20 Facts About Macgregor Laird

Macgregor Laird was a Scottish merchant pioneer of British trade on the River Niger.

Macgregor Laird never returned to Africa but instead devoted himself to the development of trade with West Africa and especially to the opening up of the countries then forming the British protectorates of Nigeria.

Macgregor Laird was born at Greenock, the younger son of Agnes and William Macgregor Laird, founder of the Birkenhead firm of shipbuilders of that name.

Macgregor Laird's paternal grandfather, John Laird, was a merchant and rope maker in Greenock while his maternal grandfather, Gregor Macgregor, had commanded a ship that undertook voyages between Greenock and the West Indies.

Macgregor Laird was helped to recovery by Dr Thomas Briggs, who later accompanied Laird in the expedition to the Niger.

Macgregor Laird worked on the designs of the ships to navigate the Niger.

The Alburkah was a paddle-wheel steamer of fifty-five tons designed by Macgregor Laird, and was the first iron vessel to make an ocean voyage.

Macgregor Laird was among 48 European voyagers on the expedition, which was led by Richard Lander.

Macgregor Laird went up the Niger to the confluence of the Benue River, which he was the first white man to ascend.

Macgregor Laird did not go far up the river but formed an accurate idea as to its source and course.

Macgregor Laird was weakened by fever and had to return to Fernando Po, where he was received by Colonel Edward Nicolls, the British Governor there, who later became his father-in-law.

Macgregor Laird rested in Fernando Po before returning to England.

Between 1835 and 1841, Macgregor Laird was involved with the British and American Steam Navigation Company.

Macgregor Laird did not survive the disappearance of the President, and the navigation firm was liquidated in 1841.

Macgregor Laird advised merchants to cultivate trade with coastal middlemen as a primary business objective, and as a secondary objective, to send a steam vessel inland to woo communities in the interior and bypass the coastal middlemen.

In 1838, after the apprenticeship system in West Indies was eliminated ending slavery, Macgregor Laird advocated voluntary emigration of Africans to West Indies as a way to curtail slavery and bring Africans in contact to Europeans and their culture.

Macgregor Laird expressed these views to a parliamentary select committee on the West Coast of Africa in 1842 and to the General Anti-Slavery Convention in 1843.

However, upon renewed government interest in the affairs of West Africa after the appointment of John Beecroft as consul in the Oil Rivers and the 1851 annexation of Lagos, Macgregor Laird submitted a proposal to the government for regular mail communication by steamship between England and West Africa.

Under W B Baikie, the ship made a successful voyage which enabled Laird to convince the government to sign contracts for annual trading trips by steamers specially built for navigation of the Niger and Benue.

In 1837, Macgregor Laird married Colonel Edward Nicolls' daughter, Eleanor Hester Nicolls.