Edgar Corrie
Edgar Corrie (1748–1819) was a Scottish merchant in Liverpool, a close associate at the end of the 18th century of John Gladstone. Life. Corrie was born in Kirkcudbright. He was the son of William Corrie of Redbank (1720–1777) and his wife Margaret Edgar, daughter of Thomas Edgar of Reidbank who was Provost of Dumfries in 1730. When young, Corrie served a commercial apprenticeship in Liverpool, and by 1775 had established himself there. In the 1780s he was involved with brewing, and was senior partner in a firm of corn factors. He also acted as agent for James Stothert  of Cargen who owned a sugar plantation in Jamaica. In 1786 John Gladstone took the decision to move south from Leith to join Corrie, who was interested in challenging Thomas Booth for the Liverpool corn trade. By 1790, Corrie as senior partner in Corrie, Gladstone & Bradshaw, merchants and corn factors, decided to purchase American corn on a large scale, with Claude Scott & Co. of London. He also became a cotton broker, in the first half of the 1790s. In 1793–4 he acted as agent for John Tailyour (Taylor) of Kirktonhill, a slave trader and personal friend, in the credit squeeze  affecting slave cargoes, obtaining consignment of Liverpool ships to Tailyour's business. By the end of the agreed arrangement of 14 years, the third partner Jackson Bradshaw had died, Corrie and Gladstone were no longer on good terms, and Gladstone left to set up another partnership. The family business then became Edgar Corrie & Co., from 1805 Edgar Corrie & Son. From 1807 to 1813 it was Corrie, Ainslie & Co., after which it was dissolved. Views. Corrie wrote an extended letter (in fact two enclosures) on the Atlantic slave trade in 1788 to Lord Hawkesbury, asking that his anonymity be respected, with  disclosure of his name only to William Pitt the younger. In it he argued for his privately-held abolitionist views, stating that the trade based in Liverpool should be shut down. He made the case for conventional commerce in African products based on appropriate investment, and commented on the risk and returns of the "African trade". He also provided a seller's analysis of the Atlantic trade, with emphasis on freedom of choice of markets, in the context of available credit instruments. Family. Corrie married in 1774 Ann Falkner, daughter of Thomas Falkner of Rainhill, Lancashire: they had nine children . Their daughter Bridget married in 1807 Philip Barrington Ainslie, son of Philip Ainslie. Ainslie, using the pseudonym "Philo Scotus", wrote memoirs "Reminiscences of a Scottish gentleman commencing in 1787" (1861) that cover his arrival in Liverpool, with an introduction from Charles Stirling. Their sons included: