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shipping, as well as becoming the Mayor of
Calcutta. As a former trader in the Levant, Levett was ready to help Indian silk merchants supplant the former Mediterranean silk trade, which had fallen off. The British merchants were sensitive to the vagaries of fashion. Each year merchant Richard Oswald sent wigs to Levett in Calcutta, for instance. At the same time, Oswald associates like John Levett in Calcutta kept an eye on local trends, and adjusted their schemes to fit them. Levett, for instance, who had previously managed some German bread interests for Oswald, now planted cornfields in Bengal.
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Governor James Grant, Oswald confided that at one dinner of investors in East
Florida and Nova Scotia that "Oswald had been dining at the Duke's with Lord Granby, Mr. Thoroton, and others where jokes passed round the table about the many settlements that would be needed to satisfy Mr. Thoroton's nine
255:
Oswald put together deals with investors who had good connections, raising his own social standing. In his petitions to the Board of Trade and
Plantations for the settlement of Nova Scotia plantations, for instance, he demonstrated an ability to bring together groups acceptable to the King. Those he
349:
Oswald had a cadre of young merchants whom he trained. Among these was John Levett, brother of planter
Francis, who was in Oswald's employ as a young man. Levett (1725–1807) was born in Turkey to an English merchant father, and later settled in India, where he became a free merchant and invested in
1003:
The central figure in the Granby-Rutland family group was Thomas
Thoroton who had married an illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Rutland and served him as his principal agent. Although Thoroton received no order in council for land in East Florida, he was a member of the East Florida Society and
394:. Oswald shared Franklin's free trade commercial views; he possessed a "philosophic disposition"; and he had previously had a limited correspondence with Franklin. Franklin was impressed with Oswald's negotiating skills and described him as a man with an "Air of great Simplicity and Honesty."
486:
Oswald married in 1750 Mary Ramsay (1719–1788), daughter of the merchant
Alexander Ramsay (died 1738). She brought a dowry including property in Jamaica and British North America. She died in London, and her funeral cortege took her body for burial in Ayrshire, having the effect of depriving
357:
for his distilleries. The relationships between the various associates in Oswald's extended trading empire grew: John Levett was corresponding with Oswald about the marble chimney-piece sculptures that his brother
Francis Levett was purchasing on Oswald's behalf in
1004:
also of the Nova Scotia
Society of London as well. Thoroton was the link between the East Florida and Nova Scotia speculators, particularly after Richard Oswald and James Grant decided to give up their Nova Scotia interests and concentrate on Florida.
329:
had erected a fort there. Oswald and his associates gained control of other small islands through treaties, and established on Bance Island a trading station for factors in the trafficking of
African people.
240:
Oswald was instrumental in directing
British businessmen to promising locales in America for growing rice and indigo. Oswald directed British planter Francis Levett, who formerly worked for the
713:, The Florida Historical Quarterly Vol. 54, No. 4, The Floridas in the Revolutionary Era: Bicentennial Issue (Apr. 1976), pp. 425–442 at p. 428. Published by: Florida Historical Society.
1134:
Richard Oswald as "An American": How a Frontier South Carolina Plantation Identifies the Anonymous Author of American Husbandry and a Forgotten Founding Father of the United States
173:, the brothers Richard Oswald (1687–1763) of Scotstoun and Alexander Oswald (1694–1766), sons of the Rev. James Oswald (1654–1698). As a young man he worked for them as a
362:, Italy, where Francis was then living as a British merchant. Oswald was particularly close to the Levett and Thoroton families, as well as to the Duke of Rutland.
353:
When Oswald needed Chinese labourers, for his own estates, he approached John Levett in Calcutta, who employed Chinese labourers in his Bengal operations growing
444:
After his death, his nephews and fellow slave traders John and Alexander Anderson, also with interests on Bance Island, were appointed executors of his estate.
690:"University of Edinburgh Archive and Manuscript Collections, Special Collections, Correspondence of the Oswald family of Auchincruive, including Richard Oswald"
249:
494:
Richard Oswald had illegitimate children before his marriage, but no children with his wife. His Auchincruive estate passed to his nephew the tobacco merchant
430:
urged the recall of Oswald, charging that he "plead only the Cause of America, not of Britain." Oswald resigned his cabinet post and returned to his estate of
224:, in 1759. He made large additions of land to both estates, in the following decades. In British North America he had large land holdings and owned slaves in
1218:
943:
Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735–1785, David Hancock, Cambridge University Press, 1995
1223:
201:
contract for the British Army, having in 1756 the merchant James Buchanan (1696–1758) as guarantor. He prospered also as a contractor during the
334:
1086:
862:
Memorandum on the Folly of Invading Virginia: The Strategic Importance of Portsmouth and the Need for Civilian Control of the Military
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to make generous land grants to Levett, whom Oswald called his "worthy friend" to whom he owed "particular obligations."
