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Catalogue description Mackinnon, Sir William, 1st Baronet
This record is held by London University: School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
| Reference: | PP MS 1 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Mackinnon, Sir William, 1st Baronet |
| Description: |
The collection comprises correspondence and personal, estate and business papers accumulated by Sir William Mackinnon, predominantly during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The material covers a wide range of commercial, imperial and humanitarian topics, and includes correspondence and papers relating to the British India Steam Navigation Company, City of Glasgow Bank, Emin Pasha Relief Expedition and the Imperial British East Africa Company. |
| Date: | c.1820-1893 |
| Arrangement: |
The collection begins with three series of correspondence, which span Mackinnon's working life: private correspondence, miscellaneous commercial correspondence, and personal correspondence (relating largely to his philanthropic activity and involvement with the Free Church of Scotland). The collection is then divided into sub-collections (sub-fonds) and associated series relating to distinct areas of his life and career: the British India Steam Navigation Company, City of Glasgow Bank, Balinakill Estate, Emin Pasha Relief Expedition and the Imperial British East Africa Company. |
| Related material: |
Related Material held at SOAS: Hall, Francis George [ref. MS 225864] Johnston, Sir Harry Hamilton [ref. MS 193299] Associated Material held elsewhere: Letters of Sir William Mackinnon (1880-1884) held at the National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division, George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EW [ref. MS 20311xx]; Letters to Duncan Mackinnon (1873-1880) held at the National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division [ref. Acc 6168]; Letters from the 9th Duke of Argyll (1884-1893), Private. Enquiries to National Register of Archives (Scotland), HM General Register House, Edinburgh, EH1 3YY [ref. NRA(S) 0006, NRA 9955 Campbell, NRA(S) 1209/1614]; Records of the British India Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. (1856-1970), held at the National Maritime Museum, Manuscripts Section [ref. BIS]; Administrative and financial records of the City of Glasgow Bank, 1840-1882, held at Glasgow University Archives & Business Records Centre [ref. UGD 108, UGD 129]; Public Record Office, records of the Foreign Office (FO) and Colonial Office (CO) contain records relating to the East Africa Protectorate (which came under the Foreign Office from 1895, and was passed to the Colonial Office in 1905). |
| Held by: | London University: School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), not available at The National Archives |
| Language: | English |
| Creator: |
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| Physical description: | 146 boxes |
| Restrictions on use: |
No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance |
| Access conditions: |
Unrestricted |
| Immediate source of acquisition: |
Donated in c.1976 |
| Subjects: |
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| Unpublished finding aids: |
Published catalogue, A Handlist of the Papers of Sir Wm. Mackinnon, Baronet, (SOAS, 1977) |
| Administrative / biographical background: |
William Mackinnon was born on 13 March 1823 in Campbeltown, Argyleshire. He was educated in Campbeltown and trained in the grocery trade there. Early in his life he went to Glasgow, where he was employed in a silk warehouse and afterwards in the office of a merchant engaged in the Eastern Trade. MacKinnon arrived in India in 1847, where he joined an old school fellow Robert MacKenzie. Mackenzie had arrived in Calcutta in 1836, where he set up an oil goods import/export business in addition to acting as the agent for the India General Steam Navigation Company. In December 1847, the two men formed the partnership of Mackinnon, Mackenzie & Co. The firm prospered and Mackinnon took a strong interest in shipping. The Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company was founded on 29 September 1856, and renamed the British India Steam Navigation Company on 8 December 1862. Under Mackinnon's guidance British India became one of the greatest shipping companies in the world, creating a vast trade around the coast of India and Burma, the Persian Gulf and East Coast of Africa, besides establishing subsidiary lines of connection with Great Britain, the Dutch East Indies and Australia. In 1858 Mackinnon was appointed Director of the City of Glasgow Bank, resigning that position in 1870, eight years before the Bank's complete collapse. He was subsequently involved in a protracted legal case brought by the Bank's liquidators following the 1878 crash, from which he was completely exonerated. On 24 May 1887, Mackinnon and the British East Africa Association [later Company] accepted a 50-year concession of land granted by the Sultan of Zanzibar, Seyyid Barghash. This comprised 150 miles of coastline including the port of Mombasa, extending from the River Tana to the frontier of the German Protectorate. On 3 September 1888, the British East Africa Company was formally incorporated, with Mackinnon as Chairman. The territory was finally taken over by the British government on 1 July 1895 and became British East Africa. Mackinnon was also instrumental in promoting and funding Sir Henry Morton Stanley's expedition for the relief of Emin Pasha in 1886. Mackinnon was one of the chief supporters of the Free Church of Scotland. However, towards the end of his life the passage of the Declaratory Act, of which he disapproved, led to a difference of opinion between him and the leaders of the Church and he materially assisted the seceding members in the Scottish Highlands. In 1891 he founded the East African Scottish Mission. In 1882 he was nominated C.I.E. He was created a Baronet on 15 July 1889. He married Janet Colquhoun (d 1894) on 12 May 1856. They had no children. William Mackinnon died on 22 June 1893, in the Burlington Hotel, London. He was buried at Clachan, Argyleshire. Further reading: Galbraith, John S., Mackinnon and East Africa, 1878-1895: a study in the 'new Imperialism' (Cambridge University Press, 1972) |
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