James Fowler

Awarded the compensation as owner-in-fee of Lottery, Grange and Friendship estates in Trelawny, and possibly the same man as the awardee in two smaller claims, St James nos. 89 & 90.

1. In 1841, James Fowler was living at Raddery Rosshire aged 78 born Ross and Cromarty with among others Jemima Fowler aged 38 and Lilias Fowler aged 20. Isabella Reid, daughter of James Fowler of Raddery and Fairburn, in the county of Ross, and the Grange Jamaica, married George Falconer Mackenzie 09/01/1828. Their son James Fowler Mackenzie of Allangrange became Chief of the Mackenzies on succeeding his brother in 1849. Thomas Mackenzie of Ord married Anna Watson Fowler, daughter of James Fowler of Raddery, at Raddery House 27/04/1825.

2. According to the Cockpit Country website, there were three Fowler brothers from Scotland (John, Andrew and James) who came to Trelawny in the late 1700s. The oldest died in 1792 and is buried at Merrywood. Andrew died in 1796. Both were in their early 40s. James returned to Scotland c. 1797 to become an absentee proprietor, dying at his estate in Scotland aged 80. The site notes Friendship belonged originally to William Stirling who also owned Content, and that the 935 acre estate was later owned by James Fowler who also owned Lottery and Grange.

3. There is a plaque commemorating John and Andrew Fowler erected by James Fowler 'of Grange and Raddery' in 1821 in Rosemarkie Church, Ross and Cromarty. The plaque confirms the deaths in Jamaica of John Fowler of Friendship estate in 1792 and of Andrew in 1796. John Fowler's inventory of 1793 included 167 enslaved people, and personalty of £74,374 19s 61/2d. He left £100 to the poor of Fortrose and 100 guineas to the 'new foundation or Charity for Instructing Youth' there, legacies which might not have been honoured by his executors. John Fowler had been an agent for the Bristol slave-trader James Rogers. John Fowler's natural daughter Sarah Williams Fowler, whose mother Sarah Williams was a free woman of colour, married at Leith 29/08/1811 and died 17/06/1816 aged 26 at Dulcie Bridge, Grantown on Spey. James was Provost of Fortrose in 1827-1828.

T71/874 Trelawny Nos. 39, 179 and 181. Friendship (Trelawny claim no. 39) is tied to the other two awards by the same London merchants (A.G.Milne) signing for the compensation at the National Debt Office.

1. 1841 Scotland census; Alexander Mackenzie, History of the Mackenzies; Edinburgh Advertiser 10/05/1825 available at www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 15/02/2012].

2. http://www.cockpitcountry.com/friendshipfowlers.html [accessed 15/02/2012].

3. Freda Bassindale, Rosemarkie Connections: a village history told through its church and churchyard (Bassman Books, Dingwall, 2015), pp. 15-20, 'The Fowlers of Raddery'.