Blayney Townley Balfour (1799 – 5 September 1882)[1] was Lieutenant Governor of the Bahamas from 1833 to 1835.
Blayney Townley Balfour was born in Ireland in 1799, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford. His father and great-grandfather (both also called Blayney Townley-Balfour) were both Irish MPs.
In June 1833 he assumed the governorship of the Bahamas after Sir James Carmichael-Smyth, the previous governor, was appointed to the governorship of British Guiana.[2] During this period he oversaw the implementation of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which came into effect on 1 August 1834.
In 1833 and 1834 he deployed troops multiple times to Exuma to "restore discipline" among Lord Rolle's slaves (later 'apprentices') there.[3] However, the transition in August 1834 was otherwise "quiet and orderly", perhaps due in part to the fact that a system of indentured apprenticeships (understood by many including Balfour himself to benefit the holders more than the apprentices themselves)[4] had been employed in the Bahamas since 1811,[5] as well as to the threat of force
In 1843 he married Elizabeth Catherine Reynell, with whom he had four children. He died on 5 September 1882.