Duncan Campbell (Entrepreneur)

Duncan Campbell (* 1726 ; † 1803 ) was a successful and influential trader in the West India business , shipowner and plantation owner in Jamaica and played a key role in the evacuation of British prisoners to Australia .

Life

Between 1749 and 1757 Campbell drove independently in the West India trade, where he met Rebecca in Jamaica , whom he married in 1753. She was the later heiress of the Saltspring plantation in Hanover Parish (Jamaica).

In 1758 he was appointed to Trinity House , London and expanded his business to Virginia and the rest of the British colonies in North America. In the same year he became a junior partner of a John Steward .

John Stewart & Campbell secured a contract with the government to transport 500 prisoners a year to Virginia and Maryland . In 1772 Campbell took over the management of the transports and was meanwhile also a tobacco wholesaler until the outbreak of the War of Independence in 1775 made this lucrative business impossible.

As prisoners could no longer be shipped to America, Campbell held them in London on decommissioned ships on the Thames , which soon became offensive as it was viewed as a threat to public order and security. At Campbell's instigation, the prisoners were later distributed to ships of the First Fleet , which left Portsmouth for Botany Bay on May 13, 1787. Campbell was also responsible for loading the second and third prisoner transports, 1789 and 1791.

As chairman of a lobby seeking compensation for pre-Revolution American debts, Campbell met with Thomas Jefferson in April 1787 to negotiate an amount of £ 2.5 million.

Also in 1787 he was in close contact with Arthur Phillip , the founder and first governor of New South Wales .

With William Bligh , the commander of the Bounty, Campbell was kinship connected: Elizabeth Bligh, born Betham was Campbell's niece, and Bligh was in command of some of his ships in the West Indies tour. The future leader of the mutiny on the Bounty, Fletcher Christian , was also acquainted with Campbell and had already served him, and on two voyages even under Bligh.

Finally: According to individual sources, the Bounty (ex Bethia ) is said to have been a former Campbell's ship, which was named after Betham and which he then sold to the Crown.

literature

• Dan Byrnes: The Duncan Campbell Letterbooks . In: Ders .: The Blackheath Connection . Self-published, Tarnworth, NSW 1990, ISBN 0-646093-84-3 (reprinted from The Push. A journal of early Australian social history , No. 28, 1990, pp. 51-98).
• The Letterbooks and Papers of Duncan Campbell (1726–1803) Mitchell Library / State Library of New South Wales