The Castine Visitor
Newsletter Highlights, Spring 2005
A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF COLIN CAMPBELL OF AUCHINDOUN
By J H Stone II
"There is such a thirst for gain that it is enough to make one curse their own Species, for possessing so little virtue and patriotism."
George Washington, 1778
Washington was disgusted with his countrymen, but probably knew the British were no better. According to Stuart Brandes, the author of Warhogs: A History of War Profits in America, "the Royal Army dripped with corruption." Some of those drops were coming from the occupiers of Fort George, as demonstrated in the following article, based largely on the Letter Book of the Assistant Commissary of the 74th Argyll Highlanders. A copy of this Letter Book is a recent addition to our archives.
A year in the life of an obscure Scots' merchant in the "wilds of the Penobscot," September 1782 to August 1783, seems unlikely to require a prologue. However, when the details of one man's professional and personal life are so intertwined with the major economic and geopolitical events of the 18th century, understanding something of his situation is required. First, a brief biography.
Colin John Campbell of Auchindoun was the son of Glasgow politician and merchant, Baillie John Campbell. A nephew to principals in Greenock and Glasgow merchant and banking interests, he was married to Susan Campbell, a cousin, in what the historian T. M. Divine refers to as "an overtly economic act." The Campbells had four sons, Alexander, Donald, John and Colin Jr., the last born after his father was posted to Fort George at the head of Penobscot Bay in September of 1782. Although none of his sons was of age during his brief tenure on the coast of the Province of Maine, they all would figure prominently in Campbell's "schemes of business" on the Penobscot and later in New Brunswick.
Prior to his arrival at Ft. George, Campbell had been an apprentice and factor [agent] in the tobacco trade in Virginia, apparently with George Buchanan & Co., one of the largest and most powerful of the Glasgow tobacco firms. Proscribed with all other Scots tobacco factors in late 1776, he lived briefly in New York where he held a lieutenancy in the DeLancey Brigade, returning to Scotland until he received an assignment as secretary to Brig. Gen. John Campbell, then stationed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Brigadier Campbell, who would become the Military Governor of the Penobscot, was Colin John Campbell's uncle, a doting uncle directly interested in his nephew's success. Prior to arriving at Fort George in mid-September of 1782, his nephew was also assigned the position of Acting Assistant Commissary to the 74th Argyll Highlanders at Fort George. This position, one he would hold for but two months, gave him sole charge of all the elements involved in supplying the garrison at Ft. George: ordering, purchasing, shipping, selling, etc.
The influence upon Campbell's career of his "tobo trade" training cannot be gainsaid. The paradigm of profit which the Glasgow tobacco "lords" developed and refined provided a template for success from which Campbell rarely deviated. The Glasgow tobacco firms did not initiate the practice of triangular trade between North America, the Caribbean and Europe. In the late 17th century the French had attempted to monopolize trade between New France, the French West Indies, and France. They failed. The British government, learning little from the French failure, also aimed to monopolize the mercantile triangle, but were thwarted by the Scots who "raised smuggling and fraud to unprecedented levels" during the decades prior to the Seven Years' War (1756-63). By the time Parliament had found legal means and power to quash the Scots' inventiveness (the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and acts of Parliament in 1726 and 1751 being
particularly effective), the Scots had acquired virtual control of the tobacco trade from the curing sheds in Virginia and the Carolinas to the aromatic pipes and cigars of Paris, Leiden and Stockholm.
They had also developed an oligopoly ideally suited to maximize profit by maximizing control. They maintained control through a number of practices including the encouragement of endogamy among the leading merchant families and their affiliates; recruiting apprentices from within the affiliated families; hiring young men whose education included at least two years at Glascow University; strongly supporting technological improvements in the company-owned fleets (e.g., developing clipper or fore-and-aft rigged ships which reduced the "turnaround time" in the colonies by over 45% between 1750 and 1775); using profit-sharing to develop a pool of loyal factors and ships masters; operating on a store warehouse system that gave the Scots ownership of the product from harvest to its consumption thousands of miles from the tobacco farms of the colonies. These practices were in turn supported by a banking and credit system which not only enriched the principals but also assured the continuing strength of the system by means of the reinvestment of profit. Too briefly put, this was the proto-capitalist laboratory that produced Colin John Campbell and his ilk. Parenthetically, it was also the economic laboratory to which Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations turned in theorizing capitalism. When Campbell arrived at Fort George in September, 1782, he came from an organic, extraordinarily complex network sustained by endogamy, loyalty, trust, tribalism, shared intelligence (often illegally gained), multiple and "sleeping" or inactive partnerships, influence peddling, and transgressions of legal public/private boundaries-in short a mercantile arena virtually independent of external economic, political and social forces.
