Who was Macintosh
Thanks to enterprising researcher I. Keighren (UoL) we get a little hint of this character and his place in Grenadian history.
William Macintosh was an eighteenth-century Scottish merchant,
Caribbean plantation owner, world traveller, and controversial author of
Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa (1782).
He was a product of empire, but also sought to shape and influence
Britain’s imperial project through persuasion and publication. This blog
is a record of my efforts to recover Macintosh from the shadows and to
throw new light onto his life and work in the production of a
monograph provisionally entitled
The forgotten radical: William Macintosh and the transnational circulation of seditious print in the Age of Revolution.
Macintosh’s life was one lived through the Republic of Letters and
during the Age of Revolution. The list of those who met, read, or
corresponded with Macintosh—
Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville,
Jacques Pierre Brissot,
Edmund Burke,
Aaron Burr,
Olaudah Equiano,
Charles Fox,
Philip Francis,
Catherine Grand,
Warren Hastings,
Johann Gottfried Herder,
Thomas Jefferson,
Adam Smith,
William Pitt the Younger, and
George Washington,
among many others—signals to his significance to the intellectual and
political life of the last quarter of the eighteenth century.
Research began
at the Archives départementales de Vaucluse - home to the largest single collection of primary material
relating to William Macintosh. For reasons that still remain mysterious,
Macintosh spent most of the 1780s there in Avignon, where he traded and ran a
lodging house. Forced to leave the city during the Revolution, his
papers were seized and deposited here. These records have never
previously been referred to by any scholar working in English.
More there than expected, the information spreads across six large bundles of nearly 3,000
individual items of correspondence, memoranda, invoices, and legal
documents.
They cover part of Macintosh’s time as a planter in Grenada,
his journeys around India in the late 1770s, and his residence in
Avignon in the 1780s. Rather disappointingly, no reference
so far is made to the book he published in 1782 based upon his travels in India,
although there are preliminary notes and memoranda that eventually
found their form in the book.
One of the six bundles of Macintosh material.
Given that so little has previously been written about Macintosh,
most of what is encountered is coming as a surprise,
particularly the
extent and complexity of his business dealings in the West Indies.
Rather than simply a plantation manager, Macintosh had a number of
official positions and governmental roles in the colony, including
being
Comptroller of His Majesty’s Customs in Grenada. In addition to
his own business dealings, Macintosh served as attorney for several
friends, and executor for others, so seems continually to have been
involved in the purchase or disposal of land and assets.
There is evidence to suggest that, at certain times, Macintosh and
his family (wife, son, and daughter) were together in Grenada, but it is
clear that for the most part they were separated. One long and rather
touching letter sent from Macintosh to his son, then aged 11, shows
that, for Macintosh, parenting was something done at a distance, and
most often by the written word. Although correspondence exits between
Macintosh and his son and daughter, there seems to be nothing to or from
Mrs Macintosh (although invoices for her domestic purchases, as well as
clothing and jewellery attest to her existence).
Macintosh's commonplace book for 1778.
Macintosh was an ideas man, and had strong opinions about (as well as
proposed solutions to) the various political problems of the late
eighteenth century. Many of these took first written form in Macintosh’s
letters and his commonplace book. The one for 1778 outlines various
schemes, including a “
Plan for preserving the health & lives, &
for the better regulation of British seamen; for defending and securing
the British commerce, and for manning the Royal Navy” and one (which has
a clear contemporary relevance) for “
reducing the national debt,
without increasing taxes, & without exposing Government to any fixed
or temporary inconveniences”.
Given the unexpected size of the collection, work is
really only one of surveying and cataloguing, and the targeted
transcription of key texts. There is much to be examined in detail at a
later time. It seems clear, though, that
Macintosh’s politics were
shaped in the West Indies and particularly by what he
saw as the
corruption and mismanagement of British colonies there. Aside from the
big questions of politics and economics, there are plenty of quotidian
snippets in the archive too. One particular favourite is a long series
of correspondence, culminating in legal proceedings, concerning a
dispute between Macintosh and his French builder who, it seems, was a
cowboy. Rogue traders were as much a feature of eighteenth-century life
as they are today.
