The Great Affair is to Move: Travel and Topography at the Signet Library

The WS Society Annual exhibition 2021

exhibition home

Room 5: A Glasgow Grocer goes West: Robert McNair and the Sugar Trade, 1750-1773

shipping, insurance, sugar and slavery

Welcome attention has been paid in recent years to the impact on people and society in the West Indies of the activities of Scottish traders in the Georgian and early Victorian periods. That the enormous wealth that was gained from the cane sugar plantations in the islands did much to build modern Scotland is no longer in doubt, and this issue is now taking centre stage in modern historiography around the period. This is travel in one of its controversial forms, and we visit one instance of it here through the medium of the Signet Library’s world class collection of Georgian court papers, the Session Papers collection. The papers excerpted from here tell the story of a Glasgow grocer and trader Robert McNair and his son as they attempt to defend their good names against accusations of insurance fraud surrounding their ship, the Jean, which was trading between Glasgow and the West Indies and which they were believed to have wilfully destroyed in the seas off Bermuda in the summer of 1750.

Memorial for James Graham of Dougaldston, James Coulter, James Spreul, Archibald Ingram, James Johnson, John Cross, George Buchanan Junior, and George Bogle Junior, all merchants in Glasgow, insurers of the Ship Jean and her cargo, suspenders; against Robert M’Nair charger (6 January 1755). Signet Library Session Papers 582:20

Alexander Lockhart (1700-1782): Advocate

This session paper is one of many from a long-running legal dispute. Robert M’Nair had taken insurance of £1000 for his son’s ship, the Jean, for a trading voyage from Virginia to Barbados. James M’Nair wrote to his father on 27 June 1750 requesting that he acquire additional insurance saying

‘there is an Island called Bermudas, that lyes betwixt Virginia and Barbadoes, that I am very much afraid of; and that there is strange Notions runs into my Head, that I will meet with some Accident about it’ (p. 9).

On the night between 2 and 3 July 1750, Jean was shipwrecked on the rocks of Bermuda. James later admitted that he had in fact written to his father after the wreck. But legal questions remained. Had James gone off course deliberately? Had he intended to change his destination from Barbardos to Bermuda? Had he wilfully shipwrecked the Jean to defraud the insurers? Whose name or names was the policy taken out in? What was the true value of the ship and its cargo?

The Admiralty Court cleared James M’Nair of wilful destruction of the ship, but the other questions remained matters of debate for two decades until a House of Lords decision in 1773 finally resolved the issue.

Chart referred to in the Petition 12th November 1765 [The petition of John Grahame of Dougaldston, James Coulter, James Spreul, Archibald Ingram, John Cross, George Bogle, and the representatives of George Buchanan junior, all merchants in Glasgow, insurers of the ship Jean, and her cargo, suspenders (12 November 1765)] for expressing the Situation of the Ship Jean with respect to the Island of Bermudas on the 2d of July at noon 1750

Robert Cullen (1742-1810), Advocate

As the case continued, both parties turned to scientific evidence and expert witnesses. This chart attempts to show that M’Nair’s course was deliberate and that he aimed for Bermuda rather than Barbados. This would invalidate the insurance policy.

In sailing to it [Barbados] from Virginia, it is absolutely necessary for the ship at A, or a, to advance so far eastward as the line F G, and in prudence a great deal further, to make sure of hitting their port. It is necessary also, that a ship from Virginia take this course to the east, before they advance so far or further south than the positions A or a; because when advanced but a little farther south, viz. to latitude 30, they necessarily meet with the trade-winds, blowing invariably from the east, which would make it very difficult, almost impossible for them to get to Barbadoes [sic], or to the eastward of it; but getting to the eastward of it...is the only sure means of hitting that island. If therefore, the intention of the persons, who conducted the ship Jean in the position A, was really for Barbadoes, their proper course was due east, as in the line A E. (pp. 20-21)

The bermuda triangle?

Map, 1760s. Bound with Session Papers relating to M’Nair v Coulter

A key issue in the case was the experience of James M’Nair as supercargo of the Jean. The area surrounding Bermuda was a known danger point among sea-farers and was best avoided. However, trade winds and currents meant that travel to the West Indies from the east coast of Virginia was accomplished by travelling east past Bermuda before veering south. M’Nair had successfully undertaken the voyage more than once before having his ‘visionary dream’ of meeting an accident at Bermuda.

Chart IVth, M’Nair v Coulter

Signet Library Collections, Session Papers F12;1

This chart is part of the collected evidence from cases presented at the Admiralty Court and the Court of Session. The evidence includes witness statements, letters, and James M’Nair’s log. Thomas Craig’s journal of the voyage did not agree with M’Nair’s. The chart originally compiled by ship-masters agreed by both parties was challenged despite the ship-masters swearing on oath to its accuracy based on the journals since the location of Bermuda itself was debatable. This final version of the chart includes the variant courses from the two journals and the differing locations of Bermuda taken from The Mariner’s New Kalendar and The Mariner’s Compass.

House of Lords Appeal Papers M’Nair v Coulter (1773)

Signet Library Collections, Session Papers F28;11

After two decades of legal processes, Robert M’Nair and the insurers of the ship Jean finally concluded their case at the House of Lords. The hundreds of pages of proceedings from the previous two decades were compressed onto less than twenty.

The House of Lords found for M’Nair with the insurers to pay the full £1000 of the policy as well as interest and expenses.

“an eccentric character of old glasgow”

Glasgow Past and Present (Glasgow: David Paterson and Co., 1884)

Senex [Robert Reid] (1773–1865)

Robert M’Nair is commemorated as an eccentric character of old Glasgow in this historical collection. He was a grocer by trade with a notable shop which he ran with his wife, Jean Holmes, as a firm. His expansion into the sugar trade went beyond commissioning his son to trade in the West Indies and he and his wife bought the Eastern Sugar House in Glasgow. The previous owners included John Graham of Dougalston and George Bogle, two of his opponents in the ship Jean case.

Robert and Jean took out a newspaper advertisement in 1758 warning their daughters and any suitors that the girls would be ‘banished’ from the family if they married without the permission of the parents. This was after their daughter Jean had married without permission.

The Glasgow Courant regularly carried advertisements from M’Nair. His son James continued to ship goods for the shop. An advertisement from February 1753 reports the arrival of the Batchelor of Irvine with James as supercargo for a shipment from Spain of lemons and oranges. The same advertisement offers a postscript:

As some designing folks have been pleased to raise a malicious report, in order to hurt my business, this is to acquaint the public that the same is entirely without foundation, and hopes they will lose their design, who were most busy in promoting it.