Correspondence from Charles Stewart Parker to Patrick Parker 920 PAR/I/46 1789
In 1789 Charles Stewart Parker was sent to Grenada to work under George Robertson, merchant, for a trial period. A co-partnership was then formed between them and Daniel Gordon with trading interests in Grenada and Demarara. In 1792, after a dispute with Gordon, this was dissolved and a new co-partnership agreement made. Two firms were formed with a joint capital stock of £14,000: Robertson Parker & Co. in Grenada and McInroy Sandbach and Co. in Demerara. The partners were George Robertson, Charles Stewart Parker and James McInroy with equal shares each and Samuel Sandbach with a half share. Samuel Sandbach settled in Liverpool and married Elizabeth Robertson, a cousin of C. S. P.’s wife, Margaret. Subjects covered in Charles Stewart Parker’s letters include: trade with Spain, prices for cargoes of Negroes, the effect of the French wars in the West Indies, French privateering, cotton and cotton planters, the British capture of Tobago in 1793, the Martinique Expedition of 1793/94 and underwriting for ships and cargoes
In 1794 Charles returned to Scotland where he met his future wife, Margaret Rainy, daughter of the minister of Creeches, Sutherland and niece of George Robertson. They were married in 1797. After this date, when new articles of co-partnership were made between Charles Stewart Parker and George Robertson, Charles’s interest was mainly in the Demerara cotton estates of Woodlands, and L’Amitié. The latter, purchased in 1800, employed fifty Negroes and was bought with Gilbert Robertson, nephew of George who had died in about 1799. Charles was now settled in Scotland, making periodic trips to Demerara. His father, J. P., joined him in Scotland in 1799. Charles’s letters of this period describe his voyages and the cotton crops and markets. [N. B. for further, related, correspondence SEE: 920 PAR/IV]
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