Planters & merchants from North America: Patterson & Parkinson (Delaware)

John Patterson, the son of William Patterson of New Castle County, Delaware, was established as a merchant in Demerara by 1785 [Will of Samuel Patterson, his brother]. He had already been joined by his nephew, William Parkinson (son of his sister Jane), who had married Mary Reading in Essequibo in 1784 [Will of William Patterson, 1794; family bible].

William Parkinson and Mary Reading had five children, four born in Demerara and the fifth, John, born in Philadelphia. William died in Demerara, at plantation Grove, Mahaica, in 1803 [information from family bible]. Mary subsequently married Dr John Austin.

Four letters survive from William Parkinson to the Boston merchant, Gardiner Greene, who had interests in Demerara [Timehri: the Journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana, Volume 8. 1894].