Macgregor Laird

Who was Macgregor Laird?

Macgregor Laird was a Scottish merchant pioneer of British trade on the River Niger.

Laird was born at Greenock, the younger son of William Laird, founder of the Birkenhead firm of shipbuilders of that name. In 1831, Laird and certain Liverpool merchants formed a company for the commercial development of the Niger regions, the lower course of the Niger having been made known that year by Richard Lemon Lander and John Lander. In 1832, the company sent two small ships to the Niger, the Alburkah, a paddle-wheel steamer of fifty-five tons designed by Laird, the first iron vessel to make an ocean voyage. Laird went with the expedition, which was led by Richard Lander and forty-eight Europeans, all but nine of whom died from fever or, in the case of Lander, from wounds. Laird went up the Niger to the confluence of the Benue, which he was the first white man to ascend. He did not go far up the river but formed an accurate idea as to its source and course.

The expedition returned to Liverpool in 1834. Laird and Surgeon R. A. K. Oldfield were the only surviving officers besides Captain William Allen, who accompanied the expedition on the orders of the Admiralty to survey the river. In 1837, Laird and Oldfield published the Narrative of an Expedition into the Interior of Africa by the River Niger in 1832, 1833, 1834.