Sir William Young, 1st Baronet, of North Dean

{{Hatnote|Not to be confused with Sir William Young, 1st Baronet, of Bailieborough Castle}}

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix = Sir

| name = William Young

| honorific_suffix = Bt

| image = Portrait of Sir William Young, 1st Baronet (1724(5)-1788), Governor of St Dominica (by Augustin Brunias).jpg

| alt = Sir William Young

| caption = Portrait of Sir William Young, 1st Baronet painted by Agostino Brunias, 1770

| other_names =

| occupation = Governor of Dominica

| birth_place = Antigua

| death_place =

| birth_date = {{start-date|1724}}

| death_date = {{Death-date and age|1788|1724}}

}}

File:Johan Zoffany - The Family of Sir William Young - Google Art Project.jpg]]

Sir William Young, 1st Baronet ({{circa|1724}} – {{circa|1788}}) was a British colonial administrator and planter.{{Cite web|title=The family of Sir William Young. Understanding Slavery Initiative|url=http://understandingslavery.com/artefact/the-family-of-sir-william-young/|access-date=2021-12-27|website=understandingslavery.com}} He served as President of the Commission for the Sale of Lands in the Ceded Islands, and was appointed the first non-military governor of Dominica in 1768.

Early life

William Young was born in the British colony of Antigua {{circa|1724}}. He was the son of William Young, a doctor who had fled from Scotland after the suppression of the Jacobite rising of 1715 as a result of his pro-Jacobite sympathies.

Career

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1748, his candidature citation reading "Residing at Chalton near Canterbury, A Gentleman well versed in Natural and Experimental knowledge, and alwaies ready to promote whatever may tend to the Improvement of Arts and Sciences".{{cite web| url = http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=RefNo==%27EC%2F1747%2F18%27&dsqCmd=Show.tcl| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130415181943/http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqSearch=RefNo=='EC/1747/18'&dsqCmd=Show.tcl| url-status = dead| archive-date = 15 April 2013| title = Library and Archive Catalogue| publisher = Royal Society| accessdate = 2012-02-27}}

He was the author of Considerations which may tend to promote the settlement of our new West-India colonies: by encouraging individuals to embark in the undertaking, published in 1764.{{cite book|last=Young|first=Sir William|title=Considerations which may tend to promote the settlement of our new West-India colonies: by encouraging individuals to embark in the undertaking|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GcINAAAAQAAJ|accessdate=25 June 2011|year=1764|publisher=printed for James Robson}}

Early in 1764, Prime Minister George Grenville nominated Young and he was appointed in the same year to be President of the Commission for the Sale of Lands in the Ceded Islands. The islands included Grenada, Tobago, Dominica, and St Vincent, acquired from France as a result of the 1763 Peace of Paris.{{cite journal|last=Quintanilla|first=Mark |date=Summer 2003|title=The World of Alexander Campbell: An Eighteenth-Century Grenadian Planter |journal=Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies|publisher=The North American Conference on British Studies|volume=35|issue=2|pages=229–256|doi=10.2307/4054136 |jstor=4054136}} The commission was under instructions to create model colonies, which would learn from the success of others but which would avoid their problems of depleted fertility and environmental degradation.Alston, David (2021), Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 59 - 64, {{isbn|9781474427319}} In late 1764, Young and his group sailed for Barbados, spending eight years away from his family during the period of 1764 to 1773, though in fact he made at least two return journeys in 1767 and 1770. James Harris reports on attending concerts at Young's residence in those years.{{Cite book|title = Music and Theatre in Handel's World The Family Papers of James Harris 1732-1780|last = Burrows and Dunhill|first = Donald and Rosemary|publisher = Oxford|year = 2002|isbn = 0-19-816654-0|location = Oxford|pages = 478–479; 582ff}} Of particular note during this time, Young employed the artist Agostino Brunias to record Young's progress and the visual context of his Commission's work. Young was also a diarist and illustrator and documented his own time in the Caribbean islands.{{cite web|url=http://www.understandingslavery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218:sir-william-young-1725-1788&catid=51:key-historical-individuals&Itemid=88|title=Sir William Young|publisher=Understanding Slavery Initiative|access-date=25 June 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110929115325/http://www.understandingslavery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=218:sir-william-young-1725-1788&catid=51:key-historical-individuals&Itemid=88|archive-date=29 September 2011}} He recorded "110 voyages of a like nature performed in the course of nine years amongst the ceded islands on the service of the Commission for the sale of lands."{{cite web|url=http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/bnccde/svg/conference/papers/honychurch.html|title=Chatoyer's Artist: Agostino Brunias and the depiction of St Vincent |last=Honychurch|first=Lennox |date=10 October 2003|publisher=The University of the West Indies|accessdate=25 June 2011|location=Cave Hill, Barbados}}{{cite web|url=http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_artista/105|title=Agostino Brunias c. 1730-Dominica, c. 1796|last=Sutton|first=Peter. C.|publisher=Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza|access-date=23 June 2011|location=Madrid, Spain|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110610072635/http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_artista/105|archive-date=10 June 2011}}

In 1768, Young was made Lieutenant Governor of Dominica. In 1769 he was made Baronet Young of North Dean. In 1770 he was chosen to be the first Governor of the new government, being sworn in on 17 November 1770. He was responsible for building the main military stronghold of Dominica in Roseau, Fort Young (now a hotel) in 1770 and for Government House, Dominica, his residence near the fort. He left Dominica in 1772, rushing to St Vincent to "assist with the Carib War" and to protect his estates there. Sir William Young was back in England at the end of 1773, and his office of Receiver and Governor ended, and it was concluded by his family that "the adventure in the ceded islands had proved so expensive and indeed ruinous" to him.

File:Pacification with the Maroon Negroes RMG E9981.jpg

Personal life

Young and his second wife, Elizabeth (1729–1801), the daughter of the mathematician Brook Taylor, had several children, including Sarah Elizabeth, William, Portia, Elizabeth, Mary, Henry, John, and Olivia.{{cite web|url=http://www.62ndregiment.org/Henry_Young.htm|title=The Family of Sir William Young, 1st Baronet, ca.1766|work=62ndregiment.org|accessdate=25 June 2011}} He and ten family members were featured in the oil painting, The Family of Sir William Young, Baronet (ca.1766) by Johann Zoffany.{{cite book|last=Tobin|first=Beth Fowkes|title=Picturing imperial power: colonial subjects in eighteenth-century British painting|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-9flbAxCJnIC&pg=PA40|accessdate=25 June 2011|year=1999|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-2338-9|page=40}} His eldest son, Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet (1749–1815), was the Governor of Tobago from 1807-1815 as well as serving as a Member of Parliament.{{cite ODNB|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30284?docPos=5|title=Young, William Sir|year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30284 |accessdate=25 June 2011}}

Sir William purchased some of the best pieces of real estate on Antigua, St Vincent, and Tobago. Despite this, he was seriously in debt and after his death in 1788 he left a debt of around £110,000 (£{{formatnum:{{Inflation|UK|110000|1788}}}} in {{CURRENTYEAR}} pounds{{inflation-fn|UK}}) for his first son to pay off. Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet also inherited four plantations and 896 slaves in the colonies at that time, but was unable to save them from bankruptcy.

Legacy

Young Island in the Grenadines is named in his honour.{{cite book|last=Henderson|first=James|title=Caribbean & the Bahamas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cMM_yrOxqZkC&pg=PA184|year=2005|publisher=New Holland Publishers|isbn=978-1-86011-212-6|page=184}}