Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library
Mr. Noel B. Livingston of Kingston, Jamaica, copied the following original unrecorded Power of Attorney from the Records of the old Court of Vice-Admiralty. It was torn in three or four places:
KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS that I who have hereunto set my hand and seal being the Admiral and Commander in Chief of His Majestys Ships and Vessels in the West Indies &c. &c. &c. have constituted and appointed and do hereby constitute and Appoint Mr. Thomas Weir of the Island of Jamaica to be my true and lawful Attorney and Agent for me in my name and to my use to solicit transact and take care of all my concerns and interest in any Prize or Prizes Seizures or Re-captures that have been or shall be taken seised retaken or destroyed by any of His Majestys Ships or Vessels under my command or to which I am or shall be entitled by any means whatsoever and in all Head-money or other money arising from such capture and interest Giving and Hereby Granting to my said Attorney and Agent my full power and authority in the premises for Inventorying appraising condemning and selling the said Prize or Prizes Seizures and recaptures their Cargoes tackle guns apparel and Furniture and for the receiving the money arising therefrom And also the said Head Money by Bill made out by the Honourable Commissioners of His Majestys navy and my respective share of the whole and for recovering obtaining compounding and discharging the same and generally to do and act for me and for my use and safety as fully and effectually to all intents and purposes as I myself might or could do being personally present Acquittances and Releases and Other Discharges to make and grant Ratifying and confirming all and whatsoever my said Attorney and Agent or his substitute shall lawfully do or cause to be done in the premises by virtue of these presents and in case of the decease or absence of my said Attorney Mr. Thomas Weir I do hereby constitute and appoint to act in his stead as my lawful Agent and Attorney IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and seal the first day of May in the year of Our Lord 1782 and in the twenty-second year of the reign of Our Sovereign Lord King George the Third by the Grace of God over Great Britain &c..
G. B. RODNEY [l.s.]
Sealed and delivered in the presence of A. N. Yates.
A considerable number of the early settlers in Jamaica did not emigrate there direct from Great Britain, but were drawn from the older colonies. This point is of much interest, and should be taken into consideration by readers when inquiring into the origin of the first inhabitants.
Capt. Gregory Butler, who was recruiting for the Expedition, in his letter to the Protector in 1655 [Thurloe's State Papers, iii., 574], wrote that Antegoe was molested by Indians and had but 1200 men, so he would not enlist any. At Montserrat he raised 80, at Nevis 300, and at St., Kitts 800 or 900, in spite of the French owning one half the colony. "This island is almost worne but by reason of the multitude that live upon it....The fleet appearing, we shipped our men to the number of twelve hundred and departed." Penn and Venables anchored off St. Kitts on 6 April 1655, and including the above 1200, they had on board 5000 West Indian settlers, besides women and children, the majority from Barbados. The survivors took possession of Jamaica next month. Vice-Admiral William Goodson wrote on 24 June 1656: "Upon notice given from Governor Stokes of himself and the people of Nevis their intention to transplant themselves hither, dispatched three ships for their transport, and 4th June a vessel arrived from the Governor with three gentlemen to treat with us concerning shipping and to view the country. Afterwards fitted out a small vessel to carry back our resolutions of sending ships for about 1000 people besides women, children and servants" [America and W.I. Calendar for 1675-6, Addenda 1574-1674, p. 110]. Capt. Godfrey writes on 30 June 1656: "Is going with some ships to Nevis and St. Christopher's to fetch the Governor, his lady, and such planters as will come to Jamaica." [Ibid., p. 112.]
Vice-Admiral Goodson writes again in Oct. 1656: "that they arrived at Nevis road on 9th Oct. and have been embarking about 1400 men, women and children, with their goods and servants and intend sailing 21st inst." [Ibid., p. 114]
Cornelius Burough writes on 28 Nov. 1658: "In Gen. Brayne's time about £1,000 in provisions was lent to Nevis planters settled on Port Morant, they being in great want." [Ibid., p. 125.]
The reason of this emigration was also, I believe, because Nevis, like St. Kitts, was over populated. It was a very small island of some 50 square miles, with a great central mountain, and not much available land for new comers.
After the capture of St. Kitts by the French, in 1666, Du Tertre says some of the English inhabitants were sent to Jamaica, etc.
In 1670 the Somer Islands were so crowded that many of its people removed to Jamaica. In 1675 most of the English with their slaves also went there from Surinam--total in three ships, 1231. Their names are given. [America and W.I., 286.]
