Gilbert Munro

Owner of Brighton estate in St Vincent.

1. Born c. 1778 in Kiltearn, Ross-shire, the third son of William Munro (c. 1723-1786) and his wife Jannet nee Douglas (c. 1751-1831). His father was described as "of the 42nd Regiment, a cadet of the Lealty family, parish of Alness... [and] a tacksman of Ketwell". His mother was the sister of Gilbert Douglas who owned Mount Pleasant in St Vincent and Fairfield in Demerera.

2. Bought Millikins estate in St Vincent in 1809 for £28,000. Petitioned Parliament in 1833: "Upon reading the Petition of John Hopton Forbes of Ely Place, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, Agent and Solicitor for Gilbert Munro of the Island of St Vincent, in the West Indies, Esquire; praying, “That their Lordships will not sanction any Measure whereby the said Gilbert Munro may be deprived of part of his Property purchased and paid for by him, and that if any such Measure shall be adopted whereby the Petitioner’s Property in his Slaves be impaired, that their Lordships will be pleased to recommend to His Majesty’s Government the Sale and Purchase of the Plantation called Millikens, in the said Island of St Vincent, and the Slaves (which was purchased by the Petitioner in the Year 1809, and which was one of the Estates mentioned in the Schedule to the Act passed in the 46th Year of the Reign of His late Majesty King George the Third, intitled “An Act for more effectually carrying into Execution the Purposes of an Act made in the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Year of His present Majesty, to give further Time for the Payment, on the Conditions therein mentioned, of Instalments on certain Loans advanced to the House of Alexander Houston and Company, to Charles Ashwell Esquire, and to William Johnston Esquire, being Persons connected with and trading tot the Island of Grenada and St Vinvent, so far as relates to the Real and Personal Estates of William McDowall, James McDowall and Robert Houston Rae, in the West Indies and elsewhere, except Scotland,”) should be rescinded, and that the Purchase Money or Sum of Twenty-eight thousand one hundred and twenty Pounds may be repaid to him the said Gilbert Munro; or that their Lordships will give such Relief in the Premises as they may deem meet:” It is Ordered, That the said Petition do lie on the Table."

3. Marriage 29/09/1820: "At Stockton-upon-Tees, Gilbert Munro, Esq., of Brighton, Island of St Vincent, and of Albemarle Street, London, to Rachel Sophia, daughter of the late Jonathan Anderson Ludford, MD of Wickwick &c., Island of Jamaica." Rachel Sophia Munro nee Ludford married Sir Richard Doherty, Governor of Sierra Leone 1837-1840, in 1845, after Gilbert Munro's death.

4. Gilbert Munro of St Vincent was listed as a subscriber to Charles Shepherd's An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent, published in 1832.

5. His daughter Sarah Munro married John Marden, of Loma estate, Mulgoa Forest, 09/07/1836 in Sydney, Australia, when she was described as the second daughter of Gilbert Munro, Esq., Brighton estate, St Vincent. Sarah had three children, Joanna Tamar Sarah Marden (1848-1919), Allen Gilbert Marden (1850-1922), and Alfred Luther Marden (1853-1893). She died 14/12/1886 at Werombi, New South Wales, age 76, giving a birth year ten years before Gilbert's marriage to Rachel Sophia and implying he had been married before. Grace Eliza, daughter of Gilbert Munro and Rachel Sophia, was baptised 14/03/1822 in St Andrew's, Clifton, Gloucestershire.

6. Gilbert's first daughter, Maxwell Munro, married Alfred Henry Neville in France at the House of the British Ambassador, on 12 July 1832. Maxwell's address was listed as Neath in the County of Glamorgan, South Wales, and Alfred's address was listed as possibly Wanstead, in the County of Essex. When Alfred died on 25 June, 1861 in Turin, Italy, his estate went to his son, Henry Gilbert Munro Neville of Venice in the Empire of Austria as his sole executor. Alfred's address is given on the Probate notice as Milan but no mention is made of Maxwell, which would suggest that she predeceased him.

7. Living at Grove, Blackheath, London, in the census of 1841, "West India Proprietor", born Scotland, age 60, with Grace age 15, a governess and four female servants.

8. The death of Gilbert Munro was registered Q2 1843 in Weymouth, Dorset. The will of Gilbert Munro of Brighton, Island of Saint Vincent, was proved 30/03/1844. In it, he delineated his property as the Brighton and Carreer [?] estates in St Vincent, certain sums of money vested in American securities, in the Clyde Canal shares in the North of Scotland bank shares and certain sums of cash in my merchant's hands, and left it in trust to secure annuities of £30 p.a. to his sister Esther Sutherland of County Ross-shire; £30 p.a. to his natural daughter Maxwell Munro Neville provided she made no claim to a lot in Kingstown [St Vincent] previously belonging to her mother and sold with her consent; and £20 p.a. to his servant William Pitcairn and £10 p.a. to Pitcairn's wife Nancy Stewart. Subject to these annuities, his passed to his wife Rachel Sophia Munro [also one of the trustees] for life and then to his daughter Grace Eliza Munro: he authorised his trustees to release £1500 for his wife herself to bequeath, the proceeds of the sale of property belonging to her, and left £5000 for her daughter if she married during her mother's life and with her mother's consent.

1. The genealogy of the families of Douglas of Mulderg and Robertson of Kindeace with their descendants (Dingwall, A.M. Ross and Company, 1895) p. 13. A fully sourced public member tree of this family is available on Ancestry.com by Rozmar22, 'Holmes - Mahoney Queensland Australia'.

2. Journals of the House of Lords (London, House of Lords, 1833), Vol. 65 p. 411.

3. Blackwood's Magazine Vol. 9 p. 245 (May 1821).

4. Charles Shepherd, An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent (1832) pp. vii-xii.

5. The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany Vol. 22 p. 63 (January 1837). Ancestry.com, Australia Birth Index, 1788-1922 [database online]. Ancestry.com, Australia Death Index, 1787-1985 [database online]. Familysearch batch no. C17253-1.

6. England and Wales National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) 1858 - 1966; UK, Foreign and Overseas Registers of British Subjects, 1628 - 1969.

7. 1841 census online.

8. FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]. PROB 11/1995/213.

We are grateful to David Alston, Roz Marden and Gilean Glasson Cookson for their assistance in compiling this entry.