Andrew Colvile

1. Son of James Wedderburn-Colvile of Inveresk (the second son of the executed Sir John Wedderburn 5th bart.) and Isabella Blackburn. Joined Webster, Wedderburn in 1798. Married (1) 1802 Elizabeth Susannah Wedderburn (d. 1803); (2) 1806 Hon. Mary Louisa [sic]  Eden [sic]. In 1814 took the name and arms of Colvile of Ochiltree.

2. On 14/05/1850 appointed with James Cavan, William King, Charles McGarel, Charles Cave and Michael McChlery Esq to be Her Majesty's Commissioners in England for borrowing, raising, managing and expending the funds under an Ordinance of the Governor and Court of Policy of British Guiana, entitled 'An ordinance to authorise the raising on loan of a sum of five hundred thousand pounds for immigration purposes.'

3. In the 1851 census Andrew Colvile 'landed proprietor' aged 71 b. Edin[?] Co. N.B. was living at 44 Eaton Place with wife Louisa Mary aged 62 born Spain and daughters Jane, Isalen Mary and Margaret Agnes aged 30, 25 and 21. Death of Andrew Colvile registered Q1 1856 St George's Hanover Square.

4. The coal-mining town of Colvile in British Columbia was named after Andrew Colvile on its establishment in 1852.

5. Colvile was a major figure in the Hudson's Bay Company of Canada: a proprietor from 1809; member of the Committee from 1810 and very influential in the administration of the company; also played a major part in effecting the union of it with the North West Company in 1821. Became Deputy Governor 1839, and Governor, 1852 until his death in 1856.

6. Andrew Colvile was the half-brother of Robert Wedderburn, the important anti-slavery activist and socialist who wrote, among other works, the autobiographical work The Horrors of Slavery (1824). The Horrors of Slavery occasioned a minor press war between Colvile and Wedderburn, the former disputing the latter's kinship claims.

7. Under the will of Andrew Colvile proved 12/02/1856 (made in 1834) he left an annuity to his wife Louisa Mary of £400 p.a. over and above what was provided for her in their marriage settlement, and left £10,000 to his younger sons and daughters (with additional legacies to raise the minimum share to £3000 for sons and £2000 for daughters), with the residue of the estate to pass to James William Colvile or in the event of his death to Eden Colvile. James William Colvile (who has an entry in the ODNB as 'judge in India') was Advocate General to the East India Company in 1845, knighted in 1848, Chief Justice of Bengal 1855-1859, first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, President of the Asiatic Society, a full member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council from 1871 and Fellow of the Royal Society from 1875 and left £80,000 in Britain in 1880. Eden Colvile (1819-1893) was James William's younger brother and Governor of Rupert's Land 1849-1852.

8. Colvile, who had been active in the West India committee since the early 1820s, was one of those who, in the wake of emancipation, developed schemes to import indentured labour into the British Caribbean. In May 1838, he, in conjunction with Davidsons and Barkly, brought 78 men, 2 women and 2 girls (aged 8 and 4) from Calcutta to British Guiana to work on his Bellevue planation, British Guiana, under an indenture of 5 years. There were reports of abuses of the labourers – within a year 12 men had died and one of the girls died after being raped – and Bellevue became one of the prime targets of investigations by emancipationists into the treatment of indentured labour. Conditions there were one of the elements leading to the British government suspending immigration until 1842 (though this did not prevent the subsequent immigration of indentured labour).

T71/877 Antigua claim no. 331 (Diamond Estate).

1. http://www.antohnymaitland.com/scrymwed.htm, unsourced [accessed 08/11/2010].

2. London Gazette, Issue 21095, 14/05/1850, p. 1393.

3. 1851 census online; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online].

4. G. P. V. and Helen B. Akrigg, British Columbia Placenames (University of British Columbia Press: Vancouver, 1986; 3rd edition 1997), 'Nanaimo' p. 184.

5. See the account of his life in the Hudson's Bay Company Archives biographical sheet: http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/biographical/c/colville_andrew.pdf.

6. Robert Wedderburn, The Horrors of Slavery and Other Writings, ed. Ian McCalman (Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle, 1997). Malcolm Chase, ‘Wedderburn, Robert (1762–1835/6?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008).

7. PROB 11/2226/336; ODNB online Katherine Prior, ‘Colvile, Sir James William (1810–1880)’; National Probate Calendar 1881 and 1893.

8. Alexandra Franklin, Enterprise and advantage: The West India interest in Britain, 1774-1840 (unpub. PhD., University of Pennsylvania, 1992), pp. 297-99.

We are grateful to Christopher Taylor and Roberta Wedge for their assistance with compiling this entry.