Hugh Macleod

Owner of Doornhag and Waterloo estates in Demerara and possibly also the owner later of enslaved people in Surinam.

1. Either the Hugh McLeod of Demerara whose will was proved 18/07/1842 and who had died in 1839, or the Hugh McLeod who moved from Demerara to Suriname in 1836 with his business partner and nephew Hugh Wright (q.v., under Hugh Wright of Surinam), and died there in 1843.

2. The will of Hugh McLeod of Demerara (d. 1839) identifies him as born Tain Rosshire and names his sister Margaret McLeod, niece Jemima Ross and children Joseph, Mary, Margaret and Isabella as heirs with equal shares in his personal and real estate. It is a very simple and short will if his estate included two estates in Demerara.

3. The second Hugh McLeod (d. 1843) had a daughter Frances, born in Demerara c. 1823, who married her first cousin (and her father's former business partner) Hugh Wright in Edinburgh, 29/08/1847. Frances and Hugh Wright had 3 children, although Hugh lived mostly in Suriname and visited Frances in Edinburgh occasionally. Frances had an unusual degree of control over her own finances and had been left £3000 by her father which was taken to have been gifted back to her by her husband after their marriage. Hugh Wright also had a family in Suriname with a female slave, Carolina Josephina Uchlein; and some of these children travelled to Scotland to live with Frances.

1. For further biographical details of Hugh McLeod see http://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=485286 [accessed 24/06/2013].

2. PROB 11/1965/360.

3. http://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=485286; http://www.kdvarchitects.com/smartcms/downloads/Alliance%20geschiedenis.pdf [both accessed 24/06/2013].

We are grateful to David Alston for his assistance in compiling this entry.