EDITOR.
In pursuance of this subject it may be noted that in 1664 this Island was reinforced by Governor Sir Thomas Modiford with 1,000 Barbadians. The army during the first few years of occupation had mostly died off from intemperance, had neglected planting, and the military government had ceased in 1660.
On 27 February the King's Instructions were drawn up for Col. Edward Morgan as Deputy-Governor of Jamaica to embark in the Westergate for Barbados, to hand over there a "black box " containing Commissions and Instructions and a purse of £3,000 to Colonel Sir Thomas Modyford, the new Governor of Jamaica. Lord Willoughby was also ordered to pay over £1,000 in sugars and give all possible assistance.
The Westergate arrived on 21 April, a "malign distemper" having carried off thirty of her passengers. Colonel Morgan was instructed on 2 May to sail at once with several scores of planters for Jamaica.
Sir Thomas followed a few days later, arriving about 1 June with 987 persons, in the Westergate, Captain Stokes, Marmaduke, and Swallow. It would be very interesting to learn the names of the above settlers from Barbados. Unfortunately the State Papers don't give them, but the Book of Patents at Jamaica should record the names of all those who took out grants of land.
Is this book still preserved, and what is the earliest dated patent it contains ?
Mrs. Leopold Scarlett, quoting from Jamaican Tracts," writes that the Blessing, James Gilbert master, also conveyed settlers from Barbados to Jamaica. Stokes was Commander of the Marmaduke. The Griffin was sent to Barbados July 27 to fetch Lady Modyford and the General's family, and the Westergate and Swallow ketch left Jamaica for England. The Swallow returned after five months hardship to Port Royal; the others were never heard of afterwards. Capt. Munroe, who had a commission from Jamaica, turned pirate, and took merchant ships bound thither. Capt. Ensom in the Swallow ketch was sent out to take him, who beat him, and Capt. Munroe was killed in the fight, his men brought in and hanged.
The records of the Patents of Lands granted to the old settlers of Jamaica are all intact. But they are indexed alphabetically in the names of the grantees, so that to get at the dates one has to go through the entire index.
George. F. Judah
St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica.
______________
[Note from JFS: Patents may be viewed in person in the Archives in Spanish Town.
In the West India Committee Circular for 6 December 1910, under "Historic Sites and Monuments," appeared Mr. F. Cundall's article on "Constant Spring," from which I quote as follows:
"When the lands on the plain of Liguanea were divided amongst themselves by Cromwell's army of occupation, that part on which the Constant Spring estate stands fell to the lot of Lieut.-Colonel Henry Archbould,* a member of the first Council nominated in 1661. He married in 1668 (he was her third husband and she was his second wife) the mother of Sir Nicholas Lawes (afterwards Governor of the Colony), but died in the following year, she surviving him twenty years. His son Colonel Henry Archbould, who had sat for St. George from 1680 to 1688, was elected Member of the Assembly for St. Andrew in 1701-2.
"His wife Joanna Wilhelmina was sister to the wife and cousin of Sir Henry Morgan. (buccaneer and Governor of Jamaica), and sister to the wife of Colonel Robert Byndlos, Chief Justice. She obtained a patent of naturalisation in August 1685. The second Colonel Archbould died in 1709, and was buried in Halfway-Tree Church. The first Colonel Archbould's second son, Major William Archbould, was member for St. Andrew in 1688. James Archbould, the son of his second wife, was member for St. Andrew in 1702-4, but sat for St. David in 1713.
"In 1759 a private Act was passed (we read in Mr. Feurtado's 'Official and other Personages of Jamaica,' 1896) for the sale of certain lands in Liguanea belonging to Henry Archbould late of the said parish, deceased, for payment of £8000 with interest, devised by the will of the said Henry Archbould to his daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Archbould, and for other purposes.
"In 1765 Constant Spring estate, with some mountain land adjoining, called Snow Hill, was (the writer is informed by Mr. G. F. Judah) sold by Henry Archbould to Daniel Moore, etc."
EDITOR.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*He came over with General Venables in 1654, being then a Captain, and became later Lieut.-Colonel of Carter's Regiment. ("Narrative of General Venables' Expedition," by Firth, p.117.)
