Philip Dottin Souper

Philip Dottin Souper, portrait by Ramsay Richard Reinagle

Philip Dottin Souper (c.1800 – 1861) was a British colonial administrator and railway company secretary.

Early life

He was baptised Philippe Dottin on 7 October 1803, the son of William Henry Souper and Amelia Ann; his mother, middle name in fact Anne, was the daughter of Philip Reinagle.^[1][2] His father was a British Army officer, who joined in 1797 a regiment raised to serve in the West Indies.^[3] He was in 1813 transferred from the Chasseurs Britanniques, to become a paymaster at Lymington, in Dorset.^[4] In a noted case, he was convicted of a murder in Lymington in 1814, after a duel in which he killed another officer. The judge, Sir Henry Dampier, recommended mercy. It was then reported that Henry William and Amelia Ann Souper had a family of six sons and a daughter.^[5]

Trinidad

Philip Dottin Souper became Colonial Secretary of Trinidad under Ralph James Woodford, Governor from 1813. Woodford used very young officials for administrative work, and kept them on a short leash. It was noted that an attempt to bribe Souper was rejected.^[6] An 1834 report on the drive to reduce sinecures shows Souper taking on the dual roles of Secretary and Clerk of the Council.^[7] There were in fact three defined official roles, Secretary, Clerk and Register (or court intendant, often called escribando, a term inherited from the Spanish colonial time in Trinidad). In 1810, James Chapman, who held officially the three posts, had been listed as a sinecure holder using deputies for the functions.^[8]

Therefore Souper, who held each of these posts at some times, was for most of his career doing so as a deputy. He was absent from his post as Governor's Secretary in 1824 for reasons of bad health.^[9] The "acting escribando" in July of that year was George F. Souper.^[10] George Frederick Souper of Trinidad became a barrister of the Inner Temple, being called to the bar in 1833.^[11][12]

An anonymous pamphlet by "A Free Mulatto" of 1824 accused Souper of acting in a bigoted way towards a man of colour who had served in the militia, around 1820. It records alleged slurs (including the denial of the title Mr. on a passport, and on the competence of the previous Secretary Peter Gellineau).^[13] The author was Jean-Baptiste Philip, of French-speaking "free coloured" background and a doctor, and the pamphlet An Address to the Right Hon. Earl Bathurst, published in London, dealt with grievances specific to the "coloured population of Trinidad", understood free.^[14] In particular it dismissed an argument against setting a precedent for the recognition of people of colour, in relation to a "Dr. Philip" requesting a position from Woodward as military surgeon. He stated that Gellineau was moved to make room for Souper, but held posts including that of escribando. He argued that the precedent had thereby already been set.^[15] A related complaint about the Council, in which Souper as Clerk was named, was that of George Pilkington, civil engineer on Trinidad and future abolitionist campaigner, from 1830. In autobiographical work he alleged that the Council had acted wrongly against him on a financial matter, after he had promoted a person of colour to officer rank in the militia cavalry.^[16]

In 1829 Souper acted as executor for his uncle, Philip Reinagle (the younger), who was on Trinidad.^[17] He took part in the 1830 public meeting hosted by Robert Neilson that appointed Joseph Marryat to represent West Indian planter interests.^[18]

Under the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, Souper received compensation, for one enslaved person in Trinidad.^[19] In 1836 he was still acting as Clerk to the Council of Trinidad, but was seeking a post in New South Wales.^[20][21]

Company Secretary

In July 1836 Souper was corresponding from John Street, The Adelphi in London, as Secretary to the South Western Railway Company.^[22] In 1837 the company reportedly reached an informal agreement with the London, Falmouth and Exeter Railway Company, a rival in the south-west of England, not to obstruct parliamentary bills. It followed a deputation from the London, Falmouth and Exeter meeting Souper.^[23][24]

In 1839 Souper was serving as Secretary to the Eastern Coast of Central America Commercial and Agricultural Company.^[25] The company was set up as a project of Marshall Bennett, a mahogany trader operating in the region of Belize. From 1834 Juan Galindo was opposing expansion of British wood-cutting interests in the area. Bennett diverted Thomas Gould, who was looking to revive the Poyais venture (in a part of what is now Honduras) towards colonisation based on an 1834 land grant around Vera Paz, in eastern Guatemala. His own aims concerned mahogany to be found in the vicinity of the Rio Dolce.^[26]

The Guatemalan administration under Mariano Gálvez took a favourable line on colonisation, the Eastern Coast Company produced brochures in 1836, and emigrants from London arrived by boat at Vera Paz that summer. A competing group, based on the investors in the failed Poyais grant, then intervened, having secured a further land grant from Robert Charles Frederic. Thomas Hedgcock, himself interested in mahogany from the Black River area, manipulated the Poyais revival; and the rivalry was expressed in a corporate raid on the Eastern Coast Company in October 1837. From this point onwards third parties were invoked: Francisco Morazán of the Federal Republic of Central America, and the British Colonial Office. The Eastern Coast Company, however, was forced to fall back on a reduced colonisation scheme round Vera Paz. The Black River interests fell to a separate vehicle by 1838.^[27]

Bennett died in 1839. The Eastern Coast Company pursued its colony at "Abbottsville", which counted 80 colonists, after a shipload of February 1840. The whole area was descending into civil war, however, with Galindo and Morazán being killed. Abbottsville was in poor condition at the end of 1840, and was eventually deserted.^[28]

Souper was Secretary to the Irish North Midland Railway in 1845.^[29] This was a proposed railway, which went out of business in August 1847, repaying investors 12 shillings in the pound.^[30] According to Alumni Cantabrigienses, Souper also worked as a surgeon.^[31]

Last years

In 1848 Souper was appointed Registrar of the Court of First Instance on Mauritius.^[32] He was Registrar of the Supreme Court there, from 1852.^[33] In 1857 he was appointed collector of internal revenue on Mauritius.^[34]

Souper died at age 60, on 13 November 1861, in Queen's Terrace, Southampton, four days after disembarking from the SS Euxine;^[35][36] or the following day, at 3, Upper Phillimore-place, Kensington, London.^[37]

Family

Oriana Jane Souper

Souper married Oriana Jane Reinagle, daughter of Ramsay Richard Reinagle, in 1827.^[38] This was a marriage of first cousins. They had a large family, including sons:

• Edward Caleb, married at Perth, Western Australia to Elizabeth Bennison Spencer on 2 January 1844^[39]
• Woodford Crowe (died 17 January 1848 at age 14)^[40]
• Charles Edward (1842–1909), army officer, born in Bedford, married in 1871 Annie, eldest daughter of Richard Bolton McCausland^[41][42]
• Frederick Abraham, fourth son, born 1844 in Bedford. His daughter Oriana Fanny married Edward Adrian Wilson.^[31][43]

And daughters:

• Sarah Johnston married Francis Frederick Rowcroft
• Julia Ann, second daughter, died 1863^[44]
• Oriana Rachel, third daughter, married in 1860 George Cleland Rowcroft, army officer, and was mother of George Francis Rowcroft DSO^{[45][46][47][48]}
• Jessie Georgiana (also Jesse, Jessey), fourth daughter, married Gerald de Courcy O'Grady^[49][50][51]
• Jane Hassall, married Rev. John Paget Parker^[52]

Frances Lloyd, one of twin daughters, died on 28 November 1839 at Eastcott, near Harrow, at age 2.^[53] One daughter was born at Bedford in 1846.^[54]

Notes

External links

• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~soperstuff/soperstuff/soupers.htm
• http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~soperstuff/soperstuff/Immigration/immigration_to_caribbean.htm