Sir William Bruce 7th Bart. of Stenhouse

Third son but heir of Sir Michael Bruce 6t bart., and father of Sir Michael Bruce 8th bart (q.v.). The seventh bart. was described as 'of Tobago' on 14/12/1789 when he was made heir, and is almost certainly the William Bruce who with G. Campbell was shown in 1773 as the owner of Sandy Bay division (St Patrick parish) Lots nos 17 & 18 (originally purchased by Hugh Smith) and Lot no. 32 (originally purchased by James Hamilton) which together became the Shirvan estate.

1. William (from 1795 Sir William) Bruce was Tobago for thirteen years between 1772 and 1785, according to a letter he wrote to Dr Cullen from Stenhouse in November 1786.

Major William Bruce Armstrong, The Bruces of Airth, and their Cadets (Edinburgh, 1892), p. 97 and Appendix, 'Bruces of Stenhouse'; '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. 60-61, 62-63.

1. The Cullen Project http://www.cullenproject.ac.uk/docs/2935/ [accessed 03/05/2016].