Patrick Ballantine of Castlehill

Ayrshire merchant, returning from Jamaica after inheriting Castle Hill or Castlelhill, where he built a new mansion house (since demolished) c. 1804. He appears to have been part of the re-orientation of the Ayr merchant community away from Virginia tobacco and towards sugar. He was party to a realignment of estates and enslaved people between Edward Chambers and William Miles c. 1789. There is an increasing amount evidence to suggest that this might in fact have been the same man as 'Peter Ballantine' (q.v.). For example, Kenneth Morgan gives a date of death of 04/06/1810 for Peter Ballantine, the former partner of David Dick, while Patrick Ballantine's will was registered in Scotland 14/06/1810 and proved in London 04/07/1810.

1. Will of Patrick Ballantine of Castlehill [made in 1801] proved 04/07/1810. The will made his brother John Ballantine of Ayr banker his heir and executor, and left annuities of £100 p.a. to his [the testator's] wife and £200 p.a. to each of his two sisters.

The Hunterian describes him as 'an established banker and merchant', http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/DetailedResults.fwx?collection=art&SearchTerm=42936&reqMethod=Link [accessed 09/03/2017]; http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/frank/burns_lives204.htm [accessed 09/03/2017]; 'Will of Edward Chambers' http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/wills-09.htm [accessed 09/03/2017] gives a reference to the Tharp Papers ref. R55/7/122/Q/16 in describing the transactions whereby Patrick Ballantine bought a group of estates [and enslaved people] at auction c. December 1788 and onsold them to William Miles in May 1789.

1. PROB 11/1513/46; Kenneth Morgan (2016) Merchant networks, the guarantee system and the British slave trade to Jamaica in the 1790s, Slavery & Abolition, 37:2, 334-352, at p. 345.