John and Alexander Munro

For family tree see Munro/Mustard (Cromarty & Guyana) on Ancestry (sibscription required)

Alexander and John Munro were sons of Alexander Munro (1754-1825), a customs officer in Cromarty. Both went to Demerara. Alexander died there, while John [born 1799] returned to Scotland only to die in 1835 shortly after his return. John was  commemorated on his gravestone as ‘John Munro Esq late of Demerara’.

In his will [SC25/44/3], written in Demerara in 1833, John divided his estate between his mother, his sister Sophia (Mrs Walter Mustard), and the five daughters of his late brother, Alexander, in Demerara. They are named as Eliza, Jane, Sophy, Mary and Jessey Munro. His estate was valued at £410 but this excluded a bond in his favour for 13,890 guiders (about £1000), a debt which had not been recovered.

On 9 January 1823 an advertisment appeared in the Demerary & Essequebo Royal Gazette, placed by the executors of Alexander Munro, offering for sale 'the woman Eve and her five mulatto children' together with a plot of land on the river, with a 'comfortable dwelling house'. [Folarin Shylion, 'Slave Advertisements in the British West Indies' in Caribbean Studies , Vol. 18, No. 3/4 (Oct., 1978 - Jan., 1979), pp. 175-199]

Gravestone of Alexander Munro (c1754-1825), Cromarty

Before the end of May 1823 John Grant and James Allan had 'purchased' Eve and her children 'for their benefit, with the intention of manumitting them'. [Slave Register, TNA T71 406 f.417 31 May 1823]

For the related Mustard/Musterd family in Guyana after emancipation follow this link