David Charles Guthrie (1788-1859)
David Charles Guthrie (1788-1859) of Dundee was born to parents James Guthrie, 2nd Baron of Cragie (1740-1830) and Amelia Murray (c.1749-c.1824). He was a student at United College from 1802 to 1804. Guthrie became involved in the Dundee canvas trade, later became Burgess of Dundee in 1817 and later ran for MP out of Dundee in the 1830s. Around 1820, David Charles Guthrie moved to London and with Patrick Reginald Chalmers founded the partnership, Chalmers and Guthrie, as general merchants. His nephew, George Clerk Cheape (1801-1886) of Strathtyrum joined the firm in the 1830s. Cheape would eventually go on to establish the Cheape Bursary at the University. Under Guthrie, the firm focused on the production, transport and import of sugar from the Caribbean and Mauritius. Their firm developed strong ties with French-Mauritian plantation owners, and their operations and estates there depended heavily on the importation and employment of Indian (‘coolie’) indentured labourers.
Guthrie and Cheape’s interests in sugar were also tied to slavery in the Caribbean. In 1836, both were awarded slave compensation monies. Guthrie was a trustees and awardee in his own right with West Indies interests in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago. Reflecting on the period before 1830, Guthrie stated to the Select Committee in 1847-48 that
a slave in the West Indies was really very comfortable; he had everything found for him from the day he was born to the day he died; and there was nothing required from him but a fair and reasonable amount of work.
[For more about the activities of the Chalmers & Guthrie firm, see our feature story]
On his death in 1859, David Charles Guthrie left to his two sons, James Alexander Guthrie (1823 – 1873) and Arbuthnot Charles Guthrie (1825 – 1897), a portion of his £120,000 fortune. Six years after his death, in 1865, they gave £6,250 to the University to establish the Guthrie Scholarships at the University in memory of their father.
Source: Biographical Register – David Charles Guthrie; UCL Legacies of Slave-ownership database; Select Committee on Sugar and Coffee Planting, 2nd Report, Parliamentary Papers, 1847-48 (137) XXIII Pt. I, pp. 51-69; Government of India-Ministry of External Affairs: MOS Dr Sashi Tharoor on 175th anniversary of indentured labourers in Mauritius (Nov 2009); National Probate Calendar, 1859; Fifeshire Journal, 25 May 1865.