William Elmslie

Awarded  a two-fifth share of the compensation for Serge Island in St Thomas-in-the-East in Jamaica (the remainder was awarded to James Elmslie, Henry Simpson Elmslie and Eliza Elmslie and her co-executors William Forbes-Stuart' and E.F. Green, all of whom q.v.) and with what appear to be co-trustees also awarded the compensation for Gray's Inn Castle in St George.

1. Son of John Elmslie senior and brother of two of his co-awardees and brother-in-law of the third (Eliza Elmslie). 'John Elmslie who is said to have come from Aberdeen, and who lived for years at 21 Berners Street, London and who owned land at Oldmeldrum, was at one time a merchant in the West Indies. He was left a valuable estate in Jamaica by his uncle John Gray, F.R.S., Lord Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen 1764-69. John Elmslie, who married his cousin, Jane Wallace, at Dumfries, September 16, 1776, had twenty-one children, and he died at 21 Berners Street in 1824 [sic]. One of his daughters, Jane, married in March 8 1806, George Gordon of the Croughly family. His grandson, William Elmslie of Lloyd's, had a daughter who married in 1873 the late Dr Barnardo, the well-known philanthropist...I am indebted for this information to Mr Augustus Elmslie, London J.M.B.'.

2. In 1835 William Elmslie is shown at 24 York Street, Portman Square. He died 16/04/1862 late of this same address. Will proven 03/07/1862 by nephews James Augustus Elmslie and Augustus Frederick Elmslie, effects under £5000.

3. He was a Director (London Board) and a principal shareholder in the ill-fated Jamaica Steam Navigation Company, 1836-38, and a brother of the company’s Secretary, Adam W. Elmslie (q.v.)

T71/867 St Thomas-in-the-East Nos. 468A-D; T71/869 St George No. 324.

1. Scottish Notes & Queries 2nd series Vol. VII July 1905 to June 1906 ed. John Bulloch (Aberdeen: the Rosemount Press, 1906): p. 100. Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online] shows John Elmslie of Berners Street aged 83 buried at Lewisham St Mary August 31 1822; the will of John Elmslie of Berners Street was proved 02/11/1822, PROB 11/1663.

2. Boyle's 1835 p. 375; Times 21/06/1862 p. 3; National Probate Calendar 1862. His executors were the sons of James Elmslie.

3. Henry Pinckard, Observations on the Management and Extraordinary Losses of the Jamaica Steam Navigation Company, London (1838).

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with compiling this entry.