Making Money from the Royal Navy in the Late Eighteenth Century: Charles Kerr on Antigua ‘breathing the True Spirit of a West India agent’

Abstract

Recent studies of the legacy of people enslaved in the British Caribbean have neglected how non-plantation owners in colonies such as Antigua sometimes became enormously wealthy. This article examines how the Scottish-born Antiguan merchant Charles Kerr acquired his fortune through his activities as a prize agent, especially relating to the British occupation of St Eustatius (1781) and of Guadeloupe ( 1794) and as a contractor/supplier to the Royal Navy and others for a variety of goods and services. Charles Kerr, and those like him, need to be added to the subjects requiring study to strengthen our understanding of the various legacies of slavery and the nature of the British Empire.

Moving scientific knowledge from the laboratory to the theatre: Humphry Davy's Lecture practice at the Royal Institution, 1801–1812

“…She was a wealthy widow, born on Antigua the only child of Charles Kerr (1748[OS]-1795), a merchant there who had acquired his fortune in a highly questionable manner. 260 She had subscribed to the lectures by the end of January 1811, 261 and by at least the beginning of March had met Davy socially, writing admiringly about him to her distant cousin, the poet and later novelist Walter Scott (1771-1832); 262 by April she and Davy were corresponding. 263 After a fairly speedy courtship, they married on 11 April 1812, two days after George, the Prince Regent (1762-1830), had knighted Davy.…”