Hector Mackenzie

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Hector Mackenzie was born in Golspie (Sutherland) in September 1767 [GROS 051/00 0020 0012] and established plantation Dunrobin on the east sea-coast of Berbice sometime before 1801. When Lord Seaforth bought uncultivated land in the colony in 1801, his manager Peter Fairbairn employed Mackenzie to 'impolder' what was to be plantation Brahan and manage the land for the first season, planting both cotton and plantains as food for the slaves. Subsequently he paid Hector Mackenzie when he (Fairbairn) was absent from the plantation. [NAS GD46/17]

Hector Mackenzie died in July 1804. In his will he freed his slave Nancy, the mother of his mulatto daughter Rose – to whom he left £1000. Rose was not, in fact, manumitted until 14 July 1815 [House of Commons papers, Papers relating to the Slave Populations, 1823, p. 106].

Plantation Dunrobin was left to his brother John Mackenzie in New Brunswick [Canada], who travelled to Berbice in 1804 to dispose of the property [Early New Brunswick probate records, 1785-1835]. However, the plantation was not sold until 1816 [Times Oct 1816].