Gilbert Farquhar Mathison

Secretary of the Royal Mint, awarded the compensation for 25 enslaved people in St Catherine Jamaica as owner-in-fee. His mother Catherine Mathison nee Farquhar (q.v.) was an annuitant on Castle Wemyss in St James.

1. Mathison, Gilbert Farquhar Graeme, 1st son of Gilbert Mathison of Middlesex (d. 1828) and Catherine Farquhar (daughter of Sir Walter Farquhar and Ann nee Stevenson: by her first husband, Ann was mother of Elizabeth Harvie, the wife of Simon Halliday and mother of Rev. Walter Stevenson Halliday). Matriculated Oriel Oxford 9/12/1819 aged 16; of the Old Palace Richmond, secretary of the Mint and founder of Normal Schools, died at Therapia 1/8/1854. See Eton School Lists.   

2. Gilbert F Mathison of Royal Mint married Eliza Graeme or Grame December 1834. Will of Gilbert Farquhar otherwise Grame [sic] Mathison of Richmond Surrey proved 27/11/1854.

3. The apparent naming practice in the family of adopting the wife's surname risks confusion. Gilbert Mathison, the father of the Gilbert Farquhar Mathison of the award, died in 1828. He, the father, was clearly the author of Notices respecting Jamaica, in 1808--1809--1810 (London, John Stockdale, 1811) and A Short review of the reports of the African Institution, and of the controversy with Dr. Thorpe, with some reasons against the registry of slaves in the British Colonies (London, W. Stockdale and J. Asperne, 1816). Both are sometimes attributed in secondary online sources to Gilbert Farquhar Mathison. Mathison junior was the author of Narrative of a Visit to Brazil, Chile, Peru and the Sandwich Islands, during the years 1821 and 1822 (London, S. & R. Bentley, 1825) about his journey to Macao, China, where he was to work for his cousin Walter Stevenson Davidson in the opium trade.

T71/852 St Catherine claim no. 611; T71/873 St James claim no. 394.

For an account of the Mathison family's ownership of Castle Wemyss see the Castle Wemyss Estate Papers, http://www.casbah.ac.uk/cats/archive/135/ICSA00033.htm [accessed 14/08/2012].

1. Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni 1715-1886 [database online].

2. Pallots Marriage Index 1780-1837. PROB 11/2200.

3. The summary of the Castle Wemyss Estate Papers cited above show Gilbert Mathison the father as dying in 1828 (and also refer to him as Gilbert Farquhar Mathison). Gilbert Matthison [sic] aged 62 of New Mint was buried at St Botolph without Aldgate 04/12/1828, Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online, where he is indexed as 'Gilbert Mattison']. Email from Marion Diamond, 29/04/2015 sourced to letters from Davidson to his brother-in-law William Leslie, in the Leslie of Warthill Papers in Aberdeen University.

We are grateful to Marion Diamond for her assistance with compiling this entry.