August 30, 1746 - Robert Milligan
Milligan operated at the intersection of Atlantic commerce and the slave trade, accumulating influence as both merchant and ship-owner before channeling that wealth and expertise into shaping London's infrastructure. His central role in establishing the West India Docks — securing their statutory monopoly — made him an architect of the trade systems that depended directly on enslaved labor in the Caribbean.
From Wikipedia
Robert Milligan (19 August 1746 – 21 May 1809) was a Scottish merchant, ship-owner and slave trader who was the driving force behind the construction and initial statutory sectoral monopoly of the West India Docks in London. From 1768 to 1779 Milligan was a merchant in Kingston, Jamaica. He left Jamaica in 1779 to establish himself in London, where he got married and had a family of eight children. He moved to Hampstead shortly before he died in 1809. By the time of his death, one of Milligan's partnerships had interests in estates in Jamaica which owned 526 slaves in their sugar plantations.
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