Talk:Robert Charles Dallas

Family confusion
There is unfortunate confusion about some family details. For example, Edward Seymour, 16th Duke of Somerset in the ancestor table gives the father-in-law as Thomas Harding, not Benjamin, as does the old DNB. Before assuming that is wrong, one should note that Benjamin Harding's 1766 will is transcribed here, and the daughters mentioned are Elizabeth Mary Harding and Mary Ann Harding. Charles Matthews (talk) 09:18, 28 February 2017 (UTC)


 * What ancestor table? DuncanHill (talk) 00:17, 3 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh sorry, the one on Edward Seymour, should have read more closely! DuncanHill (talk) 00:28, 3 March 2017 (UTC)

Getting back to what I was saying. There is an interesting critique of the old DNB article. I wouldn't necessarily agree with all the points made there, but it does a good job of identifying the "copying" (maybe plagiarism) from the Gentleman's Magazine and Allibone that went on, at least with minor figures. Benjamin Harding is in Allibone. Therefore Thomas Harding in the DNB was not just copied across. Charles Matthews (talk) 05:59, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

Father's will - article contradictory
The article as it stands is confusing. "His father died in 1769.] His will left his estate to his wife Sarah.[3] Dallas was educated at Musselburgh, in Scotland, and under James Elphinston at Kensington, London. He entered the Inner Temple, but on coming of age went to Jamaica to take possession of the estates which he had inherited from his father." Had his mother died and he inherited from her? Or did his father not leave the estates to Sarah? DuncanHill (talk) 00:13, 3 March 2017 (UTC)


 * I've removed the phrase "from his father", which stands in the old DNB and the ODNB, but may just be inaccurate. Charles Matthews (talk) 16:45, 4 March 2017 (UTC)

Quality of source
The "Legacies of British Slave-ownership" resource states that RCD was a slave-owner, but the only source it gives is the ODNB, which does not say that he was a slave owner. As for Harding, it only says he is "implicitly" a slave owner. DuncanHill (talk) 00:26, 3 March 2017 (UTC)


 * The link on the RCD page to the Dallas Castle estate page gives plenty. As of 1810 (which is after Dallas had sold the estate) there were 222 slaves on the estate. There is no change of usage as far as I can see: it had been producing sugar and rum all along. Good enough for me. Charles Matthews (talk) 16:36, 4 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Further to this, the Dallas Castle estate apparently was tied up in a mortgage and a trust from 1764 for about 40 years. The heir, however, I believe, was Robert Charles Dallas. This was a slave-run plantation. So I would say, on the face of the evidence, that he was a slave-owner.


 * The LBS page say "on his father's death", when he was a minor; and the page cited in the first section makes a case that RCD didn't go to Jamaica at age 21, but at age 25. I think this is a side-issue, though. The Ashcroft reference alludes to RCD grumbling about estates run by trustees, and other references say he was short of money; so the estate wasn't as lucrative as he might have liked. But again this is a side issue: he wasn't managing the estate.


 * The Ashcroft reference (p. 97) also clarifies what happened to the estate, which was a legal complication. There was a Chancery case in 1803, and Dallas Castle was sold to Humphrey Ewing in 1804. Parties to the case were RCD's mother Sarah, her fourth husband Dr. James John Reeve, and RCD's son Alexander "presumably as heir in male tail".


 * I suppose this leads to some wiggle room for legal discussion about what RCD did "inherit". Some sort of beneficial ownership did apply, it seems. Charles Matthews (talk) 06:43, 5 March 2017 (UTC)

I have put in a line that I hope clarifies the issue of slaves on the property of Dallas Castle.Mikesiva (talk) 12:07, 10 November 2020 (UTC)

Currently the LDS Family Search site is running a page on someone it says is a Sarah Elizabeth Cammack who was allegedly born in 1715, based on an admitted source allegedly giving her surname as Cormack, and later the wife of Robert Dallas which doesn't reflect well on what must have been Ashcroft's source checking. The Sarah (NOT Sarah Elizabeth) Cammack who married Hewitt and later Robert Dallas was baptised in Clarendon, Jamaica on 6 August 1733, the daughter of Thomas (who died in 1745) and Elizabeth Cammack (who died in 1780), as Family Search itself will display if you bring up the Clarendon and other relevant Registers on their siteDelahays (talk) 22:03, 21 September 2021 (UTC)