by the Grenada EAP, John Graham of Grenada was shown as the man selling a plantation [presumably in fact one moiety] in Great River Division to John Beardwell Barnard in 1769.

The Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection at Hamilton College: A Catalogue p. 253 item M302, which shows instructions from Gen. Graeme to Mr Carrick in 1784; ibid p. 235 item M189a; BL EAP 148/4/6 https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP148-4-6 [accessed 24/09/2018]; http://cullenproject.ac.uk/case/1500/ [accessed 24/09/2018].

1. 'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971); John Fowler, A summary account of the present flourishing state of the respectable colony of Tobago in the British West Indies illustrated with a map of the island and a plan of its settlement, agreeably to the sales by his Majesty’s Commissioners (London: A Grant, 1774); S. and P. Hough, The Beinecke Lesser Antilles Collection at Hamilton College (1994) p. 235.