I represent James Bruce. In the records I am identified as Customs Collector and the Port of Pensacola and Member of the Council of West Florida. There aren’t any clear records of my origins, though I was associated with what was called “the Scotch party” in Pensacola – and “Bruce” being a well-known Scottish name, I was probably from Scotland. I was a warrant officer with the Royal Navy in 1758 but was demobilized at the end of the Seven Years’ War in 1763 and came to West Florida with a tidy appointment as Customs Collector, a position I would serve in until the fall of Pensacola in May 1781. In 1764 I was also awarded a grant of 4,000 acres of land. I picked out a tract on a brook known as Six Mile Run (Carpenter’s Creek) where I and two business partners planned a sawmill (it was never built). Before the end of the year I had been appointed to the Governor’s Council, which both advised the Governor and served as an Upper House of the General Assembly, and I served in all seven General Assemblies. My title of “Senior Councilor” was probably more indicative of my influence and success than that of Customs Collector, as Pensacola did not have enough shipping traffic to make that a lucrative post. In 1765 I acquired a nice bayfront lot (No. 6 on the west side of the fort, on Lindsey Street – Reus Street today) and built a large house that served as a residence and a customs house. When Governor Johnstone, a friend and fellow Scot, left for England in January 1767, I also got a year’s leave from my duties and headed home myself. I came back near the end of 1769 with a wife, Isabella, and on December 23, 1770, we had a son named Archibald Scott Bruce. We would have a daughter, Charlotte Mary, later on. My wife and I acquired some land on the Amite River in the more attractive Mississippi region; we built a plantation and grew indigo, though my work did not permit me to live there full-time. In February of 1778, James Willing and his American rebel raiders ravaged British properties in Mississippi and my plantation fell victim – he and his troops occupied it for a few weeks and burned it on their way out. Then Gen. Gálvez and the Spanish took my land on Thompson Creek. After the end of the war, I joined many displaced Loyalists in requesting compensation for lost property. In that petition I gave my residence as Shelbourne, Nova Scotia, where many Loyalists took refuge and settled.
Sources: 3, 5,6, 7, 12, 22, 29, 42, 55, 65, 66, 75, 116