CUMING, Thomas elder, of Demerara ^{1 2}

   Another name for Thomas was CUMMING, Thomas.³

   User ID: L409.

  General Notes:

"Biography Details

Reference No.:NM039751
Surname:CUMMING
Forename(s):THOMAS
Occupation:
Date of Birth:c. 1740
Place of Birth:
Father's Name:
Mother's Name:
Biography: LIVED IN DEMERARA
(no marriage information)
Death Details
Date of Death:26 MAR 1813
Age: 73
Headstone Ref:
Place of Death:ELGIN
Parish Register:MF A EL3
Death Narrative: INTERRED IN DALLAS CHURCHYARD

Newspaper Articles:
Newspaper Description Date Page/Column
AJ death 14/04/1813 3/4
FGgravestone inscription 16/01/1877 2/6

Miscellaneous Articles:

Date Description Miscellaneous
1879 copy of gravestone inscription in "Epitaphs & inscriptions from burial grounds & old buildings in the north-east of Scotland, with historical, biographical, genealogical, and antiquarian notes ..." vol II p126 by Andrew Jervise - L 929.5

1882 copy of inscription on gravestone in Dallas Churchyard in "The history of the province of Moray ..." vol 2 p53 by Lachlan Shaw enlarged by J F S Gordon - L 941.223

2009 gravestone inscription in "Monumental inscriptions including buried tombstones Dallas Churchyard and the Dallas and Kellas war memorials parish of Dallas Moray" by members of Moray Burial Ground Research Group no 227a - L 929.5"

from Local Heritage Moray




"Thomas Cuming's legitimate children were Catherine (Kitty) [b1782] and Hannah [b1799] but, after his death, properties in Demerara were transferred to a Kitty and Thomas, the 'coloured children of the free woman Hellen Butler' and to an Isabella, the daughter of 'the free mustie woman Sarah Eddy'. [Demerary and Essequebo Royal Gazette, 21 Jan 1815.] In his Scottish will he left money to support Thomas Cuming, son of Ann Green, while he was a school and £200 when he entered into 'a line to make his livelihood' [GD23/10/689]. Ann Green died in Demerara in or before 1807 [E&DG 10 July 1807].

A portrait of Thomas Cuming by Henry Raeburn was exhibited in New York in 1953. In this he is styled 'Thomas Cumming Esq of Leuchars, formerly of Demerara'. He had acquired the estate of Leuchars during his brief return to Scotland but had sold this by 1801."

from spanglefish.com




"EPITAPHS IN DALLAS CHURCHYARD.

IV. Erected by his children to the memory of Thomas Cuming, Esq. of Demarara, who died in Elgin on the 31st of March (See Note below), 1813, aged 73 years. He lived 5O years in that Colony; was a principal promoter of its prosperity and wealth, an affectionate husband, an indulgent parent, a kind fiiend, and a truly benevolent man, esteemed and beloved by all who ever knew him."

from History of Moray

Note:

The date given may be the date of the deceased's burial rather than that of his death. ^{1 2 3}

Thomas married Catharina LOSSNER about 1780.¹ (Catharina LOSSNER was born about 1734 ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

"Thomas Cuming was born in 1739/40, the son of Alexander Cumming (3rd of Craigmill, Dallas, Moray) and Elizabeth Tulloch. His father died in London in 1746, probably as a prisoner, following his support for the Jacobite rising of 1745. Thomas (Cuming) had five sisters and an older brother, William.

He was in Demerara by c1760. About 1768 he married a Dutch widow, six years his senior, Catharina Lossner, whose father had been governor of Berbice. Thomas wrote to his first cousin, William Rose, in July of that year saying:

I have reason to be thankful for my choice of a wife with whom I enjoy a large share of conjugal Felicity. [Domestic Papers of the Rose Family, Aberdeen, 1926]

In the same letter he indicated his intention, which was not realised, to sell his estates in Demerary and return to Scotland, by way of Holland. He also thanked William Rose for the help he had given to Thomas's mother and his sisters in Scotland.

Thomas and Catharina had one child, named Catherine \'96 an unexpected arrival in 1782 since the mother was in her late forties. Thomas named one of his properties Plantation Kitty \'96 after either his wife, or his daughter, or both. Thomas had already been joined in Demerara by another Cuming, from the same Moray parish of Dallas \'96 Lachlan [Cuming]. Lachlan's father, Patrick (Peter) Cumming was a half-brother of Thomas's father. In a place where many died of fever, family relationships often became complex. In 1794 Lachlan married Catherine Lossner's daughter from her first marriage, Margaretha, who was herself already a widow."

from spanglefish.com ¹

Thomas next married Isobel FRASER, daughter of Colonel James FRASER 7th of Belladrum and Hanna BAILLIE, in 1798 in Scotland.¹ (Isobel FRASER was baptised on 2 October 1766 in Kiltarlity parish, Inverness-shire, Scotland ⁴ and died in January 1800 ¹.)

  Marriage Notes:

"And then, in 1798, Thomas himself remarried, in Scotland, to a much younger woman \'96 the thirty-three year old Isabella Fraser, daughter of James Fraser of Belladrum and sister of three of the leading planters in Guyana. Again there was one child, a daughter Hannah.

In 1798 Thomas attended a meeting in Inverness to found the Northern Infirmary [ Sun (London, England), Tuesday, October 16, 1798; Issue 1892] and in the same year he bought Innes House Elgin, from where he wrote a number of letters as his financial affairs worsened [NAS GD23]. These include financial assessments of plantations Ketty and Garden of Eden which he was considering selling. When his wife died, on 1st January 1800 [Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh, Scotland), Thursday, January 9, 1800; Issue 12217], after the birth of their daughter, Thomas sold Innes House and returned to Demerara."

from spanglefissh.com ¹