William Panton

Background

William Panton was born about 1742 in Aberdeenshire, Scotland and emigrated to Charlestown, now Charleston, South Caroline. He was the son of John and Barbara (Wemys) Panton.

Career

William Panton's life after his emigration falls naturally into three periods. During at least a part of the first period, from about 1770 to 1775, he resided in Charlestown, obtained a South Carolina land grant, and was for several years a member of the firm of Moore & Panton of Savannah. From 1775 to 1784 he spent most of his time in East Florida, where he organized, with Thomas Forbes as his chief associate, the firm, Panton, Forbes & Company, and built up trade and influence with the Creek Indians. His consistently Loyalist attitude, which brought him into conflict with the South Carolina and Georgia Revolutionary authorities early in the Revolution, culminated in his permanent outlawry by two acts of the Georgia Provincial Congress, in 1778 and 1782, and the confiscation of his property. In the third period, from 1784 to 1801, the most important historically, he lived mostly in West Florida.

After the British evacuation of East Florida, in July 1784, it became evident that Spain needed the friendship of the southern Indians for protection against the aggressive Anglo-American backwoodsmen to the north. Convinced that a well-conducted trade offered the best way to get and hold that friendship and finding no Spanish house available, the Spanish government temporarily allowed Panton's firm, now Panton, Leslie & Company, to continue their trade without loss of British citizenship or freedom of worship. As no Spanish house ever became available, Panton, Leslie & Company and their successors kept up the Indian trade and allied activities until the close of the Spanish regime.

At its greatest extent the business comprised the trade of the Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee Indians, conducted by Panton at the Pensacola headquarters through a chain of branches, agencies, and trading posts ranging from Havana and Nassau to New Orleans and from Mobile to the Chickasaw Bluffs, with a concern in London to furnish trade goods and to market the peltries and other commodities received from the Indians. He claimed a monopoly under his royal grants; for only a part of the time, however, was he able to make good his claim. To the difficulties common to mercantile undertakings of the time and those that weighed even more heavily in the affairs of the firm after its reorganization by John Forbes, 1769-1823, was added the competition of the American trade made possible by the liberal Indian trade policy of the United States, which in Panton's later years almost drove the firm into bankruptcy.

None the less, he was able, in spite of his heavy losses in Georgia and in the Florida Indian trade, to keep the business going and to leave his family and friends more than $10, 000. He was able, moreover, for the most part to hold his own in the face of international complications. Seriously ill, he sailed for Havana on the advice of his physician in January 1801. Because of the war then in progress between Great Britain and Spain he, as a British subject, was denied admittance in spite of his passport from the Spanish commandant of Pensacola. Continuing his voyage to Nassau he broke under the strain, died at sea, and was buried at Great Harbour, Berry Islands.

Achievements

• William Panton was widely known as co-founder of Panton, Leslie & Company. It became the largest mercantile company in Indian trade.

Personality

William Panton was exceptional in business ability and resourcefulness, hot-tempered and insistent upon his own rights yet diplomatic, careful in money matters yet generous, and loyal to friends and principle.

Connections

William Panton was unmarried.

Father:

John Panton

Mother:

Barbara Wemyss Panton

Friend:

Alexander McGillivray