James Evan Baillie

London and Bristol merchant, slave-owner and banker (Baillie, Ames & Baillie), major recipient of slave compensation across the Caribbean. He has an entry in the ODNB as 'merchant, banker and politician' that notwithstanding its title describes his involvement in the slave-economy.

1. James Evan Baillie was the son of Evan Baillie of Dochfour (1742-June 1835) and Mary Gurley of St Vincent. He was partner in a highly successful West India merchant firm in Bristol, reportedly in premises that later housed the Old Bank, Bristol, of which Baillie also became head. Despite his extensive possessions in the Caribbean he never went abroad, but owned a large fleet of trading ships and cultivated a network of young Scots employed on his plantations. Described as "banker" by Rubinstein: "His family moved from being successful West Indies planters to bankers in Bristol." (Baillie had become a partner in the Bristol Old Bank in 1812 on the death of his eldest brother Peter). MP (Whig) for Tralee 1813-18; Bristol 1830-35. Left £120,000 - although his obituary put the figure at £500,000 - which was bequeathed to various family members. Unmarried. Brother of Hugh Duncan Baillie [q.v.].

2. Baillie was a large-scale purchaser of Scottish land. He bought several parcels of the Badenoch estate, completed in July 1834 for a total of £69,610 and containing about two-thirds of the Duke of Gordon's old Lordship of Badenoch. "The lands he purchased were not one consolidated estate but comprised separate parcels in three different but contiguous parishes – Alvie, Kingussie (he is sometimes referred to in documents as Baillie of Kingussie) and Laggan. The land included five grouse moors, several major sheep walks, a few large arable farms, numerous small-tenant farms and crofts, as well as the village of Kingussie – the only significant population and market centre in the central Highlands." Subsequent purchases were made of Glenelg, Western Highlands (£77,000) in 1837; Glenshiel (£24,500) in 1838; and Letterfinlay (£20,000) in 1851.

3. "Aside from the general fashion for wealthy businessmen and aristocrats to invest in Highland estates in this period, no specific reasons for James Evan’s purchase of the Badenoch estate are revealed in the sources. In the correspondence, however, his Badenoch agent, Capt Aeneas Macpherson of Nuide, specified the number of votes going with the land (after the widening of the franchise in the 1832 Reform Act): fifteen in Kingussie village, and in Laggan ‘10 votes as at present let, but many more could be made’ – suggesting that political influence was part of his agenda. The grouse moors also received detailed attention in the correspondence as a significant source of income – at least £500 a year on current valuation, and this was the period when grouse moors and deer forests were just beginning to rise rapidly in value in the Highlands. One of the first actions he took on his new estate was to build a shooting lodge at Glenshiero (aka Glenshirra) in Laggan within a year of the purchase."

4. Acquired Redland Court mansion and 150 acres surrounding farmland from Sir Richard Vaughan in 1829, following Vaughan's bankruptcy. Vaughan had mortgaged the estate to Elton, Baillie & Co (the Old Bank) in 1823. James Evan Baillie appears not to have lived at Redland Court, the occupant being William Edwards, a partner in the Old Bank 1816-52. James Evan Baillie left the Redland estate to his nephews Evan Baillie of Dochfour and Henry James Baillie MP of Elsenham Hall Essex, plus James Leman his attorney as trustees. The will stated that if there was not sufficient 'personal estate' to pay Evan Baillie £50k then trustees could realise assets. Accordingly, they sold Redland Court to George Oldham Edwards (son of William Edwards) and sold off 32 acres for development. Edwards paid £25,730 for about 91 acres (plus the house?). The house is now Redland High School. After G.O. Edwards' death in 1883 the house and 10 acres were sold to a developer, and the rest acquired by G.O. Edwards' son over 30 years or so.

5. Living at 1 Seamore Place, Curzon Street Mayfair both in the 1830s and at his death in 1863.

T71/885 British Guiana claim nos. 125A, 158A and 629 (Peter Hall); T71/887 British Guiana claim no. 2289 (Hampton Court); T71/879 St Kitts claim nos. 48 (Mornes Estate) and 576; T71/892 St Vincent claim nos. 491 (Caubaimarow (sp?)), 506 (Harmony Hall), 507A (Golden Vale), 538, 548 (Cane Hall Estate), 553 (Liberty Lodge) and 661 (Convent Estate); T71/880 Grenada claim nos. 312, 591 (Revolution Hall Estate), 642 (Peter's Hope), 690 (Levera) and 701 (Hermitage Estate); T71/894 Trinidad claim nos. 1416 (Washington & Wilderness) and 1641 (Camden); Morgan, Kenneth. 2016 "Baillie, James Evan (1781?–1863), merchant, banker, and politician." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 9 Jul. 2019. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-107412.

1. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? 1860- (Volumes 3 and 4, manuscripts in preparation), reference 1863/2; 1a. R. G. Thorne (ed.), The House of Commons, 1790-1820 (5 vols., London, Secker & Warburg for the History of Parliament Trust, 1986), vol. 3; Banffshire Journal and General Advertiser, 23/6/1863.

2. Quote from email from David Taylor 14/07/2020 sourced to the Bught Papers, including the correspondence between Baillie, his Badenoch agent, and his Inverness agent: NRS, GD23/6/685/1; 685/3; 685/6; 689/1. Douglas Hamilton, Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic World, 1750-1820 (2005), p. 201, which also puts Baillie's compensation at £53,964 and a further £57,042 to 2 partnerships with brother Hugh Duncan and with Hugh Duncan Baillie and 'Henry Ames', with another £25990 in Chancery cases. Note also that Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic World, 1750-1820 states Baillie bought the Glentromie estate in Badenoch in 1835 for £7,350; this purchase by Baillie was reported in the Inverness Courier 15/07/1835 but subsequently corrected the following week - 22/07/1835, "Our correspondent was misinformed as to the name of the purchaser of Glentromie, sold a short time since. The estate was bought by Mr Macpherson Grant of Ballindalloch, and not by Mr Baillie of Bristol." Price paid for the Badenoch properties by email from David Taylor 14/07/2020 sourced to: Gordon muniments covering the sale: NRS (National Records of Scotland), GD/44/27/9/113, Trustees for sale, 22 July 1834; NRS, GD44/27/9/46, Mr Paul (the Duke of Gordon’s solicitor) to JE Baillie, 25 July 1834; NRS, CR8/47, Letter book, pp 103, 109.

3. Email from David Taylor 14/07/2020 sourced to: Votes: NRS, GD23/6/685/1, Aeneas Macpherson of Nuide to J E Baillie, 27 February 1834; Grouse moors: NRS, GD23/6/689/3, Aeneas Macpherson of Nuide to James Grant of Bught, 10 February 1835; Glenshiero Lodge: New Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. 14, p. 427.

4. Email from Peter Malpass, University of the West of England, 02/01/2010 sourced from Bristol Record Office 6682/40 for Baillie's involvement, and from deeds of Redland High School for G.O. Edwards' purchase.

5. Boyles Directory, 1835, 1846; Rubinstein op. cit. reference 1863/2.

We are grateful to David Taylor and William Norton for their help compiling this entry.