Lambert Blair

Early British planter in Berbice, from an Irish presbyterian family, and uncle of James Blair (q.v.), MP, his heir. The firm of Lambert Blair & Co. was the owner of Plns Utile et Paisible, Herstelling, Welgeleegen and Nieuw Welgeleegen (for which last three they were also shown as 'Admins.') in Berbice in 1794. 'L. Blair' alone was also shown as owner and Admins. of Plantagie No. 3 (Mon choisi) and No. 4 in Berbice in 1794. Lambert Blair & Co. were engaged in the inter-island trade in enslaved Africans, although apparently not in the transatlantic trade itself.

1. The partners in Lambert Blair & Co. were Lambert Blair and James Blair (presumably another uncle of James Blair MP), Matthew Munro and William Macfarlane, the last three all described as of Grenada (and the last two as deceased) in 1798.

2. Will of Lambert Blair [late of Courtland Devon but now residing at] Twickenham Middlesex proved 14/02/1815. He had lived at Richmond House together with an African servant, David Maxwell. He confirmed his marriage settlement under which his wife Jane was entitled to an annuity of £2000 p.a. from his estates in Berbice and Demerary, and left her in addition the interest on £33,333 6s 8d of 3% annuities. He instructed his trustees to sell his estate at Courtland in Devon. He left his nephew John McCamon £10,000 as a mark of my approbation of his good management of my estates in Berbice and Demerary and in Surinam. He left £250 each to a mulatto man named James Lambert Blair at present in Berbice and well-known to my executors, and and a mustee lad James Blair who was bred a ship carpenter in Lancaster but now resides in Berbice. He manumitted his servant David Maxwell then living with him in England and left him £100 and an annuity of £20 p.a. He left £200 to a god-daughter whose name he could not recollect, the daughter of Kenneth Francis Mackenzie, and an annuity of £1600 p.a. to his brother James Blair, of £400 p.a. to his brother John Blair, and £200 p.a. to each of John Blair's three daughters. He left his estates including enslaved people to his two nephews John McCamon and James Blair as tenants-in-common, with the proviso that if McCamon died without issue his share would pass to James Blair.

3. His wife Jane Letitia Stopford, grand-daughter of the 1st Earl of Courtown, left £30,000 on her death of Portman Square in 1871.

1. London Gazette 15084 27/11/1798 p. 1145; PRONI D/1125/5, reproduced in 'Hidden connections: Slavery and Belfast', http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article.aspx?art_id=101 accessed 30/12/2013. The partners of the firm do not appear in the Transatlantic Slave-Trade Database at http://www.slavevoyages.org accessed 30/12/2013.

2. PROB 11/1565/269; http://www.memoriesoftwickenhamriverside.com/richmond.html accessed 30/12/2013.

3. National Probate Calendar 1871.