John Whyte Melville

Awarded the compensation for the enslaved people on Melville Hall in Domnica.

1. Born 21/06/1797 at Bennoch[r]y, Fife. Married Lady Catherine Anne Sarah Osborne, daughter of Francis Godolphin Osborne, 5th Duke of Leeds and Catherine Anguish, on 01/06/1819 at Straithkineses, Fife. According to a newspaper report of the time, "The interesting and lovely bride was the favourite companion and friend of our ever-to-be-lamented Princess Charlotte of Wales."

2. Reported to have succeeded to the estates of 'his uncle' (in fact, his father's cousin) General Robert Melville, a soldier and colonial administrator, in 1809: "Soon after the Peace of 1763, [General Melville] had the pleasing task assigned to him of surveying, plotting and settling the Island of Tobago, now a most fertile, healthy and productive colony."

3. Leading member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St Andrews; a portrait of him is kept in their Art Gallery. A sketch of John Whyte Melville is owned by the University of St Andrews. Prominent Freemason, Grand Master for Scotland, 1864-66. According to his obituary in the Morning Post, "in politics, Mr. Whyte-Melville was Conservative."

4. Adm. pens. at TRINITY, Apr. 22, 1814. [Youngest s. of John Whyte, of Bennochry, Fifeshire. B. June 21, 1797.] Matric. Michs. 1814. Cornet, 9th Lancers, 1817; placed on half-pay, 1819. Joint Master of the Fife Foxhounds, 1827; Master, 1838-48. A golf player for 67 years; Captain of St Andrews Club, 1823. Died July 16, 1883, at Mount Melville, near St Andrews. Brother of Robert W. (1811). (Boase, II. 841.).

5. In the absence of male issue of John Whyte Melville, the Strathkinness estate passed in 1883 to James Mackintosh Balfour, grandson of John Whyte Melville's aunt Jean Whyte, who had married James Balfour of Pilrig in 1773.

T71/881 Dominica claim no. 151 (Melville Hall).

1. http://thepeerage.com/p9461.htm.

2. Morning Chronicle, September 6, 1809; Issue 12581; York Herald, and General Advertiser, 05/06/1819 issue 1501.

3. http://www.theroyalandancientgolfclub.org/index.cfm?cfid=20621935&cftoken=62831468&action=heritage.artgallery.gallery&id=2 [accessed 10/10/2011]; http://special.st-andrews.ac.uk/saspecial/index.php?a=indexes&s=item&key=IYToxOntpOjA7czo3OiJhbGNvaG9sIjt9&pg=1 [accessed 10/10/2011]; Morning Post, 17/07/1883, p. 5, Issue 34652.

4. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900, [database online].

5. A biographical sketch of General Robert Melville of Strathkinness, written by his Secretary, with notes by Evan. W. M. Balfour-Melville, B.A. http://www.electricscotland.com/history/scotreg/general_melville.pdf accessed 26/11/2013.