Hugh Duncan Baillie (31 May 1777 – 21 June 1866) was a British army officer, MP and

Lord Lieutenant of Ross-shire This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Ross-shire. The office was replaced by the Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty in 1891 through the operation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889. *Francis Mackenzie, 1st Baron ...

Early life

He was the second son of

Evan Baillie Evan Baillie (1741 – 28 June 1835) was a Scottish slave-trader, merchant and landowner in the West Indies.Alston, David (2021), ''Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean'', Edinburgh University Press, pp. 22 - 2 ...

of Dochfour, a prosperous

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

merchant, and his wife Mary, daughter of Peter Gurley of St Vincent. His brothers were Peter Baillie and

James Evan Baillie James Evan Baillie (1781 – 14 June 1863) was a British West Indies merchant, landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1813 and 1835. Baillie was the third son of Evan Baillie of Dochfour and his w ...

. Hugh succeeded his father in 1835.

Personal life

He had married twice: firstly, at the Cape of Good Hope, Elizabeth, the daughter of Rev. Henry Reynett of Goodmans Fields, London (whose grandfather was a Huguenot who had moved from France to Ireland), with whom he had a son and 3 daughters and secondly Mary, the daughter of Thomas Smith of Castleton Hall, Lancashire, with whom he had 3 sons and a daughter. He bought the Ross-shire estate of Redcastle from the Trustees of Sir William Fettes after the latter's death in 1836. Family vault of Hugh Duncan Baillie

Career

He joined the Army as an ensign in the

37th Foot The 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in Ireland in February 1702. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot to become the Hampshire R ...

in 1793. He was promoted to lieutenant in the 93rd Foot the same year, to captain in the 97th Foot and then major in the 86th Foot in 1794 and to lieutenant-colonel in 1800. He took part in the occupation of the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

between 1796 and 1803 during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. He went on to half pay with the Surrey Rangers from 1802 to 1825 and was finally made a colonel of the army in 1810. He retired from the army in 1825. In 1812 he and his brother James became partners in the Bristol Old Bank. Hugh had become senior partner by his death. He entered Parliament as the MP for Rye in 1830 and was then returned for

Honiton Honiton ( or ) is a market town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Honiton has a population estimated at 11,822 (based on mid-year estimates for the two Honiton Ward ...

in 1835, sitting until 1847. He served as Lord lieutenant of Ross-shire from 1843 until his death. During the Parliament of 1835 he received a share of a compensation award totalling over £60,000 for the freed slaves on some 17 estates in

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially the Saint Christopher Island, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis cons ...

, St Vincent and

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

which he either owned or in which he had an interest in.

Death

He died in 1866. His personal estate after his death was valued at under £50,000. He is buried in a family vault on the inner ring of the Lebanon Circle at

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

(West). His son

Duncan Baillie Lieutenant-General Duncan James Baillie (18 October 1826 — 27 July 1890) was a Scottish first-class cricketer and British Army officer. The son of the Scot Colonel Hugh Duncan Baillie of Redcastle, he was born at Marylebone in October 1826 ...

was also a British Army officer and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Baillie, Hugh Duncan 1777 births 1866 deaths Burials at Highgate Cemetery 37th Regiment of Foot officers 86th (Royal County Down) Regiment of Foot officers 93rd Regiment of Foot officers Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment officers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Honiton UK MPs 1830–1831 UK MPs 1835–1837 UK MPs 1837–1841 UK MPs 1841–1847 English bankers Lord-Lieutenants of Ross-shire British slave owners