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| date_of_birth =circa [[1745]]
| place_of_birth =Aberdeenshire, Scotland
| date_of_death =circa [[February 26]], [[1801]]| place_of_death =At sea
| occupation =
| religion =
'''William Panton''' was a trader best known for his Pensacola-area trading house [[Panton, Leslie and Company]].
Born in Scotland around [[1745]], Panton emigrated to America in [[1765]]. By [[1774]], he was a partner in the trading house Moore & Panton in Savannah, Georgia. In [[1775]], British governor of [[Wikipedia:East Florida|East Florida]] [[Wikipedia:Patrick Tonyn|Patrick Tonyn]] appointed Panton official trader for the Creek Indians. Around this time he also formed his own trading house in Savannah with Thomas Forbes. This company, originally Panton, Forbes, and Company, had to move its base of operations south to St. Augustine in East Florida the next year upon the outbreak of the [[American Revolutionary WarRevolution]]. As a loyalist Scotsman, Panton was not welcome in the revolting colony of Georgia, but could prosper in East Florida, a solidly British territory.
After the end of the war, Panton and his trading house began to expand, and in [[1783]], William Alexander and John Leslie joined his firm, which was renamed '''Panton, Leslie and Company'''. After Britain ceded the whole of Florida to Spain in [[1781]], Panton was initially asked by the Spanish to leave the province, but after realising there were no experienced Spanish traders to take Panton's place, an uneasy truce was reached and the Spanish allowed Panton to continue to operate.
[[Category:Historical biographies|Panton, William]] [[Category:Natives of Scotland|Panton, William]] [[Category:Panton-Innerarity family|Panton, William]]