Stewart Marjoribanks

Stewart Marjoribanks (1774 – 31 August 1863) was a British Whig politician, and wine merchant. Family Marjoribanks was the third son of Edward Marjoribanks of Hallyards and Lees, Berwick, and Grizel née Stewart, daughter of Archibald Stewart of Edinburgh and Mitcham, Surrey; and the brother of Sir John Marjoribanks, 1st Baronet. He married twice, first to Eleanor, illegitimate daughter of Archibald Paxton, in 1798 and they had one son—Archibald John Marjoribanks—before her death in 1799. In 1841, he married Lucy, daughter of Edward Roger Pratt, and they had no children. Merchant By 1798, after presumably working for him, Marjoribanks was in partnership with Paxton as a wine merchant, marrying Eleanor in the same year. On Paxton's death in 1817, Marjoribanks continued his business in conjunction with Paxton's son, William Gill Paxton; Marjoribanks' elder brother, Campbell, joined as a director of the company in 1807, becoming a chairman three times. At some point, it appears Marjoribanks became involved in the work of the East India Company, pursuing this line by 1817 and becoming a shipowner for the company on a "considerable scale" later on. By 1832, he had withdrawn from the wine business, and by 1840, he is considered to have sold his majority stake in his East India agency. New Zealand Company In 1825 Marjoribanks was a director of the New Zealand Company, a venture chaired by the wealthy John George Lambton, Whig MP (and later 1st Earl of Durham), that made the first attempt to colonise New Zealand.