Robert Milligan

Scottish merchant, slave-factor in Jamaica and on his return to Britain, the driving force behind the construction of London's West India Docks. Deputy Chairman of the West India Dock Company. A statue of him stood in front of the Museum of London Docklands until its removal in 2020. He has an entry in the ODNB as 'merchant, slave-owner and dock promoter.'

1. According to his ODNB entry he was born in Dumfries, and baptised there 31/08/1746, although a tension exists between his description as the son of James Milligan, an innkeeper, and the assertion in several secondary sources that 'he grew up on his family's plantations in Jamaica.' In Jamaica c. 1768 to 1779. He was probably the father, by Mary Slaughter, a "free mulatto woman", of James (born 11/06/1778 and baptised in Kingston 04/12/1778) and Clayton Slaughter (born 24/06/1779 and baptised in Kingston 18/04/1783). His partnership with James Dick of Kingston in Jamaica was dissolved 01/07/1799. Married Jean Dunbar, the daughter of William Dunbar of Forres and Jean nee Davidson, in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, England, 13/10/1781. Living in John Street, Camden, for the baptisms of his children Justina (1786), Robert (1787), David (1789) and Mary (1792).

2. Recorded in the 1811 almanacs with 526 enslaved people on Kellet's and Mammee Gully Pen in Clarendon, Jamaica registered against his name. These listings were based on the givings-in (tax returns) of the March Quarter 1809, just before Milligan's death. The precise nature of his association with these estates, or with Golden Vale (which was registered by John Milligan, attorney of Mitchell & Milligan, in 1807) has not yet been traced: his will is silent on them.

3. After his death, the West India Dock Committee acknowledged the contribution made by Milligan, 'by whose intelligent mind the original plan of this great and useful establishment was designed and to whose admirable perseverance and indefatigable exertions . . . it is principally indebted for the legislative sanction for the arrangement of its business, and for its present prosperity.'

4. Will of Robert Milligan merchant of [the City of] London [made 30/07/1806] proved 06/06/1809. He left £1000 to his wife Jean, and the remainder of his personal and real property in trust (his trustees were David Lyon, Henry Davidson, Thomas Milligan and Joseph Kaye) to be sold to raise sufficient investment in government stock to pay his widow £1000 p.a. (and £500 p.a. should she remarry). His residuary heirs were his 8 children; he proved that no more than £300 p.a. should be spent for the maintenance of his eldest son and £200 p.a. for each other child, and no more than £2000 spent to place the eldest son in a profession or £1000 for each other son. He was, he said continuing his trade or business on his own behalf and that of the estate of David Mitchell his late partner. In a codicil of 1808 he clarified that this wife should have Rosslyn House, Hampstead; and his unmarried daughters his 'Cotswould House' in Gloucestershire.

5. His third son, Henry Davidson Milligan, of Wimpole Street, London, married Georgiana Mathilda, third daughter of Sir Walter Stirling, Bart., MP for St Ives, in London 03/08/1816. Henry Davidson Milligan Esquire "of the house of Messrs. Milligan, Robertson, and Co. of London" died on board the ship Medina on his passage to Jamaica where he was travelling "for the benefit of his health".

Katie Donington "Milligan, Robert (1746–1809), merchant, slave owner, and dock promoter." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 29 Nov. 2017. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-109520.

1. GROS OPR Births 821 020 0155; Park, John James, The topography and natural history of Hampstead (London, 1814) pp. 321-322; Familysearch.org, Jamaican parish registers, Kingston Baptisms 1793-1825 pp. 276 and 323; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 03/07/1799; Familysearch.org batch no. M01477-5; Edward Walford, 'Hampstead: Rosslyn Hill', in Old and New London Vol. 5 (London, 1878), pp. 483-494, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol5/pp483-494 [accessed 29/2/2016]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online].

2. Jamaica Almanac (1811); will of Robert Milligan, merchant of London, proved 06/06/1809, PROB 11/1499/49.

3. 'The West India Docks: Historical development', Survey of London Vols. 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994), pp. 248-268, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp248-268 [accessed 23/02/2016].

4. PROB 11/1499/49.

5. Bell's Weekly Messenger 04/08/1816; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 15/11/1817.

We are grateful to Jim Brennan and Paul Hitchings for their assistance with compiling this entry.