Alexander Campbell of Grenada

Merchant and owner of Tivoli estate on Grenada, executed with Ninian Home in Fedon's Rebellion in 1795. Son of John Campbell of Lossit and his second wife Jean Campbell. Brother of James Campbell of Grenada and Tobago (q.v.). Early co-purchaser of land in Grenada, and of the island of Mustique.

1. Partner with Jonathan [or John] Aitcheson in Campbell & Aitcheson. After the end of the partnership, mortgaged Tivoli in 1772 to help purchase Mount Liban, Rose Hill, Saint Cyr and Achalles [sic] estates, also in Grenada. In 1777 he added (with Ninian Home) the St John estate and half of Paraclete. He had also purchased Mustique with John Aitcheson in 1763.

2. John Atchison [sic] purchased two lots under North-east Division (St John parish) nos. 8 & 9 in Tobago 09/05/1769. By 1773 the 'Present Proprietor' was Alexander Campbell, presumably the same man as this Alexander Campbell of Grenada.

3. Brother of James and Duncan Campbell and cousin of Mungo, Thomas and John Campbell. This Duncan Campbell has yet to be definitively identified among the various Duncan Campbells active in the Ceded Islands in the late 18th century.

4. He gave a brief account of his buying up of land and enslaved people in 1789-90 to the Slave Trade Committee.

1. Mark Quintanilla, 'The World of Alexander Campbell: An Eighteenth-Century Grenadian Planter' Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Summer, 2003), pp. 229-256.

2. '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); John Fowler, A summary account of the present flourishing state of the respectable colony of Tobago in the British West Indies illustrated with a map of the island and a plan of its settlement, agreeably to the sales by his Majesty’s Commissioners (London: A Grant, 1774) pp. 46-47.

3. Quintanilla, 'The World of Alexander Campbell' p. 235.

4. Abridgement of the Minutes of the Evidence: Taken Before a Committee of the Whole House..to Consider the Slave Trade (1790) Vol. II Part II p. 55 et seq.

We are grateful to Dr Sonia Baker and David Alston for their help compiling this entry, and to Nicholas Courtney for his knowledge of Alexander Campbell's involvement in Mustique.