William Hardin Burnley

Major Trinidadian slave-owner and representative of the Trinidadian planters in London. He has a recent entry in the ODNB as 'slave-owner and politician'.

1. William Hardin Burnley's father, Hardin Burnley (1741-1823) was a London merchant of Hardin & Burnley [sic] of 12 America Square, leaving £120,000. William Hardin Burnley's sister Maria Burnley married the Radical MP, Joseph Hume (1777-1855) who had adopted a qualified anti-slavery stance and had espoused the cause of compensation. 

2. Burnley became the largest slaveholder in Trinidad. Born New York 1780; educated in England before taking up residence in Trinidad 1802. 'In 1809 he teamed up with Mr George Smith, Chief Justice, to steal the people's properties. As Acting Depositor-General, he had access to many properties from which he made his fortune "with Smith's knowledge, if not connivance". When he was finished he was worth a half a million dollars.' In 1818, in response to request from Governor Woodford of Trinidad for the Council to suggest schemes to attract labourers to Trinidad, Burnley, a Council member said that "if Trinidad could increase its labouring population sufficiently, it could supply the rest of the West Indian islands with cattle, rice and corn….Upon serious reflection I am fully convinced that from Asia alone is to be derived the population we require." Thus Burnley one of the first advocates of bringing East Indians to Trinidad to deal with the labour shortage. Opposed in a secret meeting in 1823 to the ending of flogging of African female slaves and the overseers from carrying whips. In 1832 he went to London to fight against emancipation. In 1841 Burnley, as chair of the Agricultural and Immigration Society, held meetings in Trinidad to establish if "the great experiment of Negro emancipation succeeded." Argued that "although slavery has ceased, the angry feelings occasioned by the struggle to effect it, have not yet subsided." Sought to recruit new labourers from Africa, Asia and the southern United States.

3. Joseph Hume Burnley, son of William Hardin Burnley, joined the Diplomatic Service and became, among other appointments, Charge d'affaires for Dresden. He is in the census of 1881 at 9 Prince of Wales Terrace, London, age 59, "Diplomatic Service Retired", born West Indies, with his wife Emily A. Burnley [nee Emily Adelaide Heath], 3 daughters and 7 servants. He died in 1904, effects £190,713 14s 2d. William Hardin Burnley's second son, William Frederick Burnley, was a partner with the Eccles family in two Glasgow-Trinidad merchant firms, which failed in 1848: he died in Edinburgh in 1903.

See Historical legacies for writings by Burnley.

Selwyn R. Cudjoe, ‘Burnley, William Hardin (1780–1850)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2016 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/109518, accessed 19 June 2017]. For a full account see Selwyn R. Cudjoe, The Slave Master of Trinidad. William Hardin Burnley and the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World (Amherst & Boston, University of Massachusetts Press, 2018).

1. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume One 1809-1839 (London, Social Affairs Unit, 2009) reference 1823/23. For Hume, see Nicholas Draper, The Price of Emancipation. Slave-Ownership, Compensation and British Society at the End of Slavery (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 158. See http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/hume-joseph-1777-1855 [accessed 05/04/2013] for more on Joseph Hume.

2. Selwyn Cudjoe, 'Revolution', Trinidad Express, 5 February 2011 available at Selwyn Cudjoe in Trinidad Express, [accessed 26/02/2012]. This was written as a riposte to Selwyn Ryan, 'The "Glorious Revolution" of August 1, 1838', Trinidad Express, 2 August 2010 (updated 5 February 2011)] (Selwyn Ryan in Trinidad Express) [accessed 26/02/2012].

3. Email from Caroline Ainscough, 11/04/2013. 1881 census online. National Probate Calendar 1904.

We are grateful for the assistance of Caroline Ainscough in compiling this entry.