Dr Hinton Spalding

Resident slave-owner in Jamaica, whose family in the later 19th century came to Britain. The Spalding family had lived in Perthshire, Scotland, for several hundred years before 1745, and dispersed to Germany, Sweden, Jamaica, Georgia, Liverpool and elsewhere. The castle of Ashintully was the clan centre in Perthshire.

1. Hinton Spalding was the son of Robert Spalding (d.1792) and Sarah Groves Spalding (neé Browne). Hinton Spalding's mother (b. 04/10/1758 at St Andrew's, Jamaica) was a daughter of James Browne and Elizabeth Burnside. Sarah's sister, Dorothy Frances Browne (baptised 1760 in St Andrew's, Jamaica) went on to marry Dugald Campbell of Cross Hill and Waterhouse (q.v.). After Robert Spalding's death, Sarah Groves Spalding married James Rattray, probably in Jamaica, in 1794. They had three daughters born in St Andrew, Jamaica, between 1795 and 1800. One of their daughters, Isabella Rattray, married Dr Alexander McLarty or McLaverty, who was a brother of Dr Collin MacLarty of Jamaica and also practised in Jamaica.

2. Hinton Spalding was baptised in St. Andrew's Jamaica on 19 February 1790. The couple lived in both Jamaica and Edinburgh. They had three sons and at least two daughters.

3. Friday, April 05, 1811 Hinton Spalding, Esq., of New Grange, Jamaica, M.D. married at Greenock, to Jane, eldest daughter of Mr. John Rankin, Merchant in Greenock. Jane's sister Eliza (1792-1826) married William Shand in Jamaica which would account for Hinton and Jane naming their son William Shand.

4. 'Hinton Spalding MD born 1790 an MD in Kingston Jamaica died in Bremen Germany on 2 June 1853.'

5. Hinton Spalding's grandson and namesake Hinton Spalding (1846-1900) was a merchant and entrepreneur who founded the Perim Coal Co. in what is now Yemen in 1881.

We are grateful to Rebecca Green for her assistance in compiling this entry.

'The Spaldings of Ashintully, Perthshire, Scotland' - http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/spalding/; The papers of William Shand, 1816-1835, are held at the University of Aberdeen, Special Collections (MS3652) and include some letters by his brother-in-law Dr Hinton Spalding.

1. "Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VHDC-HKY : accessed 19 January 2015). "Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880," vol. I, index and images, FamilySearch: Marriage of James Brown and Elizabeth Burnside; Baptism of Sarah Groves Browne; Baptism of Dorothy Frances Browne; Marriage of Sarah Groves Browne and Robert Spalding; Marriage of Dorothy Frances Browne and Dugald Campbell; Marriage of Sarah Groves Spalding with James Rattray (accessed 15 September 2023).

2. Robert Spalding in entry for Hinton Spalding, 19 Feb 1790, Christening; citing p. 113, St Andrew, Jamaica, Registrar General's Department, Spanish Town; FHL microfilm 1,291,698.

3. http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/epapers01.htm.

4. David Dobson Scots in the West Indies, 1707-1857, Volume 2 p. 103. NB the birth-date given does not reconcile with the immediately preceding entry for Hinton Spalding graduating MD of Edinburgh 1802 [sic]. The Edinburgh MD degree appears in fact to have been awarded in 1807, The Literary Panorama, and National Register, Volume 3 1808 p. 195.

5. Kenneth J. Panton, Historical Dictionary of the British Empire p. 406; R. J. Gavin Aden Under British Rule, 1839-1967 p. 180.