Lewis Cuthbert

Slave owner and slave factor in Jamaica, in partnership in the latter with Samuel and David Bean.

1. Lewis, son of George Cuthbert of Castlehill and Mrs Mary McIntosh his spouse, baptised 29/01/1737 in Inverness.

2. Lewis Cuthbert contributed £50 to the University of Pennsylvania following Dr John Morgan's fundraising tour of the West Indies in 1772-1773.

3. Mrs Cuthbert of Castlehill (nee Jane Pinnock) put up for sale a house, furniture and outbuildings at 63 George Street Edinburgh, in December 1798 - January 1799.

4. Will of Lewis Cuthbert of Castle-hill Invernesshire [made in 1802] proved 26/07/1803. Under the will he said that he held a 14 year lease of the office of Provost Marshall General in Jamaica, and that if his son George Cuthbert barrister should give up the law to occupy the office, then George Cuthbert would received £500 currency p.a. from the office, and 1/5th of the residual profits of office. If George Cuthbert declined to occupy the role, the profits fell back into Lewis Cuthbert's general estate, which he left between his five children. He authorised his executors to sell the [indebted] Castle Hill estate. In a codicil he described his outlay of £2000 to place his second son Seignelay in the East India Co.

5. Three of Cuthbert's five children (three unmarried daughters) died in Clifton, Bristol: Mary Hay (1819), Ann Murray (1855) and Elizabeth Pinnock (1855). His wife Jane died there in 1830.

For more information on Lewis Cuthbert see http://www.jjhc.info/CuthbertLewis1802.htm [accessed 29/01/2018].

1. GROS OPR Births 098 30 485 Inverness.

2. C. S. Graubard, 'Documenting the University of Pennsylvania's Connection to Slavery (2018) via archives.upenn.edu [accessed 16/01/2019].

3. Caledonian Mercury 29/12/1798.

4. PROB 11/1395/266.

5. http://www.jjhc.info/CuthbertLewis1802.htm [accessed 29/01/2018] with information on their memorial inscriptions.

We are grateful to Jim Brennan and Paul Hitchings for their assistance with compiling this entry.