Sir David Wedderburn, 1st Baronet

Sir David Wedderburn, 1st Baronet (10 March 1775[1] – 7 April 1858)[2] was a Scottish businessman and Tory politician.

[4] His father had escaped to Jamaica after the execution of his own father, Sir John Wedderburn, 5th Baronet of Blackness, and had established a successful business based on slave sugar, trading with his brother and cousins in their London trading house Wedderburn, Webster & Co. His mother died two weeks after his birth.

[6] David Wedderburn had two full sisters, Margaret and Jean, and according to the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, seven half-siblings.

[10][7] In 1796 David Wedderburn joined the business, at 35 Leadenhall Street in London, and made large profits.

Scott had the support of the powerful Lord Melville, but by the time he began his canvassing, Wedderburn was too far ahead to be dislodged.