A family rift
Jean-Frédéric Perregaux (1744–1808), Macintosh’s “old friend”, trustee, and attorney
In November 1791,
The Gentleman’s Magazine recorded the
recent marriage at Ostend of William Macintosh’s daughter, Maria (or
Mary), to Alexander Augustus, “the Chevalier le Sieur de Colleville, son
to the present Marchioness de Colleville, of Normandy, a French officer
in the infantry”.
Maria, who had been born in Grenada in 1770, was then
aged 21. The marriage was a fruitful (and, initially, happy) one. The
couple had four children.
In his 1807 will, Macintosh appointed Alexander trustee and attorney
together with the Swiss banker, and “old friend”, Jean-Frédéric
Perregaux (1744–1808). The trust Macintosh placed in his son in law was,
however, misplaced. In 1810 (or possibly 1816) Macintosh was forced to
supply a codicil to his will, “revoking and annulling” Alexander’s claim
and role. Alexander, it seems, had “abandoned his wife and family and
Country in a manner highly disreputable and offensive without having had
the least provocation”. With four children to raise alone, Macintosh
appointed his daughter “sole heiress of all and whatsoever I may die
possessed of in the first place for her own subsistence and the
maintenance and education of her four Children”. Macintosh’s will and
codicil were proved at London on 13 April 1816. Maria died in 1853.
Taking account
David Lambert‘s new monograph
Mastering the Niger,
which was published late last year by the University of Chicago Press, concerns a number of themes, including the production of
geographical knowledge, the role of observation and testimony in the
making of geographical fact, and the production and evaluation of
credibility. His biographical focus is on the Scots Caribbean planter
turned Glasgow merchant and businessman, James MacQueen (1778–1870).
Although Macintosh was born a generation earlier than MacQueen, there
are a number of interesting parallels between their lives. Both were
part of the wave of Scots who took the opportunities afforded by the Act
of Union in 1707 to forge their careers in the British Empire;
both
were planters in Grenada; both had important dealings with Sir William
Pulteney (1729–1805); both were skilled and enthusiastic proponents of
double-entry bookkeeping. In Macintosh’s case, he had had, from the age
of 18, “
the highest charge of money, papers, & books of accounts”.
In
Mastering the Niger, David offers a fascinating
discussion about the parallels between double-entry bookkeeping and
processes of geographical inscription and abstraction (see Chapter 3)
and between the notion of “balance” and MacQueen’s own ideas about the
nature and direction of the British imperial project. The analogy is an
exciting and interesting one, not least because it so well captures
William Macintosh’s own practices and perspectives in relation to these
matters.
Macintosh was a thorough and committed record keeper (particularly so
in relation to financial matters). This concern was not limited to his
personal finances, but to those of
Grenada, India, and the British
Empire more widely. The day-to-day practices of taking account were so
significant to Macintosh that he prescribed them in a letter to his son,
in which he laid out what he considered the indispensable skills for
his son’s life: “
I would wish you to know…[a]ll the common rules of
arithmetic. Book-keeping as practiced by merchants, with double entry.
The principles of mathematics. Geography. A just idea of astronomy. The
principles of laws. And ancient and modern histories. Indeed, a man of
business, cannot be competent without them”.
Macintosh’s commitment to accounting means that we have a reasonably
good insight into his own financial standing at various points in his
life. For instance, in 1775 he applied to the Dutch bank
Hope and Company
(founded by Scots) for a loan of £20,000, and, in so doing, set out his
financial position at that point. His collateral, detailed below, was
calculated at more than £45,500, comprising plantations (or shares of
them), various mortgages and bonds, a number of slaves, his house, and
his annual salary of £300 for
his role as Comptroller of His Majesty’s
Customs for the Port of Grenville in Grenada.
Statement
of Macintosh’s collateral in 1775. Archives départementales de
Vaucluse, 2 E Titres de famille 84, “Charles Wilson / et autres de
Grenade / 1767–1776”. Macintosh to Hope and Co. 15 December 1775.
Macintosh and the Grenadian pamphlet war
Audi alteram partem (1770). From the pen of Macintosh?
A recently-published article appeared in
The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History by a graduate student (
Aaron Willis) at the University of Notre Dame called “
The standing of new subjects: Grenada and the Protestant constitution after the Treaty of Paris (1763)”.
Willis’s paper concerns the political difficulties which surrounded
the incorporation of
French Catholics into the British Empire following
the ceding of Grenada at the end of the Seven Years’ War. In broad
terms, opinion was divided among islanders as to the extent to which
political rights which applied to British Protestants should be extended
to French Catholics. These divisions resulted in political stalemate
which lasted through much of the late 1760s and early 1770s. Willis
offers a neat summary of the principal pamphlets which were issued
during this period and argued, at turns, for and against the rights of
French Catholics.
There is some evidence to suggest that one of these pamphlets—
Audi alteram partem
(1770)—which Willis describes as being “
[t]he most sustained defence of
Catholic rights” was co-authored by Macintosh. That, at least, was the
opinion of an anonymous reviewer writing in
The Political Register (May, 1770) who
noted “
It is almost needless to add, that Mr. Mackintosh [sic], Col. [James] Johnstone, and Mr. Scott are the Authors of Audi Alteram Partem…and
are the agents and abettors of the Romish party there”. Clearly it will
require some digging to determine whether or not there is any validity
in this claim, or that
Macintosh was “
known to be zealous in the cause
of the Roman Catholic French subjects at Grenada”.
When Macintosh met Equiano
Frontispiece and title page of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789).
In efforts to piece together, from secondary fragments, the
trajectory of William Macintosh’s life, one is sometimes surprised by the
strange coincidences and unexpected moments of encounter which are
revealed. One such is contained in
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789).
Equiano’s significance, as a freed slave, to the eighteenth-century abolitionist movement is
well documented,
but many are unaware that
he and Macintosh had encountered one
another in Grenada in 1771. Macintosh was, at that point, justice of the
peace for the parish of St. Andrew’s and Equiano came to him to seek
redress (unsuccessfully) over an unpaid debt. Equiano records the
incident in his autobiography thus:
In April 1771 I shipped myself as a steward with Capt.
Wm. Robertson of the ship Grenada Planter, once more to [end p. 95] try
my fortune in the West Indies; and we sailed from London for Madeira,
Barbadoes, and the Grenades. When we were at this last place, having
some goods to sell, I met once more with my former kind of West India
customers. A white man, an islander, bought some goods of me to the
amount of some pounds, and made me many fair promises as usual, but
without any intention of paying me. He had likewise bought goods from
some more of our people, whom he intended to serve in the same manner;
but he still amused us with promises. However, when our ship was loaded,
and near sailing, this honest buyer discovered no intention or sign of
paying for any thing he had bought of us; but on the contrary, when I
asked him for my money he threatened me and another black man he had
bought goods of, so that we found we were like to get more blows [end p.
96] than payment. On this we went to complain to one Mr. M’Intosh, a
justice of the peace; we told his worship of the man’s villainous
tricks, and begged that he would be kind enough to see us redressed: but
being negroes, although free, we could not get any remedy; and our ship
being then just upon the point of sailing, we knew not how to help
ourselves, though we thought it hard to lose our property in this
manner. Luckily for us however, this man was also indebted to three
white sailors, who could not get a farthing from him; they therefore
readily joined us, and we all went together in search of him. When we
found where he was, I took him out of a house and threatened him with
vengeance; on which, finding he was likely to be handled roughly, the
rogue offered each of us some small allowance, but nothing near our
demands. This [end p. 97] exasperated us much more; and some were for
cutting his ears off; but he begged hard for mercy, which was at last
granted him, after we had entirely stripped him. We then let him go, for
which he thanked us, glad to get off so easily, and ran into the
bushes, after having wished us a good voyage. We then repaired on board,
and shortly after set sail for England (vol. 2, 95–98).
