Duncan Davidson senior

London West India merchant, MP for Cromartyshire 1790-1796, father of Henry Davidson senior (q.v.) and grandfather of Duncan Davidson (1800-1881) (q.v).

1. Will of Duncan Davidson of Bedford Square proved 14/09/1799. In the will he ratified his settlement on his present wife Magdalen of £500 p.a. and left her his leasehold house in Bedford Square for life. He had not left her more, he said, because he knew she enjoyed the kindness and affection of her brother William [Gemmell]. He left £10,000 to his son Henry, and £34,000 in trust for his daughters Sarah Chandler Davidson and Justina Davidson, which with the roughly £3000 each already had received made, in his estimate £20,000, for each of them.

2. In partnership with his brother Henry Davidson, William and Robert Gemmell and James Baillie the elder formerly of Grenada, Duncan Davidson purchased 4000 acres in St Vincent from Robert Monckton in 1775 for £31,750.

http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/member/davidson-duncan-1733-99 [accessed 23/12/2016].

1. PROB 11/1329/232.

2. Deed Book 1785, British Library, EAP688/1/1/1, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP688-1-1-1, pp. 159-162 and pp. 162-178. William Gemmell was party to a deed of 24/05/1785 under which he - given as late of Lime Street but then of Marylebone and as executor of Robert Gemmell - leased for 1 year land known as Lot No. 4 in the Monckton Quarter of St Vincent to Duncan Campbell of St Vincent. The indenture was the prelude to a further deed of the following day to be entered into with James Baillie and the Davidson firm of London that set out the background including the 1775 purchase from Monckton.