James Milliken 1669-1741

James MILLIKEN 1669-1741

Biographical Note

Born in Ayrshire, and recorded as a burgess of the Port of Irvine in 1692. After beginning a military career, he moved to the Caribbean in 1693 as overseer of a plantation on Nevis; acquiring wealth through marriage to Mary Stevens, a planter's widow, in 1700, he bought his own plantations on Nevis and St Kitts, where he is recorded as owning over 100 slaves, and co-owning slave ships. He returned to Scotland in 1729 where he became a partner in the South Sugar House in Glasgow, and built Milliken House.

Books

The engraved armorial bookplates, Franks 20634-5, are assumed on design grounds to have been used by this man rather than his son of the same name (1710-76), rector of the University of Glasgow, though they could have been used by both. The extent of the library is not known.

Sources

• Legacies of British Slave-ownership.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903.