William Wemyss Anderson

Resident lawyer in Kingston Jamaica, having previously practised in Edinburgh. He appears to have moved to Jamaica at some time between 1831 and 1835, and become a partner in Whitehorne and Forsyth of Kingston. Buried in Kingston, Jamaica; his tombstone gives his dates of birth as 07/12/1802 and death as 05/07/1877.

Father of Izett William Anderson, born in Jamaica c. 1838 (Izett was William Wemyss Anderson's mother's maiden name). Izett graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh and practised largely in Jamaica and London, dying in London in 1918. Izett and his wife Helena Jane nee Hosack had a son William Wemyss Anderson born in Kingston in 1873 and baptised in the same place in 1874.

Edinburgh Gazette 3985 02/08/1831 p. 204 shows Wm Wemyss Anderson witnessing the dissolution of a partnership in March 1831. Lanark MLN Testaments shows William Wemyss Anderson 'Solicitor before the Supreme Courts of Sc[o]t[land] sometime res. Edin & now solicitor at Kingston Jamaica' in relation to a death on 08/01/1835.

Mitchell's West Indian Bibliography shows John Radcliffe, A sermon on the death of W. Wemyss Anderson, delivered July 21 1877 in the Scotch Kirk Kingston Jamaica. Although this might refer to the William Wemyss Anderson aged 6 who was living with his aunt in Edinburgh at the time of the 1841 census, there is a death notice in the Jamaica Witness of 03/03/1877 for William Wemyss Anderson the awardee, which puts his arrival in Jamaica as 1833 [accessed through http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/witness2.htm [accessed 09/12/2014].

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/133493124# [accessed 21/11/2017].

Ancestry.com, UK & Ireland, Medical Directories, 1845-1942 [database online]; National Probate Calendar 1919; Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

We are grateful to Jim Brennan and Robert Lancashire for their help with this entry.