Z 1883.000 McIntosh (Alexander) Journal

Biography/History

Yet trade was not McIntosh's only area of interest. At least as early as 1768, McIntosh began applying for land grants and continued to accumulate property through the next decade. He sought a grant for land near Mobile, acquired a plantation at Pointe Coupée, and accumulated several thousand acres in the Natchez District: at Petit Gulf and on Boyd's, Cole's, and St. Catherine's creeks. A merchant and landowner, McIntosh was also active in civic and military affairs. He was elected to the Assembly of British West Florida as the representative from Mobile in 1767 and again in 1769 when he was also appointed one of the justices of the new commission of peace in British West Florida. During the contests between Spain, Great Britain, and eventually the United States for control of the region in the 1770s, McIntosh repeatedly took an active part in the British cause. He passed information on Spanish attempts to influence the Indians of the region to British Lieutenant John Thomas in 1771. When American marauder James Willing and his forces raided the Natchez area in February 1778, McIntosh was one of their primary targets and clearly part of a circle of Loyalist planters and businessmen. The Willing party briefly took him prisoner and by-passed Natchez specifically to raid his plantation and that of Anthony Hutchins, killing some of McIntosh's livestock and carrying off slaves. McIntosh reported that his name appeared on a blacklist kept by the Americans and warned his Pointe Coupée neighbor and sometimes business associate William Dunbar that his name appeared there as well. Dunbar's property was raided, as was that of McIntosh's partner, John Fitzpatrick, who took refuge in a Spanish fort.

McIntosh joined his Loyalist neighbors in resisting Willing. Along with Anthony Hutchins and Thomas Lyman, McIntosh served as commander of a company of provincial troops formed to defend the Natchez District under the command of John McGillivray, McIntosh's business associate. Having served as a ranger under British Superintendent of Indian Affairs John Stuart, McIntosh was active in raising Choctaw troops, and his company aided Hutchins in preventing the occupation of Natchez by American forces in April. In a May 7, 1778, letter to Lord George Germain, secretary for the American Colonies, the governor of British West Florida, Peter Chester, commended McIntosh for his "great spirit and bravery" in the battle at White Cliffs. When two British merchants sent information on the launching of an American supply ship from New Orleans, the news was passed to William Dunbar with copies to forward to Fitzpatrick, Hutchins, Jean-Baptiste Tenoir of Pointe Coupée, and Alexander McIntosh.

If McIntosh clearly supported his neighbors in 1778, his relations with them became more complicated after Natchez passed under Spanish rule in 1780. A group of prominent Natchez settlers, including John and Philip Alston, McIntosh's Pointe Coupée customer John Blommart, and eventually Anthony Hutchins, rebelled in April 1781. McIntosh apparently attempted to balance his friendships with his support of the government in power. He warned the Spanish commandant of the rebels' plans, but once the rebellion succeeded, acted as mediator, going to New Orleans with George Rapalje (Rapalji) and William Pountney to negotiate for Blommart's party, and continuing on with Pountney to Pensacola to meet with Governor Galvez on the rebels' behalf. When the Spanish regained control of the area, McIntosh apparently continued this role. He is credited by several sources with intervening for the rebellious settlers, and the Natchez court records reveal that he acted as witness at the inventory of John Blommart's effects when his property was confiscated by the Spanish and as guardian for John Alston's children when Alston was forced to flee.

Ill enough in July 1781 that he was unable to appear in court on one occasion, Alexander McIntosh died either in late 1781 or early 1782. By March 1782, Anne Shield McIntosh was handling business transactions as his widow. By November 1782, Anne McIntosh was remarried to Adam Bingaman. As McIntosh's heir, she passed her claims to her new husband. The Bingaman wealth, therefore, was based in part on Alexander McIntosh's extensive land holdings.

Scope and Content

The journal provides information not only on McIntosh's activities, but on the patterns of trade and the social and economic history of British West Florida and the Natchez District, by recording the varied nature of goods exchanged and the names of settlers, trading firms, and, occasionally, the slaves, involved. McIntosh provided foodstuffs, liquor, dry goods, livestock, slaves, and meals in return for tobacco, skins, services, slaves, poultry, orders of credit, and occasionally cash. This list of names is in itself a valuable source for historians and genealogists wishing to document the establishment of families in the region. It is clear that several prominent early settlers of the Natchez District were among his clients and partners (Samuel Gibson, John Blommart, Henry Lefleur, Christopher Bingaman appear in the journal), as well as merchants and settlers of the Louisiana area (members of the Monsanto family appear, as does Oliver Pollock).

Series Identification

1. Journal. 1772–1774. 0.33 c.f.