Robert Haldane Scott

Scottish slave-owner, in Jamaica c. 1820 and apparently leaving Scotland in the late 1820s to return to Jamaica, son of [Rev.] James Scott and Margaret Monro or Munro, born Auchterhouse, Angus, Scotland and dying in 1836. On his gravestone he is described simply as of Wooden [in Roxburghshire], but he had been appointed a Lieutenant Colonel in the Trelawny militia in 1820.

1. Scott first arrived in Jamaica early in 1804 (before April). He had come to work as clerk to Thomas Munro, his uncle and owner of Kinloss Estate. While in Jamaica, Scott was appointed as Justice of the Peace and Assistant Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for Trelawny in November 1812. He was elected Representative for Trelawny parish in House of Assembly in November 1827. Also in 1827 he was promoted to Colonel, Trelawny Militia Regiment, 29 Sept 1827. Scott was also elected as a Director of the Falmouth Water Company in August 1815.

2. Margaret Munro died in 1834. In 1830, she wrote: "My dear Robert, After my death and when you have got the better of your pecuniary difficulties upon this place, it is my desire that the sum of nine hundred pounds now in your hands should then be disposed of in the following manner. To your sister Mrs Addison the sum of one hundred pounds, to Barbara one hundred pounds, to Catherine one hundred pounds, and after discharging all funeral expenses Vz(?) the remaining sum which will not much exceed three hundred I would recommend you to settle on your sister Janet, as she is not so well provided for as your other sisters. The furniture which was in my house in Edin(burgh) I had already settled upon you sisters and in the event of their taking up house for themselves, they would require a sum equal to the value of said furniture. All the furniture bought at Col. Munros Sale I got on purpose for your house. It is all I have in my power to offer you for all your kindness to me. I trust you will approve of this my last desire with regard to the disposal of the money in your hands. most of it arose from the sale of the house in Dundee, and which house was long ago settled upon your sisters I know I have only a very few hundred that I had really any claim to as my own but your sisters may value this small remembrance as a proof of my affection. - I have nothing to offer my sons from whom I have received every affectionate attention but my blessing and my sincere prayers that the Almighty may bless them which is above every earthly good."

3. Will of Robert Haldane Scott, of Kinloss parish of Trelawny, Island of Jamaica proved 19/03/1836. In the will, dated 11/08/1828 and witnessed in Kelso, he describes himself as of Kinloss parish of Trelawny Jamaica and of Wooden in County Roxburgh. He left his property in Scotland and Jamaica in trust to provide his mother Margaret an annuity of £200 p.a., legacies of £1000 each to his brother Major Duncan Gordon Scott of the HEIC, his sister Mary Ann married to Rev. George Addison, and his three unmarried sisters Barbara, Catherine and Janet, £20 to his brother Thomas Munro Munro Doctor of Medicine with the HEIC, and the residue to his brother Captain [later Rear Admiral] George Scott of the Royal Navy.

4. Robert Haldane Scott of Kinloss bought Wooden House near Kelso Roxburghshire in 1827 and 'several years later' left for Jamaica.

5. This appears to be the same man as the Robert Scott who appeared as a witness to the 1832 Select Committee on the Extinction of Slavery: in his evidence Robert Scott said that the was proprietor ('My property is in Trelawny'), that he had been in Jamaica between 1802 and 1826 and again for a few months in 1828 and 1829, and that he had at one time had the management of about 4,000 enslaved people ('I had concerns in Hanover, St James, Trelawny and St Ann's'). All these details are consistent with what is known of Robert Haldane Scott: it is not clear why there was a difference in his naming between the Select Committee and the Jamaica records.

