Alexander Blair

(d. 1815)

Alexander Blair was a co-investor in Dr. Charles Irving’s scheme of 1776, which sought to establish a plantation to produce castor oil and cotton on the British-controlled Mosquito Shore, south of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Rio Grande de Matagalpa. Ricinus Communis, the plant from which castor oil is extracted, grew wild on the coast, which made the Mosquito Shore an ideal location for the plantation. It is possible that Blair was the son or grandson of Dr. Alexander Blair of Port Royal who owned a plantation in Jamaica, which would explain his wealth and connections in the West Indies. This may be the reason that Irving chose him as his partner for the Mosquito Shore venture. Blair and Irving co-owned the Morning Star, which was used to transport captives to the plantation and for trade. They hired Gustavus Vassa as the overseer of the Mosquito Shore project, hoping that they could leverage his fluency in Igbo to recruit his fellow countrymen to work on the plantation. At the time, Vassa thought that slavery could be reformed and apparently believed that Irving’s plantation would provide enslaved Africans with ameliorated conditions and the opportunity to eventually become free workers. On April 30, 1776, two Spanish vessels of its coast guard seized the Morning Star at Black River (modern Rio Tinto). The loss of the ship and its contents cost Blair and Irving an estimated £3723. Blair and Irving petitioned the British government to seek compensation for the “violent outrage” committed against them and to regain ownership of the ship. Vassa became disillusioned and ultimately abandoned the project in June of 1776. The plantation was a dismal failure.

Blair and Irving’s interest in castor oil likely stemmed from its use in the manufacturing of soap. Blair, along with the distinguished chemist James Keir, purchased the Tipton Chemical Works in 1778 at Tipton in Staffordshire to produce nitric and hydrochloric acids, red and white lead, and alkali, among other chemicals, which were used for manufacturing soap. The factory was established at the former site of Bloomsmithy Mill in an area later referred to as Black Country, due to the heavy pollution from the concentration of factories and coal mines in the region. The location in Black Country allowed them to take advantage of inexpensive fuel and the convenience of the canal for the manufacture of alkali and soap. The factory became a show place in the district due to the scale of production, which was considered second only to the Soho Engineering Works, which Keir managed for Matthew Boulton and James Watt.

Blair was involved with at least two other partnerships, one with Scottish chemist and entrepreneur, James Keir, and another with soldier and mathematician, James Glenie. Keir had lived much of his life in West Bromwich and was both a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Lunar Society. He is credited for inventing modern-day soap and for revolutionizing the Stourbridge Glass Industry and the Soho Company. Blair and Keir may have taken part in the attack on the French Island of Guadeloupe during the Seven Years War and served together in the 69th Regiment of Foot in the West Indies (Barbados & Martinique). Blair served in the British Army from 1761 to 1762, then in Ireland in 1768.

In addition to his operation of the Tipton Chemical Works, Blair partnered with Keir in 1794 to develop the Tividale Colliery, which was also located along the Birmingham Canal in South Straffordshire in the Black Country. The coal mine supplied fuel for the alkali works and geological specimens for Keir to study. In 1811, Keir turned over the Tipton operations to Blair, while Blair’s two sons took over the company until June 3, 1815, when the partnership between Blair and his sons ended and the factory ceased to be associated with their names. Blair also invested in the timber business with James Glenie. The two secured a contract importing ship timber and masts from New Brunswick; however, the business failed and Glenie went bankrupt.

Blair married a prominent London heiress Mary Johnson, the daughter of Dr. Alexander Johnson “of the Hague,” with whom he had three surviving children; Mary Margaret and twins, Alexander and Richard. He lived with his family at Castle Bromwich in Warwickshire from 1787 to 1789. In a letter to her mother in 1819, Maria Edgeworth indicates that Blair died in 1815, after having spent $10,000 a year in high London Society, gambling his money away and leaving his widow with a modest £400 a year. Unbeknownst to Keir, Blair apparently embezzled thousands of pounds from Tipton Chemical Works to pay off his gambling debts, nearly destroying the company in the process. In the end, embarrassed by his poor life decisions, he became estranged from his children. Blair’s daughter went on to write a scathing novel about her father.

Black Country, West Midlands, West of Birmingham, 19th Century.