Colin Campbell, of Gothenburg

1686 - 1757  (70 years)

• Name	Colin Campbell
  Suffix	of Gothenburg
  Born	Jun 1686
  Gender	Male
  Died	1757
  Person ID	I4333	Admin Kevin's Chiefly Lines
  Last Modified	12 Jun 2022

  
  

  Father	John Campbell,   d. Abt 1699
  Relationship	natural
  Mother	Elizabeth Campbell, of Moy
  Relationship	natural
  Family ID	F1831	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  His grandfather was the natural son of SIr John Campbell of Cawdor. (History of the Campbells, Vol. 3, page 328) http://www.electricscotland.com/history/sweden/18.htm Colin Campbell lived in London 1720-23, and was involved in the transactions that led to the South Sea Bubble. He appears to have fled when the bubble burst and is next to be found in Ostend. 1723-30 he worked, largely as super-cargo, in the Austrian East India Company, which was based in that city. This company was a clear attempt to compete with the British East India Company, and many Scots were engaged in the enterprise. It did not, however, prove the success that the Emperor had expected, and Campbell left it a couple of years before its liquidation. The next similar attempt was to be made from Sweden. In 1730 we meet Colin Campbell for the first time in Sweden, to which he had been called by the powerful Gothenburg merchant Nikias Sahlgren to assist in the formation of the Swedish East India Company. It is difficult to determine whether it was Sahlgren or Campbell who took the initiative originally but the latter clearly played a dominant role in the Swedish company from the very beginning. In 1730 Campbell was in Stockholm, but in the following year he settled in Gothenburg, where he lived until his death. He applied for Swedish citizenship on 14th June 1731, and we learn from his application that he was born in June 1686, and regarded himself as a member of the noble family of Argyll through the Campbells of Cawdor. From 1731 until his death he was a director of the new company. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Colin Campbell, evidently belonging to the noble house of Argyle, became in 1731 a Swedish nobleman and director of the Swedish East India Company established with the consent of the Estates in Gottenburg. Other members of the family appear to have still earlier resided in Sweden, as, for example, Robert Campbell, who was naturalized 1736, and a Maria Campbell, of a noble Scottish family, who was married to Count Herman Cedercreutz, Member of the State Council, who died in 1754, when she became the owner of the hereditary estate of Kjuloholm in Finland.