Joseph Marryat (1757–1824)

Joseph Marryat (8 October 1757 – 12 January 1824) was an English West India merchant and banker, serving as an MP for Sandwich from 1812 until his death in 1824.

[3] Marryat's wife, the American Charlotte von Geyer (died 1854), was one of the first women admitted to membership of the Royal Horticultural Society, on the strength of her garden at Wimbledon House.

[4] An ardent opponent of abolitionism, Marryat initially supported the maintenance of the Atlantic slave trade and in February 1807, as agent for Trinidad, petitioned the House of Commons against a ban.

He contested William Wilberforce's proposed registry of slaves, arguing that enforced abolition would "ruin the West Indian colonies".

[3] He also engaged in polemic debate by issuing pamphlets and lobbying his peers as a prominent member of the London Society of West India Planters and Merchants.