Roderick and Donald Macleod (McLeod)

For family tree see Donald McLeod (Urray and Demerara) on Ancestry (subscription required)

Roderick MacLeod (1775-1858) was the son of a farmer, John Macleod, and Jane Ross [Death certificate 098/00 0273].

He was in Demerara from at least as early as 1807 [Essequebo & Demerara Gazette] and subscribed five guineas to Inverness Academy in 1814. In 1811, in Inverness, he married Jane Macleod [OPR 098/00 0080 0262], whose sister Isobel married Lewis Corbet two years later.

He appears to have left the colony in 1817, having offered for sale [Aug 1815] his property in Georgetown, which by then comprised:

• . . . the Premises he at present occupies, situated on the east side of Carmichael's-Square, in Cumingsburg; consisting of a substantial Dwelling-House, Negro-Houses, Kitchen, and every requisite Out-building.

• The Water-Lot, No. 13, adjoining on the north side of the Premises of Messrs. Simson, Grant, & Co.

• The small House, on Lot No. 10, in South-Street, Bridge-Town.

• And the New House, situated on South-Street Stelling, 50 feet long, divided into three apartments.

• Also - Twenty Prime Negro Men, many of whom are excellent Carpenters; two Women, and a Girl; a Horse and Chaise, and Six Milch Cows, &c.

In 1817 he transported (transferred ownership of) another property, Lot No 9 in Bridgetown, to Elizabeth Game.

In 1818 his wife was seriously injured in a coach accident at Dalwhinnie:

Four of the passengers were much hurt by its upsetting near Dalwhinnie, but one of them, in particular, is not expected to live. It is Mrs. McLeod, returning from Demerara with her husband and child, who is so much hurt. Her sister Mrs. Corbet and her husband are at Dalwhinnie attending on her.      From: An Inverness Lawyer And his Sons 1796-1878

This indicates that Roderick's wife, Jane, had gone with him to Demerara. He re-married in 1840 to Margaret Murray (aged 53) but he also had two children Mary Jane and Isobel, who were under 21 at his death in 1858.

Macleod built a house in Inverness which he named Park Hill (later re-named Hill Park). It was destroyed by fire in 1959.

Park Hill in 1821 [John Wood's map of Inverness]

Donald McLeod (1793/4-1866), the younger brother of Roderick, was in Guyana before 1831. In that year when he married Jessie Macfarlane, the daughter of the Glasgow merchant Malcolm Macfarlane, he was described as 'Donald Mcleod Esq of Demerara' [Inverness Courier, 11 May 1831]. He made his will in Georgetown in 1851, added a codicil in 1856 [SC1/37/59, Aberdeen Sheriff Court Wills], and had returned to live with his wife in Holburn Street, Aberdeen by 1861, when he was recorded in the census as a retired engineer. On his death certificate he is described as a builder.

He may be the Donald Mcleod who received compensation of £959 10s 6d for sixteen slaves in 1835 [British Guiana claim 1358].