Grenada’s Endangered Archives (part 7)

Grenada’s endangered archives programme (EAP295)

Update: Transcription from Grenada’s Archives Published

Dr Laurence Brown (University of Manchester) has published a 73 page transcription of images from “Court of Oyer and Terminer for Trial of Attained Traitors record book 1796” [part of Grenada’s endangered archives digitised series EAP295/2/6/1]. It includes notes, the transcription and an alphabetical list of names from 1796.

[eap295_2_6_1_transcription.pdf]

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Note: A page is missing between 037 and 038 (it was never copied). It containes trial information for 8th August 1796.

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Grenada Heritage At Risk: Carriacou cemetery vanishes

Rising seas swamp a cemetery on Carriacou, Grenada.

The Good News

One of Grenada’s most important commodity is Tourism.  All our other resources are equally important and of cause should be regarded hand-in-hand with our Tourism Resources.  On the 9-11 of July 2014 the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST) held the 3rd Symposium for Innovators in Coastal Tourism here at St. George’, Grenada. This event brought together over 150 ‘green’ experts and practitioners, including hoteliers, real estate developers, operators, investors, and others within the tourism industry committed to (or considering) new sustainable models of marine, coastal, and island tourism development and management.  Over 40 of these international tourism experts spoke on various aspects of sustainable coastal and marine tourism and the event was even represented for us by our Minister of Tourism and Alexandra Otway-Noel, who bolstered Grenada’s enthusiasm for a sustainable future through tourism, and stating action is already underway. View the Symposium Proceedings.

The Down Side

Sadly none of this covered our Historical or Heritage acpects of the island of Grenada – a very important commodity for tourism, our island community and the education of our young.

“Natural.” “Eden.” “Genuine.” “Safe.” “Paradise.”  “Pristine.” “Unspoiled.”

Russ Jarman Price was telling the audience at this international symposium that these and many other words had been offered to describe our island nation of Grenada. Collecting such descriptors was one step in the process that his team used in coming up with its new “Pure Grenada” marketing campaign. The new brand had provoked local controversy, even though the “pure” theme is intended to help spur Grenada into becoming a model of sustainability for the region – you will see it used all over Grenada’s new tourism site.

The conference represented the Grenada’s next step in staking out that claim: A three-day symposium on Innovations in Coastal Tourism, held this month at St. George’s University in Grenada. CREST, the U.S.-based Center for Responsible Travel, organized it. Symposium discussions moved along two closely related tracks: How to practice coastal tourism more responsibly in a world of rising seas, declining ocean quality, and growing tourism pressures, and more specifically, how to do so in Grenada and the Caribbean. (Shockingly Jonathan Tourtellot also spoke at the symposium, but the compete Caribbean development fund covered his travel expenses.)

Jarman Price was sensitive to the audience, the majority of cause Grenadian – the Ogilvy’s campaign “Pure Grenada: Freedom to Wonder” had been systematically thought out. For those who don’t know he is the Executive Creative Director for Inglefield/Ogilvy & Mather Ltd (the Caribbean part of global advertising giant Ogilvy) and a local resident.

Many have encouraged Grenada for several years to adopt a geotourism approach focused on its numerous unique qualities (though they constantly forget Heritgage) and the Pure Grenada was characterized as a geotourism rebranding campaign when Ogilvy introduced it in February of this year. National Geographic Society have defined geotourism as “tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place—its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage, and the well-being of its residents.” A great fit for Grenada.

Unfortunately, things had not gone smoothly back in February.

Symposium speakers Andy Dumaine and Todd Comen check out a bin of nutmeg husks, from which mace is made, at the Belmont Estate.

Jarman Price admitted, the new brand rolled out “in isolation,” with the usual inadequate community preparation. Partly because of that—rebrandings often get public push-back anyway—a storm of controversy arose. Many Grenadians objected, mistakenly assuming the new slogan was intended to replace Grenada’s long-standing identity as the “Spice Island,” a nod to its many nutmeg trees. After much politically hyped debate, PM Keith Mitchell himself had to intervene, yielding the camel-like compromise “Grenada, the Spice of the Caribbean” – oh how we continue to show our ignorance!

Make of that what you will. The intent of Pure Grenada was to underscore what is considered the real reason to visit: The island is one of the last to offer a broad and authentic Caribbean travel experience. Grenada still has beauty, a benign climate, rich culture and heritage, good beaches, still-viable nature on land and in the sea, and relative freedom from intrusive mass tourism.

Can Grenada Pull It Off?

The question is whether our country can retain and build on that distinction. Like other islands, Grenada copes with numerous challenges—overfishing, sand mining, unemployment, irresponsible development, care-less attitute to heritage, limiting-unencompassing education. Take for example the terrible loss of our wave-swamped cemetery on our sister island of Carriacou – it has become an emblem for the Caribbean’s accelerated sea level rise. Certainly since the financial crisis, but truely even before the 1970’s, our government has basically been financially broke, and many of us Grenadians are therefore eager to grab at any economic opportunity, sustainable or not – with no care for the longer term stategies to protect our island and including our heritage for our youth (those who will become custodians in long after we’re gone).

Sockingly at the Symposium we were reminded that someone on Carriacou had chopped down about seven acres of mangroves to make room for a big new marina!  That environmental insult, which most certainly contributed to the demise of one of ancient cemeteries, was mentioned repeatedly at this symposium—a pimple of the face of Pure. In ignorance apologists often argue for a “balance between growth and conservation” in such cases. Sustainable marketing consultant Andy Dumaine grumbled when he heard that: “It’s not an either-or”.  Other endangered cemeteries are the  Mt. Airy cemetery in St. Paul’s and the church yard cemetery of St. Paul’s Anglican Church (the graves are literally sliding down an embankment into a ravine).

Indeed, Dr. Angus Friday, our current ambassador to the United States and Mexico, encouragingly believes sustainability is economic opportunity. He sees Grenada as taking a global lead in renewable energy and conservation for small island nations. While diplomatically not mentioning those missing mangroves, he argued, “Our natural capital is principal in the bank. We need to weave this into our DNA”. This implies that Good businesses don’t invade principal.  Is Friday in the minority when he hopes that Grenada can develop in a way that disrupts the standard model of Caribbean tourism—“Become the Airbnb of responsible travel”.

Let us hope it can be done and the symposium itself seemed quite successful. (Presentations here.)

At a geotourism meeting the next day, it became clear that many of our boutique hotel owners that dominate the Grenada tourism market don’t want to see huge all-inclusive resorts or more big cruise ships. But tourism growth is so much more than these two areas.  At a rural exposition on another day, many of our local artisans and ‘entrepreneurs’ took the opportunity to show off wares unique to our island, keen to grow their businesses through ‘responsible tourism‘. They had set up their booths at Belmont Estate, which itself has become one of our well-known agritourism attractions in the Caribbean.

Local entrepreneur Modesty makes Grenadian-themed fashions and hopes to add employees.

And what about those spices? Grenada’s big three are nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon. One visitor  remembers landing at the Grenada airport long ago, entering the terminal, and immediately smelling these telltale scents. However the Symposium visitor detected no such pleasant odor when they arrived this time.  What an opportunity missed, and an other aspect of our heritage dies!  Research tells us that the brain’s wiring for memories and for smells are directly linked one another. Why not once again suffuse the airport arrival and departure halls with delicious fragrance?  Do that, and every time for years after, when we former visitors smell cinnamon on a roll or nutmeg in the eggnog, we’ll remember:

Ah, Grenada.

 

	Contibutor Jonathan Tourtellot of National Geographic Traveler
	CREST is a non-profit research instituteat Stanford University (Washington, DC) founded in 2003.

,

Grenada Heritage: Biographies

Introduction

A biography is a history of a person’s life. A biography may give you birth, marriage, and death information and the names of parents, spouse, children, or other family members. Use the information from a biography cautiously because there may be inaccuracies.

You may locate individual or family biographies in the Surname Search of the Family History Library Catalog.

