Background
Alexander was the fourth son of John Tennant (1725-1810) and Margaret McClure (1738-1784). His father, a farmer, was well known in the industry.
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Alexander Tennant
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In his Epistle to James Tennant of Glenconner, possibly referring to an entrepreneurial flair, Burns wrote of Alexander:
An’ Lord, remember singing Sannock, Wi’ hale breeks, saxpence, an’ a bannock!, loosely translating to And Lord, remember singing Alexander, With whole trousers, sixpence and a bannock (food)!
These dealings were frequently on the very edge of legality and it was alleged that, following the British Slave Trade Acting of 1807, Tennant used a Portuguese flag to further his business. The Governor of the Cape, General Baird, had agreed to allow the sale of several hundred slaves before abolition but as Tennant took delivery after that date many of those slaves were left to fend for themselves on Robben Island. In 1801 Tennant was involved in a High Court lawsuit over financial irregularities regarding ships that he had bought acting as middle man between a Brazilian merchant, Marcos da Costa Guimarains and Admiral Cornwallis, the British Commander in False Bay.
Despite the questionable business arrangements and practices of his youth, at the time of his death in 1814, Tennant had gained an air of respectability.
Membership
The firm of Tennant and Trail then set about transporting convicts to Australia as well as moving slaves from Mozambique to be sold at the Cape to members of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
