SANDBACH TINNE & COMPANY

Correspondence between McInroy Sandbach & Co of Demerara [later Sandbach Parker & Co] and McInroy Parker & Co of Glasgow [later Sandbach Tinne & Co of Liverpool] concerning sugar, rum, coffee, and fishing and cotton trades, shipments, the purchase and sale of estates, and political and economic conditions in the Caribbean and Europe.

James McInroy came to Demerara in 1782, and planted or acquired a sugar plantation soon after his arrival. By 1790 he was joined by Samuel Sandbach, Charles Stewart Parker and George Robertson, and the company, McInroy Sandbach & Co. was founded. At first the head office was in Glasgow under the name McInroy Parker & Co., and in 1804 a branch was founded in Liverpool, which later became the company headquaters. In 1813 Philip Tinne was taken into the partnership and the company became known as Sandbach, Tinne & Co in Liverpool, and McInroy Sandbach & Co in Demerara (in 1861 changed to Sandbach Parker & Co). They were importers and exporters, shipping and estate agents, mainly concerned with sugar, coffee, molasses and rum, but also in 'prime Gold Coast Negroes' (J Rodway: 'History of British Guiana', 1893). The families intermarried and the sons and sons-in-law entered the business.
The earliest accounts available at Companies House are for 1948. These show Parkers, a Sandbach and later a Tinne still involved in the company. However they are a part of a larger group Demerara Co. Ltd. In the early 1960s the company experienced its first losses, and several shake ups in the Board of Directors followed. Business continued to go badly, and by 1969 the Company had been taken over by Jessel Securities. Sandbach Industries went into liquidation in 1969, and K R Hunt Ltd and Sandbach Export Ltd were sold off.The company was wound up in 1972, and Jessel Securities itself later went into liquidation.

Chronological

Open

It is not known where the ICS holding of Sandbach Tinne & Co correspondence comes from. It was purchased by a stamp dealer for the envelopes and then passed to ICS

Handlist available in the ICS Library.

Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

A photocopying service is available, at the discretion of the Library staff. Copies are supplied solely for research or private study. Requests to publish, or to quote from original material should be submitted to the Information Resources Manager.

Other records of Sandbach Tinne & Co are in Guyana University Library, the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and the Lancashire Record Office.