Biographies have been gathered and published in collections of biographies, sometimes called biographical encyclopedias or dictionaries. These usually include only biographies of prominent or well-known subjects. However, some collections of biographies are of specific groups such as ministers, musicians, painters, poets, radicals, or writers.

It is important to note that currently there is little in the way of individual or collective biographies on individuals born in Grenada or for those who have had great influence or participation in Grenada politically, socially, or otherwise. One would hope this will change in the future.

If your ancestor played an important part in a group or occupation, do a Place Search for Grenada in any British, Scottish, Canadian, North American, and Latin American biography archives, since people of note may be recorded in these. Although Grenada has little to do with Latin America many historical groups have collected Caribbean information which can include biographical details from Grenadian figures. Little work has been done on collections of biographies of African, Indian, or Portuguese descendant who have lived and died on Grenada’s islands.

Sources

For prominent historical figures, leaders, artists, businessmen, or religious the following sources may help:

• American National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. (Print) ANB.org ($).

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography OxfordDNB.com ($)

• Who’s Who UKwhoswho.com ($)

Some Prominent Names

This is a small list of prominent figures in Grenada’s long history – it is neither definitive nor complete. Further, it must be noted that, as is the case with all biographies, those listed here are neither the complete truth nor the whole life of the given individual.

Name (A)	Biographical link
Arthur, James Stanley (1923–2010)	Oxford University Press, 2014
Augustine, Fennis Lincoln	Oxford University Press, 2014

Name (B)	Biographical link
Beharry, Johnson (1979–)	Damian Lynch, Garrick Hagon, and Nick Cook. Barefoot Soldier. Sphere, 2006
Benjamin, John (1934–2010)	The Cultural Biographies of John Benjamin & Fernande Laas. S.l: s.n, 1990
Bishop, Maurice Rupert (1944–1983)	Howard, Johnson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009
Blaize, Rt. Hon. Herbert Augustus (1918-1989)	Oxford University Press, 2014
Brizan, George Ignatius (1942–2012)	Brave Young Grenadians: Loyal British Subjects…. Trinidad & Tobago: G. Brizan, 2002
Browne, Charles Macaulay (1885-)	Oxford University Press, 2014
Butler, Tubal Uriah (1897–1977)	O, Nigel B. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007
Bynoe née Gibbs, Dame Hilda Louisa, DBE (1921–2013)	Collins, Merle. The Governor’s Story: The Authorized Biography of Dame Hilda Bynoe, 2013

Name (C)	Biographical link
Charter, Joseph Stephen (1943-)	Oxford University Press, 2013
Clyne, Reginald H. (1891-1974)	Against the Currents. S.l: s.n., 1996
Coard, Frederick McDermott D. (1893-)	Bitter-sweet and Spice: These Things I Remember. Ilfracombe: Stockwell, 1970
Coke, Rev. Thomas (1747–1814)	A Journal of the Rev. Dr. Coke’s Third Tour Through the West Indies. London: G. Paramore, 1791
Collins, Merle (1950-)	Bloom, Harold. Caribbean Women Writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1997
Cugoano, Ottobah	Narrative of the Enslavement of Ottobah Cugoano…. Chapel Hill, N.C.:, 1999

Name (D)	Biographical link
Davis, Hon. Sir Maurice Herbert (1912-1988)	Oxford University Press, 2014
De Gale, Sir Leo Victor (1921-1986)	Oxford University Press, 2014

Name (E)	Biographical link
Ellis, George (1753-1815)	J, M R, and Mills Rebecca. Ellis, George. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004