6. The father of Robert Haldane Scott appears in the Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae: James Scott, licensed by the Presbytery of Dundee 27/03/1771; presented by the Hon. Walter Ogilvy of Clova 30/07/1773 and called 04/11/1773; ordained 22/04/1774; died 28/02/1804. He married 13/11/1780, Margaret, daughter of James Munro, minister of Kinloss (she died at Wooden 28/12/1834) and had issue: George of Wooden, Roxburghshire, Admiral R.N., born 27/10/1782, died 1867; Robert Haldane of Kinloss and Wooden, born 07/12/1783, died 1836; Mary Agnes, born 27/02/1785, married George Addison D.D., minister of Liff; James, went to Jamaica, born 06/06/1786, died 12/12/1824; William Mercer, born 16/09/1787, died 1820; General Duncan Gordon of Wooden, born 05/12/1788, mied 1863; Barbara, born 31/07/1790, died 1870; Margaret, born 27/11/1791, married Lieut-Col. Munro), died 1820; Katherine, born 31/07/1793, died 1863; Thomas Munro of Benrig, born 01/05/1796, died 1862; Milliken, born 04/10/1796; Adam, born 22/01/1798, died 25/06/1799; Janet, born 18/02/1801.

7. Robert Scott seems to have fathered six children in Trelawny with Eliza Wedderburn between 1819 and 1835. Their eldest child was Mary Scott, “free mustee” born in January 1818 in Trelawny, marrying Irish missionary Edward Holland in the 1840s and moving with him to Australia in the 1850s, where she died on 6th December 1891 in Burwood, New South Wales. She continued to own a house in Falmouth, where her sister Eliza Scott lived until her death in 1890, over which power of attorney was granted to Margaret J Wakeford, daughter of another sister, Janet Scott.

8. William Scott (born May 1820), Janet Scott (born January 1822), Eliza Scott (born February 1824) "mustee reputed child of Elizabeth Wedderburn a person of color and Robert Scott Esq.” were all baptised on 15th October, 1825. William Scott died in 1872 in Falmouth, Jamaica. Janet Scott married Josiah Pennel Wakeford on 4 January 1845 in Falmouth, Jamaica. Eliza Scott died intestate June 1890, Falmouth, Jamaica.

9. Robert Gordon Scott (born 1826 – 1827) and Susan Scott (born October 1834) were baptised on 9th June, 1835 in Trelawny, with father listed as “Robert H. Scott, Esquire”. Robert seems to have moved to England and died on 20th November 1908 in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

"Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XBC8-KR7 : accessed 30 May 2013), Robert Haldane Scott, 14 Dec 1783; Jamaica Almanac for 1824.

1. Philo Scotus [Philip Barrinton Ainslie], Reminiscences of a Scottish Gentleman, Commencing 1787 (1861), pp. 172, 181; Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 7 November 1812, p. 18; Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 17 November 1827, p. 25; Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 6 Oct 1827, p. 22; Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 2 September 1815, p. 18

2. https://www.holburn.net/genealogy/Margaret-Munros-Will.html.

3. PROB 11/1859/384; a summary of the will was provided to us by Patricia Jackson. https://www.holburn.net/genealogy/Robert_Haldane_Scott_Will_and_Testament.html. This transcript was provided to us by Kim Holburn.

4. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/sc-10472-wooden-gardener-s-house-icehouse-kelso.

5. PP 1831-1832 (721) Report from the Select Committee on the Extinction of Slavery throughout the British Dominions.

6. Hew Scott, Scotland Fasti Scotinae (1925) vol. 5 p. 310.

7. "Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-VN9V-CW?cc=1827268&wc=M6GL-YTG%3A161380801%2C161380802 : 20 May 2014), Trelawny > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1771-1839, Vol. 1 > image 57 of 164; Registrar General's Department, Spanish Town.; Information on Mary's later life, including letter of attorney available on WikiTree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Scott-18046#R-1097503910. Additional information provided via email by Paul Wells.

8. "Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-VN9V-65?cc=1827268&wc=M6GL-YTG%3A161380801%2C161380802 : 20 May 2014), Trelawny > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1771-1839, Vol. 1 > image 68 of 164; Registrar General's Department, Spanish Town. Additional information on marriages and deaths provided via email by Paul Wells.

9. Information on baptisms and death provided via email by Paul Wells.

We are grateful for the help of Patricia Jackson, Kim Holburn and Paul Wells with this entry.