Alexander Tennant, born in

Ochiltree Ochiltree is a conservation village in East Ayrshire, Scotland, near Auchinleck and Cumnock. It is one of the oldest villages in East Ayrshire, with archaeological remains indicating Stone Age and Bronze Age settlers. A cinerary urn was found in ...

Ayrshire Ayrshire ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine and it borders the counties of Re ...

in 1772, was a leading British colonist in the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...

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 ...

, an enterprising merchant, a brother to industrialist

Charles Tennant Charles Tennant (3 May 1768 – 1 October 1838) was a Scottish chemist and industrialist. He discovered bleaching powder and founded an industrial dynasty. Biography Charles Tennant was born at Laigh Corton, Alloway, Ayrshire, the sixth of thi ...

and a friend of

Robbie Burns Robert Burns (25 January 175921 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who hav ...

Early life

Alexander was the fourth son of John Tennant (1725-1810) and Margaret McClure (1738-1784). His father, a farmer, was well known in the industry. 'A worth, intelligent farmer, my father's friend and my own', was how Burns described the prolific John Tennant of Glenconner in a letter to his lover Clarinda, dated 2 March 1788. This work ethic was found throughout the family; his brother Charles becoming a highly successful industrialist, his brother William the Chaplain to the

Honourable East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

and a further brother, David, a noted privateer. In his ''Epistle to James Tennant of Glenconner'', possibly referring to an entrepreneurial flair, Burns wrote of Alexander: ''An’ Lord, remember singing Sannock, Wi’ hale breeks, saxpence, an’ a bannock! '', loosely translating to ''And Lord, remember singing Alexander, With whole trousers, sixpence and a

bannock (food) Bannock is a variety of flat quick bread or any large, round article baked or cooked from grain. A bannock is usually cut into sections before serving. Etymology The word "bannock" comes from northern English and Scots dialects. The ''Oxford En ...

!''

Cape Colony

Around 1795 Alexander embarked on a voyage to visit his clergyman brother, William Tennant (1758-1813), in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. His brother was emerging as one of the foremost experts on the sub-continent, a reputation cemented by the publication of ''Indian Recreations'' in 1808. Spotting opportunities in the Cape during his journey, Alexander remained there and took up a partnership with Donald Trail. The firm of Tennant and Trail then set about transporting convicts to Australia as well as moving slaves from

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

to be sold at the Cape to members of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

(VOC). These dealings were frequently on the very edge of legality and it was alleged that, following the British

Slave Trade Act of 1807 The Slave Trade Act 1807, officially An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not abolish the practice of slavery, it ...

, Tennant used a Portuguese flag to further his business. The Governor of the Cape, General Baird, had agreed to allow the sale of several hundred slaves before abolition but as Tennant took delivery after that date many of those slaves were left to fend for themselves on

Robben Island Robben Island ( af, Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, 6.9 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of the coast of Bloubergstrand, north of Cape Town, South Africa. It takes its name from the Dutch word for seals (''robben''), hence the Dutch/Afrik ...

. In 1801 Tennant was involved in a High Court lawsuit over financial irregularities regarding ships that he had bought acting as middle man between a Brazilian merchant, Marcos da Costa Guimarains and Admiral Cornwallis, the British Commander in

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarcat ...

Marriage and respectability

Despite the questionable business arrangements and practices of his youth, at the time of his death in 1814, Tennant had gained an air of respectability. He married Cornelia Sandenberg in 1796, a member of an established Dutch/Norwegian colonial family and had built up a considerable land holding in Wynberg. His wife bore him eight children, many of whom would go on to hold positions of authority in the fledgling British administration of the Cape.Society of Chemical Industry: ''Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry'', London , 1950, page 411. His son, Hercules, was a civil commissioner and magistrate for

Uitenhage Uitenhage ( ; ), officially renamed Kariega, is a South African town in the Eastern Cape Province. It is well known for the Volkswagen factory located there, which is the biggest car factory on the African continent. Along with the city of Port El ...

and wrote ''Tennant's Notary's Manual for the Cape of Good Hope''. His grandson,

Sir David Tennant Sir David Tennant (10 January 1829 – 29 March 1905) was a Cape politician, statesman and the second Speaker of the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope, Legislative Assembly of the Cape Colony. He was in fact the longest serving parliamentary ...

, son of Hercules, was the Speaker of the Cape House of Assembly from 1874-1895.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tennant, Alexander 1772 births 1814 deaths British emigrants to South Africa British merchants Cape Colony people People from Ayrshire

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...