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The Cort-Gladstone connection

 

Sources

 

Much of this material is covered in Checkland, The Gladstones: a family biography, 1764-1851 and his monograph "John Gladstone as trader and planter" in The Economic History Review, Vol. 7 No. 2 (1954), pp216-229.

 

Most of Checkland's sources can be found in the Gwynne-Gladstone (GG) collection at St Deiniol Library, Hawarden (available to library non-members via Flintshire Record Office if requested in advance).  There is also John Gladstone's letterbook 1823-1826 (920 MD 140) at Liverpool Record Office, and his son Robertson's Journal of a Voyage & Residence in the Colony of Demerara (commencing 12th October 1828) in the library of Liverpool Athenaeum (requires advance booking).

 

 

Sir John Gladstone

 

William Gladstone, one of the most prominent British politicians of the nineteenth century, is the youngest of four sons.  Their father, Sir John Gladstone, is a Liverpool merchant with worldwide interests, including a portfolio of plantations in Demerara, which he never visits.

 

By 1815.. the full potential of the plantations became apparent.  The price of a slave in Demerara was, because of his productivity, very much greater than elsewhere.

  From S.G. Checkland, The Gladstones: A Family Biography 1764-1851 (Cambridge 1971).

At the height of his career in the West Indies he owned in Demerara the estates Success, Wales, Waller's Delight, Covenden, Hampton Court, Vredenhoop and Vreedestein.

  From S.G. Checkland, 'John Gladstone as Trader and Planter', Economic History Review, Vol 7 Part 2 (1954) p226.

 

Wilson-Gladstone contacts

 

The earliest Cort-Gladstone contact registered so far is a letter to Sir John from John Wilson in Demerara, dated 21 April 1812 - some two months before Gladstone's first investment there, a half-share in Plantation Success.  There seems no doubt that this is the same John Wilson who is married to Cort's daughter Charlotte: their presence in Demerara in 1811 is shown by documents relating to the sale of the Corts' Hertfordshire property.

 

How long Wilson has been in Demerara at this time is a moot point.  If the theory that he is the "son" of a Wilsontown partner is correct, it could be anything from two to ten years.  Alternatively Charlotte may have taken a similar course to her sister Harriet, whose trip with her brother to India was probably in search of a husband; thus Charlotte accompanied Frederick or William to Guiana and met (a different) John Wilson there.

 

Gladstone is certainly relying on Wilson's local expertise, and probably employs him as agent or attorney.  In 1819, however, Wilson returns to England.  Gladstone takes him on as partner (John Gladstone, Grant & Wilson) and accepts his recommendation of his brother-in-law, Frederick Cort, as the new attorney.  Cort remains in this position for ten years, the most momentous being 1823.

 

 

1823 events

 

Although the slave trade has been abolished in Britain, colonists are still allowed to own slaves, a big factor in the sugar and coffee plantations in Demerara.

 

You will have heard from Mr Wilson of the violent clamour that has of late been raised in England against the present state of slavery in the West Indies.

  From letter of Sir John Gladstone to Frederick Cort, 25 May 1823.

Perhaps it would be best to hold out favours to the Females in the shape of exemption from Labour Commensurate with the correctness of their Conduct.

  From letter of Sir John Gladstone to Frederick Cort, 25 May 1823.

 

In 1823 Gladstone is worried about the possibility of a slave revolt.  Though a committed Christian, he has convinced himself that the inferior status of negroes is ordained in the Scriptures, and tells Cort that they too may be convinced by being obliged to attend Sunday church services at which "the Manager was to add.. some exhortations or explanations" on their "duties of subordination as set forth therein".  He is, however, concerned about their welfare, with a view to which slaves should be encouraged to marry!

 

Cort wrote in reassuring vein.  Punishment, he said of the estates under his management, was seldom necessary.  The slaves could make considerable money by the sale of surplus produce of their provision grounds..  Cort described the happy contented countenances and the general good behaviour..  Some had taught themselves to read and a few were instructing others.

  From S.G. Checkland, The Gladstones: A Family Biography 1764-1851.

 

However, rebellion soon breaks out among the slaves at Success.

 

You will most likely have heard 'ere this can reach you of the insurrection of the Negroes in the East Coast of the Colony, which broke out on the evening of Monday the 18th instant.

  From letter of Frederick Cort to Sir John Gladstone, 29 August 1823 (GG2757).

 

The rebellion is put down, to Gladstone's relief.  "I am glad to see," he writes to Cort, "the contracts for Building the Military Barracks at Annerdale have been entered into."  This should "produce a beneficial effect in the minds of the Negroes" and show the "determination of the Governt to keep them in due subjection".

 

 

Gladstone's son visits Demerara

 

Gladstone had complete confidence in Cort, speaking highly of him to the Colonial Secretary, the Governor, the Fiscals and everyone else.  Even when representations were made to the Governor that Cort was incompetent as attorney and planter, Gladstone stuck by him.

