Robert Graham, the laird of Gartmore enslaved and traded in human beings. This was documented by R B C Graham in his account of his great-great grandfather’s life, Doughty Deeds […](1925); by Dr Michael Morris here; by Dr Stephen Mullen here; and by me in this 2016 blog post, among others. A map of Gartmore House and surroundings made during the time George Oglvie worked there. From 'A Book of Plans of the Estate of Gartmore, Belonging to Robert Graham Esqr. Surveyed and Planed by Charles Ross', 1781. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland. Robert Graham and his wife Anne Taylor were personal enslavers; not just on their two plantations in Jamaica, but in Scotland too. They took at least two enslaved people with them when they returned to Scotland around 1770: a man they called Martin, who was sent back to Jamaica in 1773 and a man they called Tom, who remained with the Graham family and is said to have been buried at the family lair at Gartmore House. Nothing more is known about the men, as far as I know. It is tantalising and frustrating in equal measure to think that two enslaved human beings lived their lives right here, on my doorstep, but that I’m unlikely to ever know anything about their existence. There is one person in the Graham family’s service, however, about whom we can know something: their butler, George Oglvie. George Oglvie worked as a butler for the Grahams from at least 1778 until maybe 1789. When exactly he came to Gartmore, and from where, I haven’t yet been able to discover. If he arrived from Jamaica along with the Grahams it has not been documented, to my knowledge. I know that George was most likely Black and may have worn livery; that Robert Graham bought him breeches, shoes, a horse, a silver watch and a double-barrelled gun, and maybe a Bible; and that he had access to money (NLS, Acc.11335/186). My reason for thinking he was Black is down to one single, but carefully worded, entry in the minutes of the Kirk Session of Port of Menteith Parish for January 1783. It appears that George was the father of a child born out of wedlock to a former fellow servant named Margaret McEntyre. The entry for New Year’s Day 1783 reads: Margaret McEntyre, late Servitrix in the House of Gartmore was convicted of being with Child in Fornication and gave up Gartmore’s Æthiopian for its Father; she being then suitably admonished, was desired to attend when called. (NRS CH2/1300/3) The word ‘Æthiopian’ was one of many terms frequently used by white people to refer to Black Africans, a form of stereotyping and othering. The Kirk Session clerk evidently felt it pertinent to point out that George Oglvie was a Black man and that he belonged to Gartmore, thereby singling him out as different in a way that didn’t happen with other parishioners. I have not come across any other instances in the Kirk Session records, so far, of descriptors of this kind being applied to anyone. In July of the same year George Oglvie appeared before the Kirk Elders to acknowledge the child as his own and to pay his fine. The entry reads: George Oglvie Gartmore’s Æthiopian acknowledged himself to be the Father of Margaret McEntyre’s Child whom she gave up for its Father as above exprest (NRS CH2/1300/3) Whether George Oglvie was, or had been, enslaved by Robert and Anne Graham is unclear. George’s presence is documented from around 1778 (NLS, Acc.11335/186-7), the same year that a famous ruling by the Court of Session effectively made slavery in Scotland illegal. It would have been difficult, and unlawful, after 1778 for the Grahams to keep George enslaved or in perpetual servitude. The fact he had a surname, unlike Martin and Tom, suggest that George’s individual status in society was different than theirs. So, while he may not have been enslaved, and while he did receive a salary as well as clothing and medical care, this does not mean that his relationship with the Grahams was not coercive or exploitative or that he could simply walk away if he wanted to. I don’t know what happened to Margaret McEntyre or to George or their child, except it appears she was no longer a servant at Gartmore House by the time her pregnancy was recorded at the Kirk. Did the Grahams dismiss her when they discovered she was pregnant with George’s child? It reminds me of poor Annie Thomson who was dismissed by her employer John Wedderburn (another Perthshire laird and enslaver) when she was pregnant with Joseph Knight’s child. Curiously, a few weeks later, in mid-August 1783, a little boy was baptised in Port Kirk. His entry in the Old Parish Registers reads: George natural son to George Oglvie & Christian Wright both in Gartmores Service (NRS OPR Births 388/ Port Of Menteith, p.273) Did George Oglvie father two children with different women at the same time? Or did the Kirk clerk mistakenly write down Christian Wright when he meant to write Margaret McEntyre? Or, less likely perhaps, could there have been two George Oglvies in Port Parish at the same time, and both employed by Robert Graham? I hope further searches at the National Records of Scotland and the National Library of Scotland will produce more clues.
If you happen to know anything about George Oglvie please leave a comment in the box below, thank you :-) Sources: Cunninghame Graham, R.B. 1925, Doughty deeds: an account of the life of Robert Graham of Gartmore, poet & politician, 1735-1797, W. Heinemann, Ltd, London. https://stirling.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/BIBENQ?SETLVL=&BRN=3494015 National Library of Scotland: Correspondence, notes, literary papers and other papers of the Cunninghame Graham family, mostly of Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham; and financial and administrative papers relating to Gartmore and Ardoch. Acc.11335/1-227 https://digital.nls.uk/catalogues/guide-to-manuscript-collections/inventories/acc11335.pdf National Records of Scotland: Male servant tax rolls 1777-1798 for Perthshire and Dumbartonshire https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/historical-tax-rolls/male-servant-tax-rolls-1777-1798 National Records of Scotland: Port of Menteith kirk session, Minutes (1773-1789), Accounts (1773-1800), CH2/1300/3 National Records of Scotland: 1783 OGLVIE, GEORGE (Old Parish Registers Births 388/ Port Of Menteith) Page 273 of 515 Slavery, freedom or perpetual servitude? - the Joseph Knight case https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/research/learning/slavery/slavery-freedom-or-perpetual-servitude-the-joseph-knight-case
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