463:
Robert Scott Davis has identified Richard Oswald as "An American", the anonymous author of the encyclopaedic two volume
229:
265:
1099:
Will of Richard Oswald <Glasgow Commissary Court, “Testament Testamentar and Inventory CC9/7/72 dated 01 June 1785
410:
On 25 July 1782, official negotiations began. The preliminary articles were signed by Oswald for Great Britain, and
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formed at this time had some close links to the Bance Island consortium, for example through Robert Scott and then
301:
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150:
95:
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to open informal negotiations with the Americans, to be held in Paris. Because of his prior experience living in
402:
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about matters concerning the war. Lord Shelburne chose Oswald because he thought his selection would appeal to
305:
333:
Oswald's extensive network of business connections served him well in building his slave-trading empire. The
90:
457:
423:
206:
104:
1198:
878:
Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735–1785
751:
Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735–1785
591:
Citizens of the World: London Merchants and the Integration of the British Atlantic Community, 1735–1785
561:"Fasti ecclesiae scoticanae; the succession of ministers in the Church of Scotland from the reformation"
422:
for the United States on 30 November 1782. With almost no alterations, these articles were made into a
326:
154:
560:
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197:, where he initially devoted most of his time to the shipping and trading of tobacco. He took on a
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on 3 September 1783. Oswald was criticised in Britain for giving the Americans too much. The
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169:, and his wife Margaret Murray. At age 20 he was apprenticed to cousins who were merchants in
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177:, travelling in America and the Caribbean. In 1741 he became a partner in the Glasgow firm.
153:. Oswald is best known for being one of the British peace commissioners who negotiated the
108:
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children." (The humor was explained by the relationships between the various families).
17:
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228:, and held estates in both Georgia and Virginia. He ran down these holdings during the
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146:
498:, son of James Oswald (1703–1793), his elder brother, known as a minister and writer.
386:
and his knowledge of its geography and trade, he had been consulted frequently by the
127:. The British commissioners did not pose for West, and the picture was never finished.
1192:
912:
Nation and Province in the First British Empire: Scotland and the Americas, 1600–1800
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Nation and Province in the First British Empire: Scotland and the Americas, 1600–1800
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284:, who was himself stepbrother to Thomas Blackborne Thoroton, brother-in-law of the
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189:, Oswald in 1746 established himself in mercantile business in London. He leased a
812:
658:
Britain and the Seventy Years War, 1744–1815: Enlightenment, Revolution and Empire
641:
545:
475:
141:– 6 November 1784) was a Scottish merchant, slave trader and diplomat. During the
909:
Society, Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies; Library, John Carter Brown (2001).
826:
Society, Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies; Library, John Carter Brown (2001).
1106:
in online database ScotlandsPeople (purchase required), accessed 31 October 2011
452:
Oswald's papers were among those relating to the peace negotiations acquired by
205:, particularly in the supply of bread in the German theatre, and was praised by
804:
782:
Representations to the Lords of Trade to the King, June 5, 1764, heritage.nf.ca
633:
537:
311:
411:
120:
864:. University of Virginia Press for the Tracy W. Mcgregor Library. p. 36.
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The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey. Wilfred B. Shaw, editor
491:
of his lodgings. He wrote a hostile poem on the event, published in 1789.
415:
221:
124:
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1001:(4, The Floridas in the Revolutionary Era: Bicentennial Issue): 487.
354:
288:. This formula of connecting power-brokers was a key to his success.
198:
166:
1083:
The Papers of Henry Laurens: September 1, 1782 – December 17, 1792
474:
401:
89:
1136:, Journal of Backcountry Studies Volume 8, Number 1 (Spring 2014)
103:(1783), shows the American commissioners who negotiated the 1783
256:
put forward for Nova Scotia included: a former governor (
149:
on trade regulations and the best way to respond to the
300:
and Oswald, with Augustus Boyd (1679–1765) and his son
248:
for his plantations, and urged East Florida's Governor
437:
Oswald was related to American soldier and journalist
1122:. University of Michigan Press. 1956. pp. 1405–.
