Thomas Walker (1758–1797) (a.k.a. Beau Walker) was a British slave trader.
Thomas Walker | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1758 |
| Died | 1797 (aged 38–39) at sea |
| Cause of death | Murder |
| Occupation | Slave trader |
| Spouse | Catherine McLelland |
| Children | 2 sons, 1 daughter, including George E. Walker |
| Relatives | David Davis Walker (grandson) George Herbert Walker (great-grandson) George Herbert Walker Jr. (great-great-grandson) George H. W. Bush (great-great-great-grandson) George W. Bush (great-great-great-great-grandson) |
Early life
editThomas Walker was born 1758 in Henbury, now a suburb of Bristol, England.[1][2]
Career
editWalker worked as a slave trader, when Bristol was one of the three major slave trading ports in Britain.[2] He served as a slave ship Captain and was resident slave trader who operated in the Sierra Leone region of West Africa.[2]
He did much of his slave trading at Bunce Island, a British slave castle in the Sierra Leone River, owned at that time by the Company of John & Alexander Anderson, based in London.[2] He was involved in at least eleven slave trading voyages between 1784 and 1792, taking African captives from Sierra Leone to the British West Indies and the United States.[2]
Personal life
editOn 22 February 1785, Walker married Catherine McLelland (1770–1806) at St. Andrew's Church in Clifton.[2] She died on 18 October 1806, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a decade after her husband, leaving their older son as the guardian for his sister and a younger son, George E. Walker (1797–1864).[2]
Death and legacy
editWalker was murdered in 1797 at sea in a mutiny.[2] He is an ancestor of two U.S. presidents, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.[2]
References
edit- "Americans of Gentle Birth and Their Ancestors" v1 ed. Pittman, Baltimore Genealogical Publishing Company, 1970, pp. 312–318