As he often reminded his correspondents in the letter book containing the
correspondence from his time at Penobscot, Campbell was uniquely situated to realize his "schemes of business." His previous years in Virginia and Halifax gave him multiple alliances in private business, many of which were with prominent public figures. Michael Wallace, for example, was a loyal and personal friend, a partner in various schemes (at least two in which Campbell's adolescent sons Alexander and Donald were Wallace's "sleeping" partners), he was also the Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia. Robert Pagan, a leading merchant in Falmouth, New York, and Halifax, was Campbell's partner prior to his leaving Halifax for the Penobscot. Of greater significance, in 1780 Pagan had been appointed Inspector of the Post at Fort George, the most powerful non-military position under the military government. Pagan's relationship with Campbell continued at Fort George, rapidly leading to the latter's becoming a silent partner in Robert Pagan & Co., a leading New York trading company.
At Penobscot
Arguably, Campbell's position as secretary to his uncle, the Military Commander of Ft. George, was even more empowering than his affiliations with men such as Pagan and Wallace, As the brigadier's secretary, Campbell was privy to secret
intelligence regarding troop movements, military shipping, the names of vessels
and their masters, permits issued for construction of housing and wharfage, restrictions regarding access to the harbor, coordination between military and civilian authorities, planning of military and civilian construction and engineering projects, and prospective needs of the garrison and civilian population. In addition, he controlled access to the
commandant, was the recorder of record, keeper of the regimental returns, rosters, demotions and promotions, and likely advisor to the brigadier.
On 15 Sept. 1782 Campbell wrote to Archibald MacAslane in Greenock, one
of his many partners in "schemes of business":
Matters have taken a sudden change here ... my uncle returns to command at Penobscot ... I go with him as his secretary and am to be the head of the commissary business there. My being on the spot and so advantageously
situated will, I suppose [persuade] you if you before hesitated to embrace my
scheme. After you weigh the matter, I am persuaded you will not hesitate to
allow my boys [Alexander and Donald] one third of the business.
Campbell was uniquely situated to realize his "schemes of business." As
commissary he had privileged access to the ways and means of provisioning a
garrison of some 1,000 British and German troops, enabling him to "piggyback" his private business dealings on those of the commissary while hiding them from public and military scrutiny-a precaution necessitated by a ruling of the Commissary General in New York that in effect forbade anyone in Campbell's position using the facilities of the British navy to conduct his private business.
Campbell's scheme was already in operation before his coming to Fort George. Three days before he received word that he was to accompany Brigadier Campbell to Fort George, he had advised James MacMasters as follows:
Be careful in describing the vessel and forces by which you ship the goods
as it will almost always be on board a King's ship or under convoy of one…
Keep the account in the name of Donald and Alexander Campbell, my sons,
for reasons I mentioned to you.
Three elements of fraud and illegality are contained in this brief advice to MacMaster, a trading partner in Halifax, Glascow and the West Indies: (1) using the king's vessels to transport private goods; (2) attempting to hide that fact and (3) falsifying the accounts by assigning them to two callow youths of no more than 15 years of age. Such warnings to his trading partners are thematic to Campbell's correspondence.
Apparently the scheme was working well. On 5 Oct. 1782, he apprised Mssrs. Thompson and Campbell in Jamaica of his improved situation:
I find business may be done under greater advantage here than in Halifax. As it
will not be proper for me to transact the business myself I shall immediately
form a connection with some good man here (as I did with Mr. Wallace at
Halifax) who will manage it with my interest and assistance.
On the same date he also notified his contacts in Antigua, St. Lucia, Montego Bay, Tortolla, Dominica, Granada and Tobago as follows: "From the nature of my employment, I cannot transact business myself, but I shall immediately connect my boys with some good man here." On 11 October 1782, Campbell wrote:
I find the consumption of goods exceeds my expectations in this last place, and
that it will increase whilst the war with America lasts…One of the greatest
advantages I enjoy is in a certainty of [cargo space] in the Transports and
Victuallers coming here, which are generally addressed to myself as Acting
Commissary from the commissary in Halifax.