Colonel Edward Morgan went out as Lieut.-Governor in 1664, and died in St. Eustatius July 1665 during the attack of that Island. By his wife, a dau. of Baron Pollnitz, he had:-
I. Anne Petronella, married Colonel Robert Byndlos. He died 16 June 1687, aged 49. Will recorded. Slab at St. Catherine's with his arms, impaling... a chevron between three bucks' heads cabossed for Morgan (Archer, 34). They had issue:-
1. Charles, heir 1688 to his uncle by marriage, Sir Henry Morgan, whose surname he was to take. A Thomas Byndlos of Jamaica graduated at Leyden 23 August 1742.
2. A dau., married Thomas Beckford, grandson of Colonel Peter Beckford. He matriculated from Merton College, Oxford, 10 November 1699, aged 17.
II. Mary Elizabeth, second dau. and fourth child, married soon after 1665 her first-cousin, Sir Henry Morgan (eldest son of Robert Morgan of Llanrhymny, Glamorganshire, brother of the above Colonel Edward Morgan). He was born about 1635. Lieut.-Governor of Jamaica 1674. Buried at St. Cath. 26 August 1688. Will dated 17 June and sworn 14 September 1688. She was buried at the same place, 3 March 1696, s.p. Archer gives no M.I. . See article on Sir Henry Morgan in the "D.N.B."
III. Joanna Wilhelmina, married at St. Catherine 30 November 1671 (I., 14), Colonel Henry Archbould.
EDITOR.
A Thomas Goldwin was Member of Assembly for Clarendon in 1787 (Feurtado). He appears to have retired to England, where he purchased an estate called Vicars Hill in Boldre, Hampshire. Here his wife Elizabeth was buried 27 December 1808, aged, 47, and he on 23 October 1809, aged 60, s.p. His will was made 23 January and proved 16 November 1800. (822, Loveday), and in it he names his sister Lucy Breton, and her ten children, niece Maria Hardy, niece Eliza Ann Burrard, sister-in-law Susanna Coppell, cousin Louisa Aldridge, nieces Caroline and Elizabeth Shickle, and refers to a conveyance by Elizabeth Martha Pickering, late of Rickmansworth and formerly of Jamaica; dated 2 April 1787, to him of 65 slaves. The late Goldwin Smith's mother, Elizabeth Breton, was a daughter of the above Lucy Breton. The Rev. Sir George Burrard, third Baronet. (1769-1856) married firstly, on 1 September 1804, Elizabeth Anne, daughter and heir of William Coppell of Jamaica, and by her (who died 11 April 1815) had an only surviving child, George, the fourth Baronet.
1814 Jan. At her son-in-law's, Rev. G. Burrard, Yarmouth, I. of W., Mrs. Cappell [sic], widow of William Cappell esq. of Jamaica. ("G.M.," 99). A Thomas Goldwin of Burnham, co. Bucks, had a son Edward (1735-1821) and a son Thomas. Is the parentage of Thomas Goldwin of Jamaica known? Further information is desired about the above families.
I do not think that Thomas Goldwin had any ancestors in Jamaica, and as there is no will of his recorded here I can make no reference to it in order to obtain information. The first mention of the name of "Goldwin" in any of the records of Jamaica is in a deed of sale of eleven slaves from George Moulton of St. Dorothy, Merchant, to Thomas Goldwin of the same place, Merchant, dated 24 July 1773. He thus evidently must have arrived in the Island with some means, for in 1777 he married Elizabeth, daughter of John Shickle of Clarendon, a large landed proprietor and owner (inter alia) of "Danks" or "New Savoy" Sugar Estate and "Shickle's Pastures" in Clarendon. When Shickle died he left Goldwin and William Coppell (who had, before Goldwin's marriage, married another daughter) two of his executors. His personal estate, including slaves (£6000), amounted to nearly £60,000 current money of Jamaica (£36,000 sterling). He died in 1782. By the marriage settlement on his daughter's marriage with Goldwin he settled £5000 on her, Goldwin settling also a like amount. In the marriage settlement Goldwin is described as of Clarendon, Merchant. In 1779 Shickle conveyed to Mrs. Goldwin fourteen slaves as a Deed of Gift.
