Print showing Robert Milligan (c.1746-1809) a West India merchant and shipowner. Milligan was a wealthy West India merchant, ship and plantation owner, having previously managed his family's Jamaica sugar plantations. Outraged at losses due to theft and delay at London's riverside wharves, Milligan headed a group of powerful businessmen who planned and built West India Docks. Milligan served as both Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the West India Dock Company.