In November, he tells a co-conspirator in Halifax:
Rum sells readily here…If you don't wish to appear in a bill [of lading], you
can obtain liberty for another person to ship the rum…mark it Sgt. McPhaill,
mess [sgt.] 74th Regt….I don't mention your name to McPhaill, only a friend
of mine at Halifax.
Apparently, liquor sold readily indeed. To Mssrs. M. Wallace & Co. he wrote: "If the Claret in [Captain] Chattam's prize is good and reasonable, send sixty or eighty dozen, also two or three tuns of brandy first opportunity directly for Sgt. McPhail 74th Regt. Penobscot." And on 19 Nov., "You will please send the Dove back here along with the aforesaid merchantman or for convoy, or even to run it with as much rum as she can carry on my account."
The Commissary General Intervenes
In spite of Campbell's optimism, his correspondence in October and November reflects a growing concern with detection. On 20 November, he wrote to MacAslane in Halifax: "My name is upon no account to be mentioned, insure the lumber as your own.". Ten days before, he had declared in a letter to Dr. John Prince in Halifax in unequivocal terms possibly meant for the ears of Campbell's superiors: "I am determined to deviate in no instance from my instructions. I am determined to have nothing to do with any shipping business, not even for a friend." But Campbell's precautions were in vain. A week later, the Deputy Commissary General in Halifax, Roger Johnson, received orders to terminate Campbell's position as a "civilian contractor" to the 74th Regiment. Responding to Johnson's letter of dismissal, Campbell replied that his termination was "very unexpected and disappointing," but complied.
Upon being informed that the Commissary General in New York refused to "dispense with the general rule [of gentlemen in his department not being permitted to do private business], even tho' his [trading] house in London shipp'd my goods and are my correspondents," Campbell adroitly adjusted to his new circumstances. He successfully gained Brigadier General Campbell's agreement to more actively protect his trading activities: "Gen. Campbell has authorized me to desire that when any of my friends in Halifax find difficulty in sending me goods otherwise, to direct them to him, which cannot fail procuring them room." In January 1783 he wrote the following to Roger Johnson, Deputy Commissary General in Halifax: "It appears to be both the Commanding General's and your intentions that it would not appear by the accounts that I had any charge of the Department here, as I was not desired to make up even one quarter's accounts." Potential evidence of Campbell's illegal dealings was expunged from the record regarding his fiscal responsibility for the 74th Regiment's commissary.
This action and his continuing support from his uncle and employer (he did retain his position as secretary to the Brigadier) enabled Campbell rightly to conclude: "I shall now have little else to do but to attend to my private business, which situated and connected as I am, I have every reason will turn out to good account." He also immediately took advantage of his connections with the military governor and the inspector of the post: "I intend to apply [to the Inspector of the Post, Robert Pagan or the commandant, his uncle] for an order, and have no doubt of obtaining it, that no person shall retain liquor without a licence from me which will have good effect." In this aim, Campbell succeeded, writing to Alexander Brymer in Halifax that "matters are now so arranged here that I must command the bulk of sales [of liquor] without any apparent Partiality." (Note the expressed deception in "apparent partiality.") He also followed through with his intention to work more closely with the Post Inspector by entering into a series of agreements which led to his becoming a sleeping partner in Robert Pagan & Co. of New York, Halifax and Penobscot. In a long letter to Pagan (22 Jan. '83), Campbell alludes to a stronger relationship between Pagan and General Campbell, and relates the incident that was most significant in his future with Pagan and Co.
The general will acknowledge [your service] at meeting. For reasons which we
shall then inform you of, both he and I are of opinion that it will be better to
make no change at least apparently for some time. If your brother continues to
act [for me], being deprived of the other appointment will I hope on the whole
be no material disadvantage to me as it leaves me full liberty in the way of
business. . . .
