Archibald Stirling the younger

Archibald Stirling of Keir (1769-1847), brother of Charles (d. 1830, q.v. under 'Charles Stirling of Cadder') and James (d. 1831), awarded all or part of the compensation for the enslaved people on Hampden in St James, Frontier in St Mary, Kerr or Keir Settlement in Trelawny and Grange Hill in Westmoreland, all in Jamaica. Executor of his brother Charles who was a partner in Stirling Gordon (q.v.), but not himself a partner in the firm.  Guthrie Smith says 'He never was, properly speaking, a merchant.' Spent 20 years in Jamaica on his estates. Inherited Frontier estate from his uncle Archibald Stirling the elder in 1783.

1. Said also to be the brother of a director of Scottish Missionary Society, William Stirling (q.v.) who himself owned slaves on Content, but this appears inaccurate. William was a distant cousin, although a partner with Archibald's brother Charles in Stirling Gordon.

2. Edward Stirling (1804-1873), the father of Sir John Lancelot Stirling and Sir Edward Charles Stirling, and himself a significant figure in the development of South Australia after his arrival there in 1839, has been identified as the son of Archibald Stirling of Keir with a creole woman of colour, possibly called Jeanne. According to this source, Archibald Stirling had nine children, 6 illegitimately (William, Edward, Henry, Mary, Ann, Helen) and 3 with Elizabeth Maxwell. Correspondence from Edward Stirling in Australia to his father Archibald Stirling of Keir, including acknowledgement in 1838 of the receipt by Edward Stirling of £1000 from Archibald on the eve of the former's departure to Australia as an acceleration of a planned legacy, is held at Glasgow City Archives.

St James nos. 397 & 398; T71/856 St Mary no. 240; T71/874 Trealwney no. 553A; T71/871 Westmoreland no. 251; John Guthrie Smith and John Oswald Mitchell, The old country houses of the old Glasgow gentry (2nd edn., Glasgow, James MacLehose & Sons, 1878) LXIII 'Kenmure'. Alan L. Karras, Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake, 1740-1800 (Ithaca and London, 1992) pp. 71-80. William Fraser, The Stirlings of Keir, and their family papers (Edinburgh, 1858) pp. 72-80.

1. J.H. Proctor, 'Scottish Missionaries & Jamaican slaveholders', Slavery & Abolition, Vol. 25, No. 1, April 2004, pp. 51-70: p. 51 AS.

2. Hans Mincham, 'Stirling, Sir John Lancelot (1849-1932), politician and Stirling, Sir Edward Charles (Ted) (1848-1919) surgeon, scientist and politician', Australian Dictionary of National Biography online, at http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/stirling-sir-john-lancelot-4933; Jude Skurray, 'Edward Stirling 1805-1873, son of Archibald Stirling of Keir and Cadder 1769-1847' (2007), http://www.clanstirling.org/Main/bios/EdwardStirlingbyJudeSkurray.pdf [accessed 20/05/2012]; Keir of Stirling Muniments 1338-c1940, Glasgow City Archives, Mitchell Library, GB243/T-SK; T-SK/13/13 Letters from Edward Stirling to his father Archibald Stirling of Keir.

We are grateful for the help of Sonia Baker with this entry.