Camerons from Lochaber
There were a number of Camerons from Lochaber active in Berbice from the early 1800s.
Donald Charles Cameron [1781-1848], son of Donald Charles Cameron of Dawnie in Lochaber, owned or managed a number sugar plantations. His kinsman John Cameron of Glennevis [1782-1862] was active in the colony at about the same time in the partnership of DC and J Cameron. In 1818 the estates of the Dutch Berbice Company were put up for sale and were purchased by Henry Davidson, Aeneas Barkly and D C Cameron. D C Cameron, along with John Cameron, took as their share the coffee plantation Sandvoort on the Canje, which they divided in two, naming one part Lochaber. [Timehri]
Go to Cameron of Glennevis.
Go to Cameron of Erracht
Cameron of Dawnie
Donald Charles Cameron was active in Berbice from at least 1811 [E&DRG 23 Feb 1811 and London Gazette, which refers to him as attorney for J, T & A Douglas & Co of Glasgow]. He formed a partnership with his kinsman John Cameron for which accounts survive for 1816 to 1840, detailing shipments to Europe of coffee, cotton, rum and sugar, plantation management, sale and hire of named negro slaves, and dealings in general merchandise, including cattle [NAS/CS96/972-981].
He married Elizabeth Matheson of Bennetsfield [daughter of the chief of Clan Matheson] at Rosemarkie in 1817, returning with her to Berbice, where three children were born, all of whom died in infancy. In 1822 Donald and Elizabeth returned to Scotland, where they had other children including a son John [1824-57], who went out to Berbice, where he died unmarried [Alexander Dunlop, The Scots Revised Reports, 1905 p110]. In 1842 Donald bought Barcaldine House in Argyll.
Barcaldine House, Argyll, bought by Donald Charles Cameron in 1842 with the profits from his sugar plantations in Berbice.
Six of Donald Charles’ nephews came out to Guyana. Four were sons of his elder brother John - one, also named Donald Charles [1814-1872], managed his uncle’s Berbice estates for a number of years (and was appointed an elder in the Scots Kirk in New Amsterdam in 1839) before moving to Melbourne, Australia, in 1852; Ewen Philip [b1810/11], John [b1819] and Alexander [b1823] were all doctors - Ewan Philip was inNew Amsterdam in 1841 (National Archives of Guyana, 1841 Census). Allan McCalman, the son of one of Donald Charles’s sisters, also owned estates in Demerara; and yet another Donald Charles Cameron [1824-1882], the son of his sister Mary, was a planter in Essequibo.