It gives me particular pleasure to learn that your privateer has been so
successful. Both you and I may reasonably hope that we are not to be
always unlucky. . . .[Your brother, William] has also informed you of our
having purchased the schooner Asia. . . . My first intention was to have sent
her to Jamaica, as I wish much trade betwixt that Island and this place, and
to send my particular friends Mssrs. Thompson and Campbell a sample of
our boards, masts, staves, etc., but in consequence of the advices you have
sent your brother respecting the market of St. Lucia and a more extensive
plan concerted betwixt us, we have resolved sending her there and to order
the proceeds of vessel and cargo to be remitted to your [trading] house in
New York. [Italics added]
After the Peace
In a letter dated 18 April '83 Campbell notes that "Mr. Pagan is just arrived in four days from New York and Confirms the Accounts of the General Peace." Unfortunately for Loyalists east of the Penobscot, the Treaty of Paris had ceded the territory between the Penobscot and the St. Croix to the United States. The letters he would write from May through August of 1783 evince Campbell's increasingly strong preoccupation with his future and that of his immediate family.
Five months earlier, Campbell, who owned land in Nova Scotia, had applied unsuccessfully for 1,100 more acres. With the pressure of peace upon him Campbell renewed his efforts to acquire more land in Nova Scotia, which at that time included New Brunswick. 6 May to Alex Brymer, his attorney and friend in Halifax: "I am much obliged by the Trouble you have taken about Land for me. If a post is taken up at the St. Croix River or near it, I would wish to have my grant adjoining the King's land there." He noted on the same date, "I think that on St. Croix [is] the most eligible place for me to get some remainder of goods disposed of." Campbell then initiated one of his most highly successful frauds. Working through Brymer, Campbell applied for two grants of land: "It is not necessary it should be known to be the same person if you approve of it, [you] may take [the second grant] for Colin John Campbell, Jr. I have a son of that name." Since Campbell had had only three sons to his knowledge in September of '82, this namesake could have been no more than a nursling when his name was submitted as a grantee for land on the St. Croix. The standard registers of grantees for land in what became St. Andrews all list two Colin Campbells, one senior, one junior. These grants, each comprising a "town plot" and a "garden plot" of 200 acres, would figure prominently in Campbell's extraordinary success after his migrating from the Penobscot to Passamoquoddy.
Campbell's letters before and after this decision reflect considerable worry about this choice of land. Initially he had vacillated between emigrating to the east bank of the St. Croix River or Port Rosaway [presently Shelburne] in Nova Scotia, writing to his crony Wallace: "I have some though of moving to Port Rosaway after this place is evacuated."
His ambivalence continued through early June when he wrote to his uncle, Brigadier Campbell (then reassigned to Halifax), "as Capt. Thomas Wyer is going to Halifax to apply to the government for land, etc. for the Refugees who intend to remove from this place to Nova Scotia, I am requested by the committee appointed to act for them to solicit your good assistance and advice to Mr. Wyer on that business." A day later, 8 June '83, Campbell informed A. Brymer that he was "pretty much resolved" to go to Port Rosaway, a decision he reiterated two weeks later to his confidant, Major Dugald Campbell:
I am quite resolved on preferring Portrosaway to any other part of Nova Scotia,
as it promises to become a Place of Considerable Trade. A custom house will
no doubt be established there, and being the Collector of the Port must of course
be a good office. If the General would apply to Governor Parr in my favour, he
may possible appoint me in the meantime, and the Duke of Argyle would
easily get me confirmed at home.
A month later, on 5 July, Campbell comments that Captain Wyer has not yet returned so "we don't know what part will be allotted to [the Penobscot loyalists," and expresses his opinion that it will be Port Rosaway, not the St. Croix.
The persistence of Campbell's confusion about relocating in Canada did not, however, dampen his zeal for profit. On 10 April 1783 he wrote a letter of condolence to the uncle of a young officer, who, having dishonored himself, committed suicide. It began: "It is with infinite concern that I inform you of the sudden death of your nephew Lt. Charles Stewart of lnverchoil of the 74th Regiment 2 days ago." [Charles Stewart was the first person buried in what would become the Castine cemetery. His memorial, erected in 1849, is still there.] Very quickly however, Campbell's "infinite concern" was replaced by his habitual scheming for personal profit. Probably within the terms of his position as secretary to the commander, Campbell quickly noted that Stewart died in debt in the amount of 100-150 pounds Sterling. At this time commissions in HBM's regiments at the rank of ensign and lieutenant were typically purchased; and Campbell takes advantage of that practice to suggest that the honor of the Stewart clan could be salvaged if the tragically vacated commission were sold. Campbell then notes that his oldest son, Donald, has been recommended by Brg. Campbell for two other open commissions, and proposes that if Donald "misses both purchases," Lt. Stewart's uncle recommend him for his nephew's commission, adding that "if [Donald] has succeeded in either, that you will recommend his brother, John Campbell." Then he baits the hook, guaranteeing that if either of his sons gains Lt. Stewart's commission in the Argyll Highlanders, his debts will be paid by Campbell. Additional bait is added by Campbell's promise that if both Charles
Stewart's lieutenancy and an ensign's commission are gained for Campbell's sons, an additional 250 pounds Sterling will be paid directly to the Stewart family. Campbell's letter of "infinite concern" and condolence ends by setting the gaff of privilege and connection: "I have not yet spoke with my Uncle (who sincerely regrets Charles's Death) on the Subject, but you may believe what is before proposed will be
Extremely Agreeable to him." The results of Campbell's attempted exploitation of a dishonored, grieving family are not known, but his capacities in creative profiteering are quite evident.
