The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Local historian reveals Angus man founded Caribbean trading port.
Former Jacobite John Philips became a success story in wake of Darien scheme disaster
It was a symptom of Scotland’s pre-industrial recession, driving home the pitfalls of overseas trade and politics, and clearing the way to parliamentary union between two countries.
The doomed Darien scheme failed to establish a Scottish port in Panama and muted opposition to the Act of Union with England in 1707.
But a Scots historian has uncovered evidence that an Angus Jacobite did manage to achieve a Caribbean connection within a generation.
Keith Otto, from Anstruther, believes the history books should record John Philips from Arbroath as Scotland’s success story on the islands.
Described as a slave-trading, “difficult” plantation owner who settled, was exiled from and then subjugated the same island, Philips’ legacy is visited by millions of tourists each year.
Philipsburg on the island of St Maarten thrives to this day as a duty-free port, performing the same function the coloniser intended in 1735.
Mr Otto, a member of Anstruther and Kilrenny Burgh Collection, recently retired from Abertay University and now works as a guide at Kellie Castle.
He read John McKendrick’s recent book on Darien and took issue with his conclusion Scots had failed in the Caribbean.
Mr Otto had visited Philipsburg and read a snippet about an Arbroath man in a museum there.
“I decided to do some research back here and visited Angus Archives to discover more about him,” he said.
“We may not have achieved it under a Scottish or indeed British flag, but a Scot was certainly responsible for founding a trading port.”
Philips was born in 1684 and was the standard bearer for John Graham of Claverhouse, ‘Bonnie Dundee’, at the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, then followed the Jacobite-leading Earl of Mar in 1715.
After the Battle of Sheriffmuir in Perthshire, he joined many in exile to the Netherlands and became a merchant with the Dutch West Indies Company.
He returned often until his father died in 1734, leaving him the money to buy a ship, The Providence. He was named the first Commander of St Maarten and provided a waypoint for duty-free trade between Europe and its colonies.
Mr Otto added: “Philipsburg remains a testament to a remarkable man and a life which stretched from the darkness of Sheriffmuir, and the aftermath of the 1715 uprising, to the brilliant sunshine and azure waters of the Caribbean.”