  From S.G. Checkland, 'John Gladstone as Trader and Planter', Economic History Review, Vol 7 Part 2 (1954) p226.

 

There are examples elsewhere of planters bad-mouthing those who treated the slaves humanely, so we may wonder whether that is Frederick's main sin.

 

When stationed at Pt Felicity during the first week of the revolt, I received deputations of Negroes from Lusignan and Hamers' Estates entreating me to go there, that peace might be restored and their work resumed.

  From letter of Frederick Cort to Sir John Gladstone, 29 August 1823 (GG2757).

 

Or maybe he has been conditioned to be impervious to criticism - his father has been unjustly persecuted, so he must expect the same.

 

However, when Robertson Gladstone visits Demerara on his father's behalf at the end of 1828, he soon forms his own opinion of Cort.

 

Harry Watson and Mr McLean both came off the the ship, and I found Mr Cort waiting for me as soon as I landed.

  From letter of Robertson Gladstone to his mother, 25 November 1828, three days after his arrival in Demerara (GG390).

My father will doubtless mention to you as I have written him fully upon the subject, the disappointment I had in finding Mr Cort to be not at all altogether what he would wish.

  From letter of Robertson Gladstone to his brother Thomas, 16 January 1829 (GG428).

 

He cites a few examples of Cort’s erratic management of his father’s estates.

 

Mr Cort had carried away all the buildings except the Managers house, a kitchen apart, and 5 o 6 Negroe Houses to Success, which must have lessened very materially their value to the proprietor.

From Robertson Gladstone’s assessment of Plantation Covenden in his Journal.

He has been the cause of Mr Mackenzie’s property, Lusignan, being such a terribly ruinous concern, when he came under our charge.

  From letter of Robertson Gladstone to his brother Thomas, 16 January 1829.

 

His father responds rapidly to these allegations.

 

I regret to see the report you make of Cort, which I fear is too just.  I have written to him on various subjects in such a manner as will I think cause him to throw up his attorneyships, which in that case will be transferred to Mr Mclean.

  From letter of John Gladstone to his son Robertson, 5th March 1829 (GG543).

 

Cort's role as attorney ends before August 1829.  The following month John Wilson leaves the partnership.

 

 

Aftermath

 

Documents arising from a dispute about Frederick Cort's will reveal that he has ignored Gladstone’s wish for female slaves to marry male ones.  Two “coloured” illegitimate sons, William and Frederick, have been born to a woman identified as Louisa Cort: both take the Cort surname.  William accompanies his father when Frederick leaves aboard the Albina in 1831, and by 1837 is “at School Parrys Salsbury Street Liverpool”.

 

Frederick settles in Liverpool, and on 31 December 1831 enters an agreement with brother-in-law John Wilson.  He takes a quarter share, on a contribution of £7,000 towards a capital of £28,000.  The term of the agreement is five years from 1st January 1832, but it is cut short by an accident involving “a runaway horse” (according to the Guiana Chronicle) on 5th May 1834: he dies a week later.  During the period 1832-4 he has sired another bastard, Eliza Ann, by one Ann Whittaker; and has made a fresh will, featuring all his surviving siblings, and including small bequests to his cousins Anna Becher and Elizabeth Turner.

 

Ann Whittaker is the same person who lived with me as servant at Everton in 1832 and 1833, is known to my sisters Caroline and Mrs Wilson.

   From will of Frederick Cort.

 

The implication that he has remained on good terms with his family may be significant.  The belief that their father is the victim of a conspiracy is rife among the Cort children: it is quite likely that Frederick regards his sacking as something similar, and they may feel the same.

 

Whether this belief extends to the Becher cousins may also matter, because Anne Carmichael Smyth (née Becher, Thackeray by her first marriage) is their niece; and her brother-in-law James later becomes Governor of British Guiana.

 

After four years’ successful administration of the Bahamas, during which he abolished flogging of female slaves, Carmichael-Smyth was transferred to the more important governorship of British Guiana in June 1833.  He arrived at Georgetown, Demerara, shortly before the emancipation of slaves, when much depended on the governor.  Unmoved by the reckless hostility of a section of the planters, Carmichael-Smyth by a firm, impartial, and vigorous government won the confidence of the slaves.

  From Oxford DNB entry for Sir James Carmichael Smyth.

 

The new governor clashes with Gladstone, ostensibly over the treatment of slaves: but could his attitude be influenced by tales he has heard of Cort's persecution?

 

One may also wonder how conscious Gladstone's son William is of the connection with his father when the question of recompense for the Corts comes before Parliament in 1856.

 

I consider him a very unfit man for the situation he holds.

  Robertson Gladstone’s view of Frederick Cort, as expressed in his Journal.

Died - On the 12 May, at Liverpool, Fredk. CORT Esq., an old & highly respected inhabitant of this colony.

  From Guiana Chronicle Friday 26 June 1835

 

 

 

RELATED TOPICS

Henry Cort’s family

Religion and sexual mores

Abolition and the Corts

Fact, error and conjecture

Life of Henry Cort

 

 

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