1804 map of Parker's Bay, Westmoreland, Jamaica, showing John Wedderburn's land on the left.
John Wedderburn, Born 1729
Sir John Wedderburn of Ballindean, 6th Baronet of Blackness (1729–1803) was a Scottish landowner who made a fortune in slave sugar in the West Indies. Born into a family of impoverished Perthshire gentry, his father Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness, was executed for treason following the Jacobite uprising of 1745. The young John Wedderburn (who had fought alongside his father at the battle of Culloden, aged 16) was forced to flee to the West Indies. He eventually became the largest landowner in Jamaica, making his money in slave sugar. In 1769 he returned to Scotland with a slave, Joseph Knight, who was inspired by Somersett's Case, a judgement in London determining that slavery did not exist under English law. Wedderburn was sued by Knight in a freedom suit, and lost his case, establishing the principle that Scots law would not uphold the institution of slavery either. Wedderburn ended his days as a wealthy country gentleman, having restored his family fortune and recovered the title Baronet of Blackness.
Click below to view his life story:
Editor’s note: One option is to present the Lives Retold collection as a celebration of all the lives included. In which case John Wedderburn, as a slave owner, should be excluded. Another option is to make clear that the inclusion of a life in Lives Retold is not judgmental, and is not necessarily a celebration of that life. I have decided, in a spirit of transparency, to adopt the latter approach. It seems to me that if there are shameful aspects of family members, or of the society in which they lived, it is on balance better that these are exposed for all to see rather than being hidden from view. Alex Reid, 10.2.2021.