George Maclean

[3] Maclean was a member of the Royal African Colonial Corps, stationed in British West Africa from 1826 until 1828.

[1] In 1842 he was investigated by Richard Robert Madden, following the 1839 discovery by activists that British merchants operated from the Gold Coast were supplying slaving vessels.

Madden found that Maclean had unfairly imprisoned 91 local people, some for as long as four years, on dubious grounds and without even the formality of a trial; and he also reported that Maclean illegally claimed that he had the authority to inflict capital punishment.

[5] Madden's enquiries, and subsequent parliamentary select committee, also concluded that Maclean lacked formal powers to act effectively against the trade, and the Colonial Office stepped in.

[3] Under the influence of James Stephen, the Gold Coast forts were detached from Sierra Leone and governed as a separate crown colony.