962:
Landers, Jane; Landers, Jane L. (21 September 2000).
72:
57:
34:
1152:. Oxford University Press. pp. 392 note 223.
165:Oswald was born to the Reverend George Oswald of
860:Oswald, Richard; Robinson, Walter Stitt (1953).
280:, and cousin of adventurer Sir Michael Herries,
1149:The Oxford Edition of the Works of Robert Burns
991:"The East Florida Society of London, 1766–1767"
434:in Ayrshire where he died on 6 November 1784.
232:. He also owned plantations in the Caribbean.
8:
799:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
731:"English Plantations on the St. Johns River"
628:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
532:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
27:Scottish merchant, slave trader and diplomat
1081:Laurens, Henry; Chesnutt, David R. (2003).
965:Colonial Plantations and Economy in Florida
881:. Cambridge University Press. p. 151.
754:. Cambridge University Press. p. 154.
594:. Cambridge University Press. p. 63.
78:
63:
42:
31:
915:. Bucknell University Press. p. 81.
832:. Bucknell University Press. p. 85.
569:. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd. p. 139
1059:. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books.
1057:Encyclopedia of the American Revolution
796:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
625:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
529:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
507:
521:
519:
517:
515:
513:
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406:Signature page of the Treaty of Paris.
335:Company of Merchants Trading to Africa
661:. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 76–7.
7:
989:George C. Rogers, Jr. (April 1976).
875:Hancock, David (13 September 1997).
748:Hancock, David (13 September 1997).
588:Hancock, David (13 September 1997).
1184:Richard Oswald collection 1779-1783
622:Price, Jacob M. "Buchanan, James".
526:Hancock, David. "Oswald, Richard".
212:Oswald bought the Cavens estate in
1219:18th-century British slave traders
1087:University of South Carolina Press
793:Hancock, David. "Sergeant, John".
655:Page, Anthony (12 December 2014).
365:In letters to British General and
25:
456:, and then by the library of the
145:, he served as an advisor to the
111:is on the right. Left of him are
995:The Florida Historical Quarterly
378:In 1782, Oswald was selected by
244:, to locations in the colony of
1224:18th-century Scottish merchants
968:. University Press of Florida.
185:Doing good business during the
711:Blacks in British East Florida
272:and Paymaster for the Marines
187:War of the Austrian Succession
1:
1055:Boatner, Mark M. III (1994).
304:, John Mill (1710–1771), and
135:
1085:. Columbia, South Carolina:
813:UK public library membership
642:UK public library membership
546:UK public library membership
230:American War of Independence
151:American War of Independence
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1043:Folly of Invading Virginia
1030:Folly of Invading Virginia
1017:Folly of Invading Virginia
48:portrait by William Denune
978:– via Google Books.
479:Mary Oswald, portrait by
296:In 1748, a consortium of
53:
41:
18:Richard Oswald 1705-1784
264:; Member of Parliament
1214:Scottish slave traders
1146:Burns, Robert (2014).
805:10.1093/ref:odnb/49963
709:J. Leitch Wright Jr.,
634:10.1093/ref:odnb/49747
538:10.1093/ref:odnb/20924
483:
458:University of Michigan
407:
207:Ferdinand of Brunswick
128:
1234:Scottish slave owners
478:
414:, Benjamin Franklin,
405:
327:Royal African Company
276:; and a judge of the
93:
76:6 November 1784
1132:Robert Scott Davis,
260:); the cartographer
559:Scott, Hew (1928).
454:William L. Clements
143:American Revolution
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465:American Husbandry
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374:Peace Commissioner
323:Sierra Leone River
286:Marquess of Granby
214:Kirkcudbrightshire
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640:(Subscription or
544:(Subscription or
392:Benjamin Franklin
282:Levett Blackborne
117:Benjamin Franklin
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84:(aged 78–79)
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735:www.unf.edu
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250:James Grant
139: 1705
1193:Categories
1041:Robinson,
1028:Robinson,
1015:Robinson,
815:required.)
644:required.)
548:required.)
502:References
412:John Adams
220:estate in
216:, and the
161:Early life
121:John Adams
61:1705
321:, on the
302:John Boyd
236:Influence
157:in 1782.
719:30147360
416:John Jay
312:Wikidata
222:Ayrshire
181:Merchant
125:John Jay
1165:19 July
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607:21 July
573:23 July
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