William Macintosh () was a Scots Caribbean plantation owner, travel writer, political commentator and controversial author of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa (1782).[1] Macintosh was justice of the peace for the Saint Andrew Parish, Grenada; he had a particular role in the repression of Grenada’s Maroons.
Life
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From the age of 18, “the highest charge of money, papers, & books of accounts”. his role as Comptroller of His Majesty’s Customs for the Port of Grenville, Grenada. He married Ann Montague.
In 1763, William Macintosh bought two plantations from a Frenchman who wanted to leave the island after the British takeover. He bought a third plantation two years later.
To finance his plantations, Macintosh wanted to borrow a sum of £ 20,000 Sterling (ƒ 220,000) from Hope & Co. Henry Hope acted as a lender for Macintosh and granted a loan at five per cent interest per annum. The London bankers Samuel Hoare and John Harman, from the banking house Gurnell, Hoare, Harman & Co., were Hope & Co.’s administrators in London. This banking house was very familiar to Henry Hope: he had learned his banking trade there in the 1750s.
In July 1770 Fordyce collaborated with John and William Macintosh on Grenada and borrowed 240,000 guilders in bearer bonds from Hope & Co. Also Sir William Pulteney, Samuel Hannay, Samuel Hoare (1716–1796) and John Harman were involved.[2][3]
One of Macintosh’s guarantors was William Pulteney, one of the richest men in Great Britain, owner of several Caribbean plantations, and member of the British Parliament. Hope & Co set up a negotiation loan, which issued 220 bonds of ƒ 1,000.
In 1770, William Macintosh mortgaged his estates and enslaved people on Grenada to Henry Hope of Amsterdam to raise £20,000 or 220,000 guilders. Samuel Hoare, John Harman, Jeremiah Harman and Alexander Fordyce were later added, possibly as trustees, while Pulteney, John Macintosh and Samuel Hannay stood as sureties or guarantors on the debt to Henry Hope.
His journeys around India in the late 1770s, and his residence in Avignon in the 1780s.
In 1795, the private library of William Macintosh was seized from his home in Avignon by the revolutionary authorities.
