James Dick (slave trader)

Born in Forres, County of Moray, Dick left Scotland at the age of 19 and travelled to the West Indies, settling down in Kingston, Jamaica as a clerk in a local merchant house.

Dick grew up in a house on Forres' High Street, and studied at a grammar school in Rafford while herding cattle during the summer break.

[citation needed] After providing for his daughter, Dick left £113,787 in his will for the establishment of a bequest to assist education institutions and their staff members in Aberdeenshire, Banffshire and the County of Moray.

In his will, which further stipulated that a thirteen-person board of governors would be established to manage the bequest, Dick wrote that it was my wish to form a fund for the benefit of that neglected though useful class of men, and to add to their present trifling salaries.

Its funds were administered by trustees from to the Society of Writers to His Majesty's Signet; applicants were rigorously examined for suitability and were required to be proficient in teaching classical languages, humanities, mathematics and science, and those were successful had their salaries doubled.

A number of historians also urged the First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, to intervene and use the bequest's funds as reparations for slavery by sending it to Jamaica.