Name (G)	Biographical link
Gairy, Sir Eric Matthew (1922–1997)	Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
Gentle, Eileen	Before the Sunset: A Memoir of Grenada. Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec: Shoreline, 1999
Gibbs, Oswald Moxley (1927-1995)	Oxford University Press, 2014
Glean, Sir Carlyle Arnold (1932-)	Oxford University Press, 2013
Graham, Sir Samuel Horatio (1912–1999)	Oxford University Press, 2014
Grant, McGodden Kerensky “Cacademo” (1917-1982)	Brathwaite, Shirley R. Cacademo Grant: Hero of the People’s Revolution. St. Georges: Printed by Government Printery, 1983
Granger, Winifred	Held Captive: Memoirs of a Caribbean Woman. Trinidad: Phyllis Andrews, 2012
Grenada, 15 Dedicated	15 Dedicated Men and Women Who Have Served Their Country. National Democratic Congress Presents. Grenada: s.n, 1990
Grenada, Colonial Administrators	Colonial Administrators and Post-Independence Leaders in Grenada Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005

Name (H)	Biographical link
Henry, Sir Denis Aynsley (1864–1925)	Oxford University Press, 2014
Herb, Ras	Rehabilitation or Death., 1991
Hughes, Alister Earl Hewitson (1919-2005)	Lewis, Paula. Alister Hughes: Glimpses into the Life of a Great Grenadian. St. Patrick, Grenada: Belmont Estate Heritage Foundation, 2004
Hutchinson, Leslie Arthur Julien ‘Hutch’ (1900-1969)	Breese, Charlotte. Hutch. London: Bloomsbury, 1999

Name (K)	Biographical link
Keens-Douglas, Richardo (1953-)	Solomon, Frances-Anne. Believe – with Richardo Keens-Douglas. Toronto, Ont: Literature Alive Corp, 2005
Kent, Dr. Edward Roy (1920-2009)	Kent, Edward, and Susan Payetta. Up Before Dawn. Grenada: Sail Rock Publishing, 2011

Name (L)	Biographical link
Lewis, Sir Arthur (1915-1991)	Transcript of the World Exclusive Radio Programme: Sir Arthur Lewis, His Life, Achievements and Thoughts. Castries, St. Lucia?: R. Lalljie, 1993
Lorde, Audre Geraldine (1934–1992)	James, D S. Lorde, Audre. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003

Name (M)	Biographical link
Mackenzie, Lt-Gen. Colin (1806-1881)	A, J A, and T S. Roger. Mackenzie, Colin. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
MacQueen, James (1778-1870)	Gordon, Goodwin, and Baigent Elizabeth. Macqueen, James. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
Marryshow, Hon. Theophilus Albert (1887-1958)	Sheppard, Jill. Marryshow of Grenada: An Introduction. Grenada: s.n., 1987
Marshall née Burke, Valenza Pauline ‘Paule’ (1929-)	Triangular Road: A Memoir. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2009
Mcintyre, Sir Meredith Alister (1932-)	Oxford University Press, 2013

Name (P)	Biographical link
Palmer, Sir Reginald Oswald (1923-)	Oxford University Press, 2013
Paterson, Nicholas Julian (1867-)	Oxford University Press, 2014
Phillips, Harold Adolphus (1929–2000)	James, McGrath. Phillips, Harold Adolphus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012
Pigott, Sir Arthur Leary (1749-1819)	R, A M. Pigott, Sir Arthur Leary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
Pitt, David Thomas (1913-1994)	Mike, Phillips. Pitt, David Thomas, Baron Pitt of Hampstead. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
Protain, Gertrude Isobel (-2005)	Compton, Shadel N. Gertrude Isobel Protain: Glimpses into the Life of a Great Grenadian. St. Patrick, Grenada: Belmont Estate Heritage Foundation, 2004
Purcell née Orgias, Joan M. (1942-)	Memoirs of a Woman in Politics: Spiritual Struggles of Joan M. Purcell. St. George’s, Grenada, W.I: J.M. Purcell, 2007

Name (R)	Biographical link
Robertson, James Burton (1800-1877)	Thompson, Cooper, and Lloyd Myfanwy. Robertson, James Burton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
Roux, Phillippe de	Le Marquis de Casaux, un Planteur des Antilles, Inspirator de Mirabeau. Paris: Société de l’histoire des Colonies Françaises; en vente: Libraire Larose, 1951

Name (S)	Biographical link
Scoon, Sir Paul Godwin (1935–2013)	Survival for Service: My Experiences As Governor General of Grenada. Oxford, England: Macmillan Caribbean, 2003
Shrewsbury, Rev. William James (1795–1866)	Memorials of the Rev. William J. Shrewsbury. London: Hamilton, Adams, 1867

Name (W	Biographical link
Watts, Sir John Augustus Fitzroy	Oxford University Press, 2013
Wharton, Arthur (1865-1930)	Phil, Vasili. Wharton, Arthur. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
Williams, Eric Eustace (1911-1981)	Palmer, Colin A. Eric Williams & the Making of the Modern Caribbean. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006
Williams, Sir Daniel Charles (1935-)	Oxford University Press, 2013

You may find some collections under the localities listed above and then the subject “GENEALOGY.”

 

____

Author: Ric Greaves

Grenada Heritage: Our Plantations – part 3

James Evan Baillie

We know little of the man as a person, however, we can see from the records that he was a very astute businessman that would not seem out of place in a modern-day big-city financial sector only to be given accolades for his cleaver choices.  Only in hindsight, giving the context in which he and his family made financial acquisitions and the period they are set will the modern reader consider possibly branding James Evan Baillie (and his family) as tyrants dealing in the assets of slavery. Maybe today some would even set up a “Nuremberg trial” or a “McCarthy Committee” to pursue their decedents?

Born in 1781, he was the son of Evan Baillie (1742-1835), the merchant of Bristol and Dochfour, Inverness and Mary Gurley (daughter of Peter Gurley of the island of St. Vincent).

James became a London and Bristol merchant and banker (of the firm Baillie, Ames & Baillie), and was a major and astute recipient of slave compensation across the Caribbean.

James is described as thus by Rubinstein: “His family moved from being successful West Indies planters to bankers in Bristol”. ¹  This was in 1812 when James had become a partner with his brother, Colonel Hugh Duncan Baillie (of Red Castle and Tarradale), as the two took over the management of the family firm (now ‘Bristol Old Bank’) on the death of his eldest brother Peter.

In 1829 James ‘acquired’ Redland Court mansion (Bristol, England) and 150 acres surrounding farmland from Sir Richard Vaughan, following Vaughan’s bankruptcy. This was because six years earlier Vaughan had mortgaged the estate to their company Elton, Baillie & Co (the Old Bank).
James later became a Member of Parliament (Whig) for Tralee (1813-18) and then in the 1830 Parliamentary elections for Bristol (1830-35), James Baillie and Edward Protheroe both stood for the Whig seat in Bristol (Bristol had two Members of Parliament, and the two seats were divided between the Tory party and the Whig party: voting at this time was not very democratic). Protheroe, whose family were involved in trade with the West Indies, declared himself opposed to slavery. Baillie, also from a West Indian trade family, supported slavery. A number of leaflets were published by both candidates attacking each other and promoting their own views. In the election, Baillie won the Whig seat by 535 votes.

 

James was a large-scale purchaser of Scottish land, acquiring Glentrome in Badenoch (£7,350) in 1835; Glenelg, Western Highlands (£77,000) in two years later; Glenshiel (£24,500) the following year; and Letterfinlay (£20,000) in 1851.

He appears never to have lived at Redland Court, the occupant being William Edwards, a partner in the Old Bank 1816-52. But he left the Redland estate to his nephews Evan Baillie (of Dochfour) and Henry James Baillie (MP of Elsenham Hall Essex), plus James Leman his attorney as trustees. They sold Redland Court for development and the house is now Redland High School. ²

James lived at 1 Seamore Place, Curzon Street Mayfair both in the 1830s and at his death on 14 Jun 1863. He remained unmarried and died leaving £120,000.

Grenada Plantations

Levera Estate Plantation, St. Patrick’s, Grenada

Levera Estate belonged to a Mr. Snell in April 1785. ³

At a later date Alexander Fraser (1759-1837, of Inchcoulter, Kiltearn, in Rosshire, Scotland) came to Grenada in the late 1790s, he was instrumental in raising money there for the Northern Infirmary in Inverness. In 1806 he purchased his Inchcoulter estate and created the village of Evanton there.  Alexander was also a friend of William Smith (of Revolution Hall) and was mentioned in his Will to receive £2000.  It is certain that in 1825 Alexander owned plantation Levera Estate.