Meanwhile, a new consideration arose in Campbell's Canadian site selection. "Mr. Pagan and I, being two of the [refugees'] committee, intend on going with them." In early June, Campbell noted that he was "requested by the committee" to gain his uncle's assistance for Captain Wyer. A month later he is a member of the committee. On 4 August '83, Campbell notified Brymer that the haven for the Penobscot loyalists had been determined by the authorities in Halifax. He wrote:
All the Royalists in this place have determined upon removing to the
Passamoquoddy ... The people we sent to look at these lands have given many
favorable accounts of them ... a good harbour ... well-situated for Fishing and Lumbering Business. These circumstances and some unfavorable accounts of Rosaway have determined me to remove to Passamoquoddy.
Thus the letter book ends.
The Campbells in Canada
The acres Campbell had acquired through his scheme with his lawyer, would figure prominently in his extraordinary success after his migrating from the Penobscot to Passamoquoddy Bay. Campbell, Pagan, and his cronies (brothers William and Thomas, father-in-law Jeremiah Pote, brother-in-law Capt. Thomas Wyer), having been instru- mental in laying out the village of St. Andrews and the surrounding territory on the east bank of the St. Croix River, reserved the best "water lots" in the village for themselves
and their associates, eventually controlling much of the most valuable land in the original Penobscot Loyalists grant, owning and controlling all of the major sawmills, the key to dominating the production of lumber and, therefore, shipbuilding.
Colin John Campbell, who returned to Scotland in the fall of '83 and
then, with his family, resettled in St. Andrews in 1784, quickly separated himself from the Pagan clique, e.g., he steadfastly refused to borrow money from them unlike virtually everyone needing capital for developing and expanding their business ventures in western New Brunswick. When Campbell finally left the St. Croix to become the customs officer in St. John, N.B. in 1796, he had not only amassed land holdings in the St. Andrews area of some 4000 acres including two sawmills, but had also developed the St. Croix south of the falls near present-day St. Stephen. Nason estimated that Campbell's sawmills produced fully half of the lumber in western New Brunswick in the 1790s.
In his turning away from the Pagan political machine and its ambition to replicate the loyalist dream of the Penobscot at St. Andrews, Campbell proved himself an astute analyst of the business trends in New Brunswick. In developing the St. Croix north of St. Andrews instead of working with Pagan and Co. to develop the port of St. Andrews, Campbell chose wisely. In leaving the Milltown/St. Stephen area to again take a position in the government, he also chose wisely. Less than 10 years after he decided to settle in St. John, St. Andrews began to decline and its status as an entrepot vanished, giving way to St. John which became the major port on the Bay of Fundy.
Pagan would die a bankrupt. Campbell Sr.'s final "scheme of business," completing the development of the St. Croix at the head of the tide, would be fully realized by his youngest son, Colin Jr. who became a leading merchant and magistrate of Charlotte County, eventually taking
control of his father's holdings. Ironically, Campbell's dream was legally and finally realized in his progeny.
SOURCES:
C. J. Campbell, "Letter Book of Colin John Campbell" (National Archives of Canada, Toronto, n.d.)
T. M. Divine, The Scottish Nation (New York, 1999)
T. M. Divine, The Tobacco Lords (Edinburgh, 1975)
R. P. Nason, "Meritorious Individuals: the Penobscot Loyalist Association and the Settlement of the Township of St. Andrews, N.B., 1783- 1821 (University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, 1982)
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