Darwin Correspondence Project

British-born trader in Africa. Left England for Cape Colony, 1842, and moved to Lagos and then Badagry in the early 1850s. Became an independent trader in the late 1850s. Appointed vice-consul for Badagry and Porto Novo, 1861; resident agent and collector of customs, Badagry, 1862; acting vice-consul of Okeodan and resident agent of Okeodan, Ado, and Ipokia, 1863–5; special envoy to Dahomey, 1866–7; civil commandant, police magistrate, sub-collector of customs, and justice of the peace for the Western district, including Badagry, 1867–78; political agent and, at intervals, acting district commissioner, 1879–86.