Robert Gemmell

London merchant and slave-owner, brother and partner of William Gemmell (q.v.).

1. 'To be sold by Public Auction at Garraway's Coffee House...1st October 1782...a Plantation called Mount Craven with the Negroes, Stock and Appurtenances situate in Grenada belonging to Messrs William and Robert Gemmell, and at the same time the joint concern of Messrs Gemmell, Bogle and Scott and the heir or representatives of Hugh Lang deceased therein will be finally dissolved and determined pursuant to the Articles of Agreement between us and the deceased Hugh Lang... [signed] William and Robert Gemmell, Robert Bogle, William Scott surviving partners.'

2. Will of Robert Gemmell [formerly of London at present residing at] Greenwich Kent proved 28/05/1782. He left £20,000 to William Gemmell, £5000 to his sister Magdalen Gemmell, an annuity of £25 pa. to his half-sister Mrs Margaret Dukie of Irvine, and £10 p.a. to his nurse Mary Anderson of Irvine. His executor and residuary heir was his brother William.

3. William Gemmell and Robert Gemmell in partnership with James Baillie (the elder, previously of Grenada then of the City of London) and Henry and Duncan Davidson were parties in 1775 to an agreement whereby William and Robert Gemmelll bought from General Robert Monckton the 4000 acres of land granted to him by the Crown in St Vincent for £10,000 in cash and £21,750 in bills of exchange, the land to be shared 1/3rd by the Gemmells, 1/3rd by the Davidsons and 1/3rd by James Baillie. In 1785 the surviving partners sold Lot no. 4 of 261 acres to Duncan Campbell of St Vincent for £2619 17s 6d.

1. London Gazette 12280 9 March 1782 p. 3.

2. PROB 11/1090/403.

3. 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.