James Baillie of Bedford Square

James Baillie of Bedford Square (not to be confused with James Baillie MP of Bedford Square and Ealing Grove, q.v.), London merchant, partner with Edmund Thornton and Duncan Campbell, and the addressee of one of the Interesting Letters of George Baillie (q.v.), owner of Hope, Golden Grove and Nonpareil in British Guiana. which he bequeathed to his son David Baillie (q.v.).

1. The will of James Baillie of Bedford Square proved 23/01/1828 rehearses his settlement of £30,000 on his only daughter Ann Baillie on her intermarriage with John Maberly dated 11/03/1813. Among other monetary legacies, he left £1000 to Jane Thornton (q.v.) the wife of his 'late old friend and partner Edmund Thornton'; an annuity of £100 to Miss Eliza Young 'the daughter of my late wife'; an annuity of £50 to Miss Mary Baillie of Trinidad; £1000 and an annuity of £500 to Miss Judith Baillie 'late of the Island Carriacou but now residing at my house in Bedford Square'; £500 each to his godsons William Thornton, son of Edmund Thornton and Duncan Campbell the younger son of his 'late friend and partner' Duncan Campbell. To his son David Baillie (q.v.) he left his estates called Hope, Golden Grove and Nonpareil in British Guiana and his unnamed estates in Grenada and Tobago, together with the enslaved people on them. The will was made 04/05/1825 and was then subject to a series of codicils dealing with e.g.: Mary Baillie's annuity, which identifies her as the natural daughter of James' late brother residing in Edinburgh; the death of Duncan Campbell the godson; and an increase in Judith Baillie's legacy which acknowledges her as his daughter. The latest is dated 14/10/1826, when James Baillie signed by mark. No record has been found for his death other than the reference in Burke's below.

2. Although Rubinstein gives him as the possible illegitimate son of Alexander Baillie (d. 1798) of Dochfour, and his date of birth as 1771, Burke's shows him as born 1744 the son of David Baillie, himself the fourth son of (presumably an earlier) Alexander Baillie of Dochfour and brother of Hugh Baillie of Dochfour. Burke's gives James Baillie's wife as Catherine Gordon (m. 1784) and their children correctly as Ann and David, and his death date as 1828. It is possible he died at any time between 14/10/1826 and January 1828.

1. PROB 11/1735/324.

2. W.D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical director of British wealth-holders Vol. One 1830-1839 (London: Social Affairs Unit, 2009), 1828/29; Ancestry.com, Burke's Family Records (Indexed) p. 31 [database online].