James Dick of Finsbury Square

1743 - 1828


Biography

West India merchant and philanthropist, leaving £140,000 on death at London in 1828 and endowing the Dick bequest for Scottish schoolmasters. He has an entry in the ODNB as 'merchant and benefactor'.

  1. His will is silent on property or the ownership of enslaved people in Jamaica, suggesting (consistent with the ODNB entry) that he had detached his wealth from the island some time earlier. His brother John Dick, whose will was proved in 1793, took the business on from James c. 1782, according to the ODNB.

Sources

Anita McConnell, ‘Dick, James (bap. 1743, d. 1828)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48770, accessed 6 Jan 2015].

  1. Will of James Dick of Finsbury Square St Luke Old Street proved 06/06/1828, PROB 11/1741/277 (the James Dick merchant of Jamaica whose will was proved 13/03/1824, PROB 11/1682/307, was an entirely different man). Will of John Dick merchant [late of Jamaica but now] of Great Britain proved 28/06/1793, PROB 11/1233/278.

Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Spouse
Jane Anderson
Wealth at death
£140,000
Occupation
West India merchant
Rubinstein
1828/31
Oxford DNB Entry

Legacies Summary

Commercial (1)

Name partner
James Dick & Co.
Slave-traders  
 
notes →
Inferred to have been the same man as James Dick later of Finsbury...

Relationships (4)

Brothers
Testator → Executor
Business partners
Notes →
James Dick of James Dick & Co. in Jamaica has been inferred by LBS to have been the same man as James Dick later of Finsbury Square...
Business partners
Notes →
James Dick of James Dick & Co. in Jamaica has been inferred by LBS to have been the same man as James Dick later of Finsbury...

Addresses (1)

Artillery Place, Finsbury Square, City of London, Middlesex, London, England