Colin Chisholm MD of Bristol

Born in Inverness, Scotland, Bristol based physician, part owner of the Hermitage estate in Grenada, who died c. 1825. His will makes no mention of property in Demerara or Berbice, but Checkland shows Dr Colin Chisholm of Dingwall as the uncle of John Gladstone's second wife, and as the owner of Industry estate in Demerara. He has an entry in the ODNB as 'surgeon and medical writer' that supports Checkland's claims of slave-ownership [expressed as plantation or estate-ownership] in Demerara.

1. Will of Colin Chisholm physician of Bristol Gloucestershire proved 11/05/1825. In the will Colin Chisholm bequeathed £800 to his wife and daughters and his 'two shares' in the Hermitage estate in Grenada, 'now fully completely disembarrassed of debt' to his son William Henry Newton Chisholm of the Hon. East India Company after his wife's death. His trustees were James Evan and Hugh Duncan Baillie, George Henry Ames and Alexander Frazer. The will makes no mention of the Industry estate in Berbice.

2. Colin Chisholm was from Inverness, where he married in 1794. His wife was Elizabeth Cooper, daughter of the late St Kitts merchant Henry Cooper. According to Jim Brennan's reading of the will of Alexander Baillie of Dochfour (d. 1799), Baillie helped to keep Elizabeth's mother, the widow Harriet Cooper, afloat in Inverness on her arrival there in the late 1780s.

3. Colin Chisholm was the son of Provost William Chisholm of Inverness, and his first wife Janet Mackintosh. At some point before 1777, William Chisholm remarried, to Katherine, sister of Alexander Baillie of Dochfour.

4. Colin Chisholm reportedly visited Demerara in 1790 and bought a cotton plantation there. He retired on half-pay in 1800 and spent three years in Demerara before moving to Bristol, England.

Gordon Goodwin, ‘Chisholm, Colin (1754/5–1825)’, rev. Jeffrey S. Reznick, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2014 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5322, accessed 18 April 2017]

1. PROB 11/1699/154.

2. GROS OPR Marriages 098 080 0191. Emails from Jim Brennan 14/09/2014 and 16/09/2014.

3. Testament and inventory of Katherine Chisholm, alias Baillie, widow of Provost William Chisholm of Inverness, SC29/44/1. Baptism of Sarah, the first child of Katherine and William, in Inverness 03/04/1777, Familysearch.org batch no. C11098-4.

4. Gordon Goodwin, ‘Chisholm, Colin (1754/5–1825)’, rev. Jeffrey S. Reznick, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Sept 2014 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/5322, accessed 18 April 2017]

We are grateful to Jim Brennan for this assistance with compiling this entry.