At the time this portrait was painted Patrick Home was MP for Berwickshire. Patrick stood for election in 1784 at the instigation of Henry Dundas (1742-1811), then Lord Advocate of Scotland and Lord of Trade (1784-86). Patrick served as MP until 1796 when deafness and frailty prevented him from continuing. He had hoped his nephew, Ninian, would take over the reins in 1789, but this was not to be.

Patrick was prevailed upon by Ninian to support his drive to gain a higher status in Grenada. With lobbying from both Patrick and George Home, Henry Dundas, prevailed upon Prime Minister Pitt and enabled Ninian to become Governor of the island in August 1792, despite Ninian’s relatives’ misgivings on his remaining in the Caribbean.

Given Ninian’s West Indian business interests in enslavement, it is not surprising that Patrick voted against the abolition of the slave trade on 15 March 1796, one of his last actions as an MP.

In 1771, Patrick married Jane Graham, who had links with slavery. Jane’s brother, John Graham, owned the Douglaston estate in Grenada from 1768 and was close friends with Ninian. Graham also owned several plots on Tobago. Patrick helped Graham become Governor of Tobago in 1769.

Jane and Patrick spent their married lives in Italy, but separated in 1779, and Jane became a nun in a Belgian convent. However, Patrick remained friends with her family. He managed the Douglaston estate on behalf of his brother-in-law, John, who stayed at Wedderburn until his death in 1782. Patrick was an executor of the estate. This meant that Patrick, along with his fellow trustees, was responsible for selling the land (in 1790) and the enslaved people that his brother-in-law had owned.

Advertised in The London Gazette, 31 July, 1790, p.485

Source: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/1401

CAPITAL PLANTATIONS, GRENADA. TO be sold by Auction, by Mess. Skinner and Dyke, on Wednesday the 1st Day of September, punctually at One o’ Clock, at New Lloyd’s Coffee-house, London, by Order of the Trustees of the late John Graham, Esq; deceased, A Sugar Plantation called Douglaston, in the Parish of St. John’s, in the Island of Grenada, containing about 239 Acres of Land, with the Buildings thereon, consisting of a Dwelling-house, Sugar Works, Stills, Coppers and other necessary Utensils for a Sugar Estate, with all the Negro Slaves, supposed to be about 140, with 17 Mules and about 32 Head of Horned Cattle.

Further Particulars may be known by applying to Mess. Todd-and Co. No. 1, Mitre-court, Milk-street, Cheapside, who will give any Information that may be required as to Crops of the Three Years past, and the last Returns of the Slaves, Stock, &c. Printed Particulars will be delivered Fourteen Days preceding the Sale, at New Lloyd’s Coffee-house, at Garraway’s Coffee-house, Change-alley, at John Forsters, Esq; Chambers, Lincoln’s-inn New Square, and of Mess. Skinner and Dyke, Aldersgate-street. ‘