James Dick of Finsbury Square

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.

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.