Archibald Alves

Son of Dr John Alves of Shipland, Inverness. Family owned Carrapan in St Vincent in the 1790s, where Archibald and brother William were in partnership with George Baillie and George Inglis. In 1800-1801 Archibald Alves was part of a consortium with Lord Seaforth, Edward Fraser of Reelig, William Munro, James Fraser of Bellardrum and Anthony [William] Somersall to buy land from the Berbice Company.

1. Archibald Alves of 18 Upper Montague Street was buried in All Souls Cemetery, Kensal Green, 22/06/1839 aged 74.

2. Will of Archibald Alves of Upper Montagu Street proved 03/07/1839. The will opens: 'A change having taken place in the state of my affairs I think it right to alter the disposition in my will of the little property I possess' so that it went chiefly to relations who seemed to him to require it most. He left his estate in trust to his sister Ann Arbuthnot, widow of Sir Wm Arbuthnot bart., and her sons John Alves Arbuthnot, George Clerk Arbuthnot, Archibald Francis Arbuthnot my nephews Duncan Davidson Alves and George Ireland, subject to specific legacies including: to his niece Mrs Jane Dyer £1000 together with a further £1000 approximating the compensation proceeds from his claim as mortgagee of Eleanor Campbell - Alves had previously assigned to Mrs Jane Dyer the benefits of the £800 bond from Eleanor Campbell bearing interest from 01/06/1814; £1000 to the children of his sister Mrs Jane Alves otherwise Ireland, the widow of Rev. Dr. Ireland of North Leith; and £500 to his sister Helen Inglis, wife of George Inglis of Kingsmills. His residuary legatees were as to one-third the children of his niece Jane Dyer; one-third to the children of his niece Mary Davidson wife of Rev. Duncan Davidson of Broughton Ferry; and one-third to the children of his sister Helen Inglis. He provided that no legacy should be payable or bear interest for a period of three years, to allow time for his trustees to sell his property in St Vincent given the present depreciated state of West India property.

David Alston, http://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=221877 [accessed 24/09/2012]. There is no sign of Archibald Alves as a partner in any mercantile firm in the London Gazette, but in the Narrative of the mercantile transactions of the concerns of George Baillie (1805), George Baillie identifies Mr A. Alves as one of his late partners in the West Indies [p. 6], and references at that point a letter from Archibald Alves headed 'Springfield, November 12 1797' (in which at Baillie's request Alves estimated Bailie's profits from the business transacted at St Vincent at £40 to £50,000) that is reproduced as Appendix 1 p. 45.

1. Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online].

2. PROB 11/1913/55. The claim he describes on Eleanor Campbell's property recognisable as St Ann no. 586. In the will Alves says he received on 26/05/1836 £1093 4s of 3 per cent consolidated annuities equal at that time to £1001 6s 3d. The compensation records show (pre-interest) an award of £958 6s 6d.