The formerly French-owned Paraclete estate was centrally situated, a few miles inland from the eastern coast of Grenada. Ninian Home purchased a third share of this estate in 1764. His uncle Patrick bought another third at the same time and sold his share in 1770. Ninian’s share was sold to his close friend Alexander Campbell before their deaths in the Fédon Uprising on 8^th April 1795.

The man-made water channel diverted a river. It was constructed by enslaved African labour probably before 1763, whilst the island was under French rule. It was not purely decorative; cut sugar cane was floated down it to be processed by enslaved African people in the mill and boiling house. Around 220 enslaved men, women and children lived and worked at Paraclete, but the full lists of their names do not appear to have survived in the archives.

The plantation house probably contained mahogany furniture (like that listed at Waltham) which Ninian and Penelope preferred and most likely commissioned from the London cabinetmakers of Thomas Chippendale Snr and Jnr. In this painting, note the fretwork of the veranda – it is in the fashionable ‘Chinese Chippendale’ style. Penelope Home died in this house in September 1794, possibly of cancer.

Adam Callander was a well-travelled Scottish artist who depicted landscapes and seascapes in Scotland, England, the Caribbean, St Helena, and India. He did not show the harsh realities of plantation life, instead enslaved men (only) are used as ‘staffage’ for scale and picturesque effect.

This painting was conserved in 2022 with a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund.