British Legacies of Slavery - Dundee: Tullideph

Extract from Caribbean Britain: The Cultural and Biographical Directory

by Marjorie H Morgan © 2013

Dundee: Tullideph

Walter Tullideph was a medical doctor who trained at the University of Edinburgh. He travelled to Antigua in 1726 to act as a factor for his brother David who was trading as a merchant in England. Doctors were a vital part of the system of forced servitude; they were needed to ensure the health and recovery of the labourers on the plantations, many of whom were succumbing to European diseases. It was while performing his duties as a doctor that Tullideph began trading medicines, drugs and British commodities, such as linen, to the planters and he decided to get involved in the plantation system for himself. He became a financer by borrowing money for investment in the plantations from the London markets and lending it at a higher rate in Antigua.

In 1736 Tullideph married the widow Mary Burroughs and acquired her 127 acres and 63 slaves. Tullideph began to increase his land holding with regular purchases of people and property. Dr. Tullideph had become a West Indian planter. His first piece of additional land of fifty acres was bought in 1739 at the cost of £700. 

“Letters from a Sugar Plantation in Antigua, 1739 – 1758”

By 1757 Tullideph had around 600 acres of Antiguan land and nearly 300 slaves; at that time it was estimated that his assets were worth around £30,000.  He was also a part owner of a ship that was used to transport resources around the Atlantic trade system. Whilst in Antigua between 1739 and 1758 Tullideph became the attorney for absentee plantation owners. He collected debts and negotiated trading deals for sugar, rum, slaves and other plantation supplies; he was in charge of managing his own estates and being the estate manager to several other Antiguan plantations. Tullideph became part of the colonial gentry and was the most influential attorney in the island in the 18^th century and as a result his wealth and political influence grew. As an attorney he was able to direct part of the sugar supply under his control directly to the merchants in Glasgow, especially since the end of the slaving monopoly of the Royal African Company in 1698. He also had agents in Liverpool, Bristol and Lancaster. As an enterprising planter, Tullideph created trading connections with merchants in the Irish ports of Dublin and Cork where he could gain more favourable terms on the re-export cost of West Indian rum than if he went through English ports. Tullideph was one of many Scottish planters and merchants who invested in the colonies of Britain.

With a substantial portfolio producing a steady flow of income Tullideph took time to focus on his previous specialities. Medicine and science were still areas of great interest to the Scottish doctor and determined to contribute to the progress of science Tullideph sent at least two collections of plants from Antigua to Sir Hans Sloane, the renowned collector, in London. The collections were accompanied with notes concerning the medicinal value of the Antiguan plants. Tullideph’s specimens were added to Sloane’s collection and are now to be found in the Natural History section of the British Museum. 

In 1739 Tullideph purchased the Baldovan Estate in Angus for £10,000. The estate was temporarily renamed Tullideph Hall to reflect his elevated status in the community. Tullideph also purchased the estates of Logie and Balgy. With his income from the West Indian plantations Tullideph was able to grant both of his daughters a large dowry of £5,000 each: this consisted of the estates of Baldovan and Balgy as wedding gifts. Charlotte Tullideph married Sir John Ogilvy in 1754 and the gifted Baldovan Estate, based around a large 18^th century farmhouse, remains in that Ogilvy family; Mary, the younger sister, married the Honourable Colonel Alexander Leslie in 1760.

Walter Tullideph eventually became an absentee owner and he permanently returned to Scotland in 1758 where he lived off the profits of his plantations in Antigua. Tullideph lived a comfortable life as a Scottish laird who bestowed gifts on his progeny. To recognise his lasting influence Walter Tullideph now has roads, areas, institutions and buildings named after him.