Thomas Finlayson

Demerara merchant with connections to Liverpool (where he died), awarded the compensation for twenty enslaved people in British Guiana.

1. Probably the Thomas Finlayson merchant late of Demerary whose partner in Liverpool, William Barnes, was declared bankrupt in 1816. Thomas Finlayson 'merchant in George Town Demerara' attested to the handwriting of John George Abbott, manager of Plantation Vigilance, at the trial of John Smith. A notice to creditors of Thomas Finlayson of Thomas Finlayson and Co., Douglas, Dannett & Co., and Finlayson and Co., on behalf of Finlayson's executors James Waddell and Francis Shand (the latter of Liverpool), was posted by the Provost Marshall in British Guiana in late 1837, suggesting that this is the Thomas Finlayson whose death at Liverpool was registered Q3 1837.

British Guiana no. 1600.

1. London Gazette, Issue 17203, 24/12/1816, p. 2451. It is unclear whether the bracketed description 'a bankrupt' after the phrase about Finlayson refers to Finlayson himself or simply to his partner.  'An authentic copy of the minutes of evidence on the trial of John Smith' (London: London Missionary Society, 1824), p. 120; London Gazette, Issue 19588, 09/02/1838, p. 296; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online].