The second and third Deeds of Records to Goldwin describe him as also of St. Dorothy, Merchant. They are dated respectively 1778 and 1779, and are conveyances to him of 200 acres in Clarendon, and of Mullett Hall, 640 acres, also in Clarendon. Following are four deeds (1779). The first is from Shickle of an estate called Monnsons of 185 acres in Vere. The second and third are supplemental deeds of "Mullett Hall," and the fourth a conveyance to him of Chapman's Hill, 300 acres, in Clarendon. In these he is described as of Clarendon, Merchant. I may mention that in 1776, in a deed of conveyance to him of "Long's Wharf " in Clarendon from Beeston Long, he is described as of St. Dorothy, Merchant, but this deed was not recorded until 1784. After this latter date he acquired properties for himself individually and in conjunction with William Coppell, both of them having become partners and trading in Kingston as merchants, and in all these deeds he is described as of Kingston, merchant. The partnership between him and Coppell must have commenced in about 17845, for in the latter year Mullett Hall was conveyed in trust to the firm, the property having been cleared of the several mortgages on it, which fell into Goldwin's hands. He retired to Great Britain in 1796, for his powers of attorney to Coppell and others are dated in June of that year.
Peter Breton of Kingston married Lucy, sister of Thomas Goldwin, in about 1787-8.
Mrs. Elizabeth Israel Pickering was evidently the mother of Mrs. Coppell and Mrs. Goldwin and of their brother John Hayle Shickle, for John Shickle in his will mentions them as children of Elizabeth Montin or Elizabeth Montin Israel. She must have married after the death of John Shickle.
Francis Brooks, the sixth son of George Brooks, did not die s.p. He left at least two children, a son William and a daughter Frances. The daughter married in August 1791 John Spence Brodbelt (St. Dorothy Register, vol. i., p. 30), and marriage notice in the "St. Jago Gazette" of 4th August 1791: "Married. On Monday evening John S. Brodbelt, Esquire, to Miss Frances Brooks, the daughter of Francis Brooks, Esq., deceased." The Brodbelts had a large family, of whom the youngest daughter, Julian Cardonal (1806-1842), married, 1 January 1829, my grandfather William Livingston (1805-1863).
The son William Brooks married a sister of the above John Spence Brodbelt, namely, Frances Virgo Brodbelt, a few days after his sister's marriage. The following is the notice from the "St. Jago Gazette" for 11th August 1791: "Married. On Sunday evening last in this Town William Brooks, Esq., to Miss Frances Virgo Brodbelt, daughter of John Brodbelt, Esquire." There was issue of this marriage two daughters.
This Mrs. Brooks was a great friend of Michael Scott, the author of "Tom Cringle's Log."
Noel Brooks Livingston,
Kingston, Jamaica
I find that there is in the Record Office of this Island an exemplification of the will of John Spooner of St. George, Bloomsbury, Co. Middlesex, which will was proved in the P.C.C. 17 January 1758.
By the Records of Deeds in the same Office I find that J. Spooner acquired by purchase from John Cossley and others "EolusValley" plantation in the parish of St. David in this Island, and adjoining lands, in July 1744, also "Cambridge" plantation and lands in the same parish. They were very extensive properties.
By a deed of assignment and release he and another obtained from Joseph Hiscox and others certain bonds relating to property in the pariah above named, in July 1746. And he obtained other lands in St. David from John Brook in July 1752.
By the recitals in this deed of assignment and release it appears that he was a merchant, as his father John Spooner, also of Bloomsbury, was, and both were connected in business with Mr. Hiscox, his father with the elder Hiscox, and he with the younger.
By the records there appear also administrations in Jamaica of the personal estate of Jane Isabella Spooner of Great Britain, widow, 9 April 1802, and of Hungerford Spooner of Great Britain, Esq., 15 October 1823.
Rupert Clarke by John Poppleton Griffin, 1778; 7-5-6
Stephen Thurston Adey by James Carey, 1790; 6-12
Stephen Thurston Adey by John Kendall, 1791; 4-1
John Barker by William Diston Barker. 1787; 18-6
David Boyn, vide Knollys. 1794. 1-3
Henry Houghton by John Lancaster, Estate of James Willis Southton. 1789. 19-11
Henry Russell & David Boyn & John Knowlys, Estate of David Boyn. 1794. 1-3
Elizabeth Ranthmell widow by Richard Jackson Sarah Reed his wife (sic). 1787. 5-3
Lucius Tucker by William Jenkyns. 1789. 3-21
Robert Smith by James Delap. 1800. 7-10-11
SEARCH THIS SITE
GO TO:
Help - Frequently Asked Questions
Jamaica Almanacs Slave-owners, Civil & Military officers, Magistrates etc.
Items in the Samples Directory
Items in the Members Directory
Transcriptions from Registers and Wills (Church of England, Dissenters, Civil Registration)
Jamaican Roman Catholic Church Registers - transcriptions
Jamaican Methodist Baptisms - transcriptions
Jewish births marriages deaths - transcriptions