William Sharp Macleay - Havana

Havana

In 1825, Macleay was appointed British commissioner of arbitration to the joint British and Spanish Court of Commission in Havana, Cuba, for the abolition of the slave trade; he became commissary judge in 1830, and then was appointed judge to the Mixed Tribunal of Justice in 1833. He retired in 1836 on a pension of £900. Throughout these years he also maintained a correspondence with his sister Frances (Fanny) Leonora Macleay (1793–1836). These letters typically convey a harsh, even severe impression of his character.

Macleay had maintained his scientific work whilst in Havana and was elected to the Linnean Society, of which his father had been Secretary (1798–1825), and the Zoological Society. He was elected president of the natural history section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.