James Matthew Whyte

Attorney for multiple properties in Jamaica in the late 1820s and early 1830s, and previously the owner initially with his brother John and then alone, of the Windhill estate in St Thomas-in-the-East, selling almost all the 110 enslaved people on the estate to William Rae between 1829 and 1832.

1. James Matthew Whyte (1788-1843) born in Old Cumnock, Ayr on 12 Oct 1788 to James Whyte (1732-1822) and Esther Crawfurd/Cranford. James Matthew Whyte registered 94 enslaved people on Cave Bottom in St Thomas-in-the-East as the attorney of James Whyte in 1817: by 1820 all but 12 had been sold to the Garbrand Hall estate.

2. Emigrated to Hamilton, Canada in 1834. He has an entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography as a businessman, and was an early investor and the President of the Gore Bank of Hamilton Ontario, a predecessor firm of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

T71/56 pp. 153 and 155; 1817, 1829 and 1832 St Thomas-in-the-East Slave Registers.

1. "Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XTKD-872 : accessed 28 December 2015), James Matthew White, 12 Oct 1788; citing , reference 2:16H8C8M; FHL microfilm 1,041,402.

2. David G. Burley, “WHYTE, JAMES MATTHEW,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed December 28, 2015, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/whyte_james_matthew_7E.html.

We are grateful to Dr Sonia Baker for help in compiling this entry.