Dorothea Elisabeth van der Meulen

Slave-owner on Curacao, residing and dying in Nairn. Her brother-in-law was George Robertson of Curacao (q.v.). Dorothea Elizabeth van der Meulen was awarded compensation for 146 enslaved people on Curacao in 1863.

1. In 1841, Paulina Robertson aged 35 born Foreign Parts and Eliza Vander Melen [sic] aged 25 were living at High Street, Nairn, with two female servants; in 1851, Paulina Robertson, widow, aged 51, annuitant, born West Indies was living at 12 [sic] Queen Street as head of household with her sister Eliza Vanda [sic] Meulen, unmarried aged 40 born West Indies, again with two female servants; and in 1871 Dorothea Elizabeth Vander Moulin aged 67 born Curacao was living at 5 Queen street, Nairn. It is not clear whether the Eliza Vander Meulen of the 1841 and 1851 censuses was in fact Dorothea vander Meulen of the 1871 census.

2. Under the will of Dorothea Elizabeth Van der Meulin in 1879, she left legacies of £3,200 to the children of her nephew, the deceased Charles Robertson of Liverpool (Charles, Henry, George, Casper Ludovic, Theodore, Mrs Harriet Robertson or Hicks, Caroline, and Pauline). The will also states that the land and houses in Queen Street Nairn were acquired in 1849, that both sisters had the right to the property during their lives, but that it then went to Dorothea’s heirs or assignees. She left a total of £810 to the United Presbyterian Church, £250 to local charities, and the residue of her estate, after payment of all legacies, was to be invested and the interest used, under the direction of her trustees, to further the spread of the gospel. Dorothea’s death certificate (GROS 123/00 0078) gives her father as Charles Vandermeulan, planter in the West Indies and her mother as Martha-Jane Vaneutra. She died 5 December 1879 aged ‘about 79 years’.

3. Dorothea Elizabeth Vander Meulen's nephew, Charles Robertson, West India merchant, born in Curacao about 1816, is recorded in the 1861 census for Liverpool, along with five children: Caroline, Paulina, Caspar Ludovic, George Arthur, and Theodore Pope. Charles Vandermeulen Robertson Esq. formerly of Euston Hotel Euston Square but late of Ilkley Yorkshire died at Ilkley, on 15 June 1867, leaving effects under £3000 (resworn from £2000).

National Probate Calendar 1880; Archief van de Algemene Rekenkamer 2.02.09.08 Inventarisnummer 245, claim no. 86.

1. Ancestry.com, Scotland Census 1841, 1851 and 1871.

2. SC31/34/1, 1879.

3. 1861 census online; National Probate Calendar 1867.

We are grateful to Okke ten Hove, Ank de Vogel-Muntslag and David Alston for their help with this entry and for the above references.