John Brander
John Brander (born May 26, 1817 in Pitgaveny near Elgin , Scotland , † July 15, 1877 in Papeete , Tahiti ) was a Scottish merchant and shipowner who was particularly involved in the South Pacific .
Life
John Brander was born out of wedlock to a landowner in 1817 and grew up in Pitgaveny near Elgin in Morayshire , Scotland . As a young man, he saved his older half-brother from drowning, for which he thanked him with £ 400.
Ambitious and driven to escape the stigma of his birth, John used the money to sail to Tasmania and Tahiti . There he founded the "House of Brander", which soon developed into the largest and most successful trading house in the South Pacific . On Tahiti, the Marquesas and the Cook Islands he had coconut plantations , had coffee , cotton and oranges grown, owned a sugar refinery, operated pearl fishing and developed trade between the various islands and archipelagos of Polynesia , North and South America and Europe with his own schooner fleet .
As a large landowner , he was one of the dignitaries of the island of Tahiti. In 1856 he entered into a partnership with Alexander Salmon and married his daughter Titaua (1842-1898) from Alexander's connection with Princess Oehau (1821-1897), the adoptive sister of Queen Pomarés IV. Nine children were born to him between 1856 and 1876 from this marriage.
On Easter Island he founded a large sheep farm to produce export wool . In 1868 he entrusted the French Jean-Baptiste Dutroux-Bornier with the implementation, whose forcible expansion of the pastures severely restricted and decimated the native inhabitants of the island. After Dutrou-Bornier's killing in 1876, the land of Easter Island was awarded to John Brander and his heirs after a long legal battle in French courts. However, Brander did not live to see this because he died in Tahiti in 1877.
Brander's eldest daughter Margaret married the Hamburg merchant and imperial consul Heinrich August Schlubach in Papeete on April 18, 1872 and moved with him to Chile .
literature
- Claus Gossler: The Social and Economic Fall of the Salmon / Brander Clan of Tahiti. In: The Journal of Pacific History , Vol. 40, 2005, Issue 2, pp. 193-212.
- Jacques & Corinne Raybaud: John Brander de Tahiti. Un ecossais au paradis . Publisher C. Raybaud 2012. ISBN 2953956786
Evidence and web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ This drawing is also used for the cover by Raybaud: John Brander , 2012.
- ↑ a b life data according to Edgar Schlubach : pedigree, undated (approx. 1990), estate in the private archive Elmar Nolte, Baumerstraße 5, Erfurt. Raybaud: John Brander , 2012, give February 26, 1817 his birthday; and there is also a difference in the month for the date of death, they name June 15, 1877.
- ↑ Jean Baptiste Dutroux-Bornier - the tyrant of the Rapa-Nui
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Brander, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Scottish merchant and shipowner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 26, 1817 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pitgaveny , Elgin , Scotland |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 15, 1877 |
| Place of death | Papeete , Tahiti |