Walter Irvine

Returned planter from Tobago. The compensation for the Buccoo, Woodlands and Mt Irvine estates on Tobago was paid to William Robert Keith Douglas (q.v.), Walter Irvine's son-in-law and executor.

1. Walter Irvine planter of Tobago came back to Britain in 1796 and bought an estate in Surrey. Died there in January 1824. He left a large estate in Scotland, possessed by Lady Douglas, his daughter, by virtue of her marriage settlement.

2. Burial of Walter Irvine of Egham aged 76 at St John the Baptist Egham 07/01/1824. Will of Walter Irvine of the Island of Tobago [made in 1823] proved 28/01/1824. Under the will he left among other provisions an annuity of £1500 p.a. to his widow Catherine, and specified that the estate in Scotland to be settled on his daughter Elizabeth should contribute one-third of this annuity and that his three surviving daughters should each contribute 1/3rd of the remaining 2/3rds of the annuity. He also left Catherine Irvine the use of Luddington House for life, the household effects and £1000. He waived debts receivable from his late brother Christopher William Irvine, and left his sister Ann Stewart an annuity of £200 p.a. (increased from the bond he had already made for £100 p.a.) and directed that £6668 [sic] 13s 4d in 3% consols be set aside to answer this annuity. As well as smaller monetary legacies to family members, he left £500 to his brother-in-law Alexander Gordon to compensate him for his work as trustee under the will. He left: in trust (the trustees included his wife and his nephew Christopher Irvine of Tobago) £3333 6s 8d annuities with the interest to be paid to his reputed daughter Betsy, 'now of London'; an annuity of £50 p.a. to Sarah Armstrong the wife of Francis Armstrong; annuities of £100 p.a. each to his nieces Clara and Marian Irvine the daughters of his brother Christopher William Irvine; £500 to 'Mary the reputed daughter of the negro woman [illeg.] of Tobago; £5000 and £3000 respectively to his nephews Christopher Irvine and Walter Irvine; £35,000 in trust each to his daughters Christiana Charles [sic] and Catherine Grace. He left his real estate in Tobago and his residuary estate in trust for his three daughters. Catherine Grace Irvine died in 1827 and was buried at St John's Egham; Christiana or Christina Charles Irvine died unmarried of Luddington House in 1871 leaving £25,000 in effects in the United Kingdom; Elizabeth married William Robert Keith Douglas.

3. Walter Irvine left £120,000 in total. He was described in the Probate Calendar as 'Formerly of Tobago, and then of Wimpole Street and then of Luddington House, Egham, Surrey.' His daughter Elizabeth had married William Robert Keith Douglas in 1821.

4. Walter Irvine had been among the original grantees of land in Tobago under the 1764 Proclamation. Together with John Irvine, Walter Irvine was granted the Woodlands estate. In 1832 the estate's owners were shown as 'Douglas & Irvine'; the estate was still in cultivation in 1862.

5. Walter Irvine of Tobago married Catherine, daughter of Alexander Gordon, Campbelltown, Deebank 1797.

1. Times 20/5/1840 p. 7 House of Lords appeal of Lady Douglas and others v Kirkpatrick.

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials 1813-1980 [database online]; PROB 11/1680/423; National Probate Calendar 1871.

3. W.D. Rubinstein Who were the rich? Vol. 1 1809-1839 (2009), p. 211, reference 1824/4.

4. 'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971).

5. American Vital Records from the Gentleman's Magazine 1731-1868 p. 149 [GM 67:798].