It's a wondered quite how Macintosh, raised
in the bracing climate of the highlands of Scotland, adapted to life in
the tropical warmth of Grenada.
Macintosh and the Maroons
Detail of
A new plan of the island of Grenada (1780). John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Cabinet
Es780 Pi.
Whilst there is a certain liberality of sentiment in Macintosh’s
political philosophy, particularly as it concerned individual rights, it
is important not to lose sight of the fact that Macintosh was both a
slave owner and a tool of imperial control and repression in Grenada.
Although the Maroons of Grenada (i.e., those slaves who had escaped from
subjugation and who lived in isolated communities in rural areas) were
never considered by British colonial administrators to be quite the
threat that their
counterparts in Jamaica were, Grenadian Maroons became a particular source of concern during the late 1760s as their numbers increased.
The late Grenadian politician
George Brizan, in his 1984 volume
Grenada: island of conflict,
demonstrates that Macintosh had a particular role in the repression of
Grenada’s Maroons during this period. Brizan (p. 97) notes that:-
As more and more runaway slaves joined their ranks the
numbers of Maroons increased, and their sporadic acts of depredation
[i.e., cattle theft] continued. In the latter part of 1769 these were
the cause of great alarm in St. Andrew’s. By 13 December 1770, the
situation was such that [Robert] Melville
had to despatch an officer of the militia with 20 men to assist the
inhabitants of St. Andrew’s, whom the Governor instructed to form groups
and patrol the area in an attempt to suppress these “internal enemies”.
The Justice of the Peace in the St. Andrew’s area, William McIntosh [sic], featured prominently in the organisation of these activities.
Determining what, precisely, Macintosh’s role was, will require some
unpicking. Brizan’s supporting endnote for this information is
unhelpful, listing only “
Letter Book 1765-66“. The bibliography
is not any more helpful, referring only to “Letter Books; 1763-1895.
Selected Volumes: 1763-71, 1771-99, 1815-95” under the subheading
“Grenada”. In his acknowledgements, Brizan does thanks the librarian of
the Grenada Public Library, so it is the only clue that this is where the
letter books were once held.
As we are all now well aware our library (also once containing our Grenada National
Archives), had its collections badly damaged
by the 2004 hurricane "Ivan". Sadly, the letter book covering the early 1770s has not been digitised as part of the the British
Library’s Endangered Archives Programme.
Once again, William Macintosh resists straightforward investigation.
Macintosh in Caribbeana
Title page of Caribbeana, volume 1.
In 1909 a new quarterly periodical focussing on Caribbean genealogy
was launched by the wonderfully named English genealogist Vere Langford Oliver
(1861–1942). Oliver’s journal—
Caribbeana—ceased publication only ten years later in 1919 after six volumes and three supplements.
Caribbeana has been
digitised as part of the
Digital Library of the Caribbean
and is an important work of reference for scholars working on the
history of the Caribbean. Macintosh makes a few, small appearances in
the pages of
Caribbeana.
Under the heading “A List of West Indian Deeds on the Close Rolls”, volume 1 of the journal
records the following,
for example: “
George Johnston, John Rae by William Macintosh, Ann his
wife. Grenada [1764], 14-12-13”. Read out of context, and in this
abstract form, the information is not obviously revelatory. This snippet
is interesting, however, because it dates Macintosh’s acquisition of
land in Grenada and records the name of his wife (the first source seen which does so).
It is not immediately clear where these deeds are now stored. Assuming they were Public Record Office documents originally, it will
take a bit of detective work to determine how they are now classified
and where they are located on our island.
Polishchuk with former NYS Assemblywoman Adele Cohen.
