Robert Dennistoun

Profile & Legacies Summary

1770 - 1815

Biography

Partner in George & Robert Dennistoun & Co. of Glasgow until his death c. 1815. One of the prime movers behind the formation of the Glasgow West India Association in 1807. Robert Dennistoun's widow Anne Penelope Dennistoun (q.v.) was part of a family group claiming compensation in Trinidad. G & R Dennistoun & Co. is also known to have been mortgagees-in-possession of Wingfield and Belle Vue estates on St Kitts in 1825, and the firm was shown as 'proprietors' of Harriss' and Geagans in St John Capesterre St Kitts, and of an estate in Christ Church Nichola Town called Rosehill, which has not yet been traced elsewhere, in the key to William McMahon's 1828 map.

Anthony Cooke shows Robert Dennistoun leaving an estate worth £48,294 including £16,834 interest in 'Robert Dennistoun & Co.', £15,020 in Dalnottar [sic] Iron Co., £2,490 in New Lanark Co., £5,163 in Robert Humphreys & Co. (cotton spinners) and £2,065 in Newark Sugar Refining Co. His probate inventory also included £837 in 'Paradise Estate' per P. Anderson.

Sources

London Gazette 17247 3/5/1817 p. 1067

Anthony Cooke, 'An elite revisited: Glasgow West India merchants, 1783-1877', Journal of Scottish Historical Studies 32.2 2012 pp. 127-165, at p. 158; SC 36/48/10/537 24/02/1816.

Further Information

Absentee?

British/Irish

Spouse

Anne Penelope Dennistoun (née Campbell)

Children

James Robert Dennistoun

Occupation

Merchant

Associated Estates (6)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

SD - Association Start Date
SY - Association Start Year
EA - Earliest Known Association
ED - Association End Date
EY - Association End Year
LA - Latest Known Association

1825 [EA] - 01/05/1827 [ED] → Mortgagee-in-Possession

Belle Vue [ St Kitts | St John Capesterre ]

1813 [EA] - 1813 [LA] → Owner

Exchange [ Trinidad | Couva ]

1819 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Previous owner

Exchange [ Trinidad | Couva ]

1822 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Previous owner

Friendship [ Trinidad | Savonetta ]

1828 [EA] - 1828 [LA] → Not known

Harris' [ St Kitts | St John Capesterre ]

G & R Dennistoun were shown as proprietors of Harriss [sic] and Geagans in the key William McMahon's 1828 map of St Kitts. This is not supported by the Slave Registers, but the estate was in Chancery in 1828 and Dennistouns were thus possibly creditors..

1825 [EA] - 1825 [LA] → Mortgagee-in-Possession

Wingfield Manor [ St Kitts | St Thomas Middle Island ]

George and Robert Dennistoun & Co., owners