William Collow

Slave-trader and London merchant. He was dead by 30/10/1824 when the administration of the will of his brother John Collow was granted to their sister Lydia Collow otherwise Campbell. No will has yet been found for him.

1. William and John Collow were slave-traders out of Le Havre, with 9 voyages to St Domingue and Tobago 1787-1793; William Collow was also in some 18 voyages out of London between 1790 and 1796, mostly to St Vincent but with some elsewhere in the Caribbean, including Tobago. These were almost certainly brothers of Thomas Collow, sons of the Rev. John Collow of the Church of Scotland, Minister of Penpont. Literature in French identifies Thomas Collow as central to the slave-trading of the firm of Collow and Carmichael out of Le Havre: it is not clear why Thomas Collow's name does not appear in the Trans-atlantic Slave-Trade Database. The death on Tobago of James Collow, identified as the son of the late Rev. John Collow of Penpont, was reported in March 1796.

2. In 1773, 'Cheap, Callow [sic] and Paul' were show as the Present Proprietors of Northeast division (St John parish) Lot no. 33 (200 acres) originally purchased by William Young 05/06/1770 and which became part of the linked estates of Telescope and Observatory. This probably referred to William Collow, known to have been a partner with Thomas Cheap (q.v.) in 1782; 'Paul' was possibly Robert Paul (q.v.).

3. He was probably the William Collow who was partner in the Irish provision merchant at Cork, trading under Fergusson and Collow until 1793.

An entry in the Dumfries Weekly Journal 11/02/1823 showed the death at Havre 23rd January of William Collow of Stapleton.

1. http://www.slavevoyages.org.uk [accessed 09/12/2013]; Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: the Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation (1915-), (9 volumes. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1915-), FHL book 941 D3s; FHL microfiche 6026402., vol. 2 p. 323; e.g. E. Saunier, 'Le Havre port negrier', Cahiers Anneaux de la Memoire no. 11 (2007); Philippe Dupre, 'Les activites maritimes en Normandie a la veille de la Revolution', Cahiers des Annales de Normandie 1982 Vol. 24 pp. 225-41; Scots Magazine Vol. 58 (1796) p. 218.

2. John Fowler, A summary account of the present flourishing state of the respectable colony of Tobago in the British West Indies illustrated with a map of the island and a plan of its settlement, agreeably to the sales by his Majesty’s Commissioners (London: A Grant, 1774) pp. 48-49; Woodcock's transcription shows St John Lot No. 33 as a precursor to Observatory, 'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971).

3. London Gazette 13545 9 July 1793 p. 585.