Richard Alexander Oswald

Awarded half the compensation for Pemberton Valley estate and Boscabelle Pen both in St Mary Jamaica with his wife, Lady Lilias née Montgomerie, daughter of the 12th Earl of Eglington and Eleanora Hamilton. The other half was awarded to her sister and her husband.

1. MP for Ayrshire, 1832-1835, son of the Glasgow tobacco merchant George Oswald of Scotstoun and great-nephew of slave-trader and plantation owner in the North American colonies Richard Oswald (see Citizens of the World, reference below) from whom he inherited Auchincruive house, Ayrshire. Married first in 1793 Louisa Johnston of Hilton, with whom he had a daughter Margaret Hester Oswald. Louisa died 1797. Margaret Hester married Thomas Spencer Lindsay. In 1817 Richard Alexander Oswald married secondly Lady Lilias Montgomerie, daughter of Lord Ardrossan, 12th Earl of Eglington and widow of Robert Dundas MacQueen. Died Vevay 1841. Will of Richard Alexander Oswald of Brighton Sussex proved 13/12/1841.

   Richard, son from his first marriage, married in 1833 Lady Mary Kennedy daughter of Archibald Kennedy 1st Marquess of Ailsa & 12th Earl of Cassilis at Culzean Castle. Richard Jnr died in 1834.

2. Oswald's great uncle, Richard Oswald (1705-1784) was also advisor to the British government on trade regulations and the conduct of the American War of Independence and was a British peace commissioner who negotiated the Peace of Paris in 1782. His wife, Mary Oswald was the daughter of Alexander Ramsay, and grew up in Jamaica. On her father's death she inherited his substantial estate and business. She returned to Britain with her mother, leaving the business in the hands of trustees. She died in 1788. She is the subject of a portrait by Johann Zoffany, 'Mrs Oswald' (1763-64) which is in the National Gallery.

T71/856 St Mary no. 267 & 269.

1. John Guthrie Smith and John Oswald Mitchell, The old country houses of the old Glasgow gentry (2nd edn., Glasgow, James MacLehose & Sons, 1878), LXXXVII Scotstoun; PROB 11/1955; James Paterson, History of the County of Ayr: With a Genealogical Account of the Families of Ayrshire (Edinburgh, 1852): available online at archive.org: https://archive.org/details/historyofcountyo01pateuoft; 'Death Announcement Margaret Hester Lindsey nee Oswald',The Times , 22/11/1855, p. 1; The Edinburgh Annual Register (1818), p. 381.

   David Hancock, Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735-1785 (Cambridge, 1997).

2. There is extensive reference to Richard Oswald in Hancock, Citizens of the World. The Wikipedia entry for Richard Oswald (1705-1784) is brief but quite well informed; for the portrait of Mary Oswald see Zoffany, portrait of Mary Oswald.

We are grateful to Ann Bell for her help compiling this entry.