William Colville

Last Name:

Colville

First Name:

William

Grave Plot No.:

225

Spatial:

Titles:

Esq. [Esquire]

Date of birth:

1782

year of death:

1848

date of death:

10.09.1848

Ethnicity / Origin:

Scottish

Age at death:

Gender:

Male

Full Epitaph:

Sacred to the memory of / William Colville Esq. / Late of Laws / In the county of Forfar / Who departed this life / At Calcutta / On the 9th September 1848 / Aged 66 years

Occupation:

Merchant at Calcutta, with the firm Colville, Gilmore and Co.

Place of birth / origin:

Laws, Forfarshire, Scotland

Cause of death:

The Angus Council maintains that William Colville "fell victim to an assassin" on the eve of his departure from India, but this cannot be confirmed.

Tomb architecture:

Box Tomb. Two downward-facing flames signifying the end of life appear on both sides of the epitaph.

Detailed information:

William Colville was a merchant in Calcutta, with the firm Colville, Gilmore and Co. (based at 4, Fairlie Place, Calcutta), in partnership with Allan Gilmore, William Fairlie Gilmore, James Pelham M'Kiligin and Graham More Robertson. [Ref: The Bengal and Agra Annual Guide and Gazetteer http://tinyurl.com/qzdqwvn]. It was one of the many business houses based in Calcutta that failed in the commercial crisis of 1847-48 [Ref: David Morier Evans, The Commercial Crisis, 1847-48, Appendix, Letts, Son and Steer, 1849]

Forfarshire Illustrated mentions that Laws was the seat of William Colville, "a splendid mansion, in the style of the age of Elizabeth". Laws once belonged to the 6th Earl of Angus and consequently several other illustrious houses of Scotland. It was eventually sold to Thomas Colville in 1837, who built the mansion William Colville resided in. This mansion was demolished in the 1960s. [Ref: Forfarshire Illustrated, 1843 http://tinyurl.com/qxfdkzd]

The Dundee Advertiser 24th November, 1862 states that Colville went bankrupt in Calcutta and his firm was closed down.

Buried by:

W H Meiklejohn, Officiating Senior Minister, St. Andrew's Church.

Weblink 1:

For his family mansion see Forfarshire Illustrated, 1843 http://tinyurl.com/qxfdkzd, and for more information on the clan/family Colville, see http://www.scotweb.co.uk/info/colville.
For some members of the company, see The Bengal and Agra Annual Guide and Gazetteer http://tinyurl.com/qzdqwvn.
For news of his death, see Angus council, http://tinyurl.com/n9w7hb6.

Photo name/s:

Photo 2 close up:

Tags:

grave architecture / motifs

KSHT

Trade

This record has been created by::

Purba Hossain