Following the act of 1811 abolishing the slave trade the colonies instituted registers of negroes lawfully held in slavery. A further act of 1819 established an Office for the Registry of Colonial Slaves in London, England.  Finally in 1834 slavery was abolished in British colonies and to ensure it effectiveness the act of 1833 provided a sum of £20 million to ‘compensate slave proprietors’. Its distribution was entrusted to a Slave Compensation Commission which began to meet in October 1833 and was terminated at the end of 1842.

On the 9th November 1835 Alexander Fraser (as owner-in-fee) made a contested claim to this Slave Compensation Commission.  It was for 94 slaves at Levera Estate for £2759 1s 0d.  However a successful counterclaim from Hugh Duncan Baillie, James Evan Baillie and George Henry Ames, all of the City of Bristol, as ‘Assignees for the whole compensation money’. ⁴

Hermitage Estate Plantation, St. Andrew’s, Grenada

Alexander was also in charge of the Baillie’s plantation Hermitage, and was described, at this time, as a ‘planter of experience’. He was probably also a member of the Grenada Council. He  married Evan Baillie’s niece (Emilia Duff of Muirton) ‘some years ago’ and when his son was born in Grenada in 1800/01 the couple named the child Evan Baillie Fraser (1800-91). ⁵

By 1807 he was regularly described as ‘late of Grenada’ indicating that he was now resident in the UK. In 1812, with the death of Evan Baillie, Alexander Fraser entered into a partnership with Evan Baillie’s third son, James Evan Baillie, trading as JE Baillie, Fraser & Co of London. This company, dissolved in 1820, consisted of James Evan Baillie, Alexander Fraser, Hugh D Baillie, George H Ames and George Fowler. ⁶

On the 23rd January 1836 a compensation claim was made for 149 slaves at Hermitage Estate, Grenada for £4030 4s 3d by Evan Baillie (who we know was by this time deceased), as trustee on behalf of the proprietors of the Estate.

The previous part-owners were Colin Chisholm (MD of Bristol d.1825) and the Baillie brothers’ father James Baillie (MP of Bedford Square and Ealing Grove, d.1793).

A failed counterclaim was attempted by fishmongerer Rowland Ryley (of 3 Orange Street, Red Lion Square, England), based on a grantee of an annuity of £185 18s, secured by assignment of a legacy bequeathed by the Will of James Baillie Snr.  In this case J. H. Forbes acted as agent for the Baillies and secured in their favour. ⁷

John Sleeper, in 1860, declared “The Hermitage was one of the finest plantations in Grenada. It was pleasantly situated on elevated ground, a few miles from the sea shore, and was the residence of Mr. Houston, a gentleman of great respectability, who was attorney for the for the estate, and also the plantation adjoining, called Belmont.”  The previous owner, an Englishman name Bailey (sic) “had spared no expense in stocking the grounds with fruits of various kinds…”.  Sadly Houston had the axe freely used to chopped down all of these trees to make way for sugar cane crop. ⁸

Revolution Estate Plantation, St. John’s, Grenada

The Revolution Hall Estate, at the time overseen by Joseph Barlow, existed during the 1795 ‘insurrection’. It was described in 1845, as “a rich, fertile sugar estate, about two or three miles from the neat looking village or town of Goyave”.

On the 9th May 1836 a claim was made on 168 slaves at Revolution Hall Estate for £4210 16s 8d this belonged to Richard Oliver Smith, owner-in-fee, mortgaged by him on his second marriage.  However successful counterclaims by the Baillie brother, as mortgagees and assignees of a legacy of £580 and upwards and his mortgagers back in England for £4105 meant he gained nothing. ⁹

Richard Oliver Smith (May 1788 – ????) lived n Britain from c. 1793 to 1833. He was the illegitimate son of the Grenada slave-owner William Smith and Sarah Jean (or Dean, then ‘living with’ him) in Grenada.

His father Williams’s Will dated 15 July 1793 (registered 08 November 1794, but with handwritten note on margin ‘proved 30 April 1803’) shows an annuity of £150 later £700 to his lawful wife Elizabeth Smith (with a claus to revoked it if challenges); Sarah Jean was to stay in the house at Revolution Hall, £100 currency immediately, annuity of £150 sterling. £2000 sterling left to pay interest to children ‘being known and called by the descriptions following ‘Mary Smith now in England and Grace Smith in Grenada’, and to Richard Oliver Smith ‘now in England aged 5 years and 2 months’.

He was first married to a Harriet Gee in St Pancras (London, England, 21 August 1806) with whom he had a daughter Emily (b. 1808 Chelsea, Middlesex). Richard divorced Harriet for adultery an on 18 August 1819 married for a second time, to Mary Broderip (daughter of Edmund Broderip), in St. Cuthbert Church, Wells, Somerset, England. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Georgiana (bapt. 1828 Exeter, Devon). ¹⁰

A set of accounts for the Revolution Hall Estate exists for the year 1821 (held at the Burke Library, Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y.) the 50 pages are accompanied by a copy of the conveyance of Revolution Hall to William Smith (dated 1771) and also by copies of letters to William Smith about the unprofitability of the plantation in the years 1832-33.  The Account book deals with maintenance, supplies, shipments of rum, and wages and includes lists of slaves on the estate on 31 December 1821, giving name, occupation and age of each. Also lists livestock.

Identified as of Gower Street on 23 July 1822 when he served as trustee for a marriage settlement and on 18 February 1833 a quitclaim appears between Richard Oliver Smith and his fellow trustees (Rogers Weatherall and Francis Broderip) where Richard is ‘released from trusteeship’ to live in West Indies when it appears to have moved to Grenada c. 1833.  The couple possibly had a son as well, Richard Joseph Sanderson Smith ( c. 1837 Trinidad), who went on to marry Pauline Josephine Nicholson in Middlesex in 1859. ¹¹

His first daughter Emily Smith went on to marry Rev. John Nurse in Grenada in 1835.

Known Family Relationships – father Evan Baillie (1741-28 Jun 1835), brothers Hugh Duncan Baillie (31 May 1777-21 Jun 1866), first cousins Hugh James Baillie (1786-????), Alexander Baillie (13 Nov 1777-24 Jan 1835), Janet Higgins (née Baillie, 1773-1841), Colin Campbell Lloyd (née Baillie, 1781-1830).

______

Sources

1. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? 1860- (Volumes 3 and 4, manuscripts in preparation), reference 1863/2.
2. Bristol Record Office 6682/40 for Baillie’s involvement, and deeds of Redland High School purchase.
3. Laws of Grenada and the Grenadines: From the Year 1766 to the Year 1852, No.XVII p.48
4. Parliamentary Papers p. 99. T71/880: claim 690.
5. David Alston, Slaves and Highlanders, http://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=225176.
6. London Gazette, thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/17703/page/986, 05/05/1821.
7. Parliamentary Papers p. 312. T71/880: claim 701.
8. Jack in the Forecastle, John Sherburne Sleeper, 1860, p.342-3.
9. Parliamentary Papers p. 312. T71/880: claim 591.
10. Familysearch batch no. M51385-3, I01821-5 and C05051-2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812
11. Settlement, quitclaim and mortgage P89_TRI/130 1822-1835.

Grenada Heritage: Our Plantations – part 2

The village of Baillie’s Bacolet, Saint David’s in the south-east of Grenada, more commonly referred to as simply Bacolet is named after the plantation that once stood in the area. We also mention plantations of Hermitage Estate in Saint Patrick’s north of the island, and Mount St. Bernard Estate in Saint Andrew’s east of the island, and Chemin Estate in Saint George’s south of the island.

 

Some of the family connections to this plantation are outlined here.

James Baillie born about 1737 was the second son of Hugh Baillie of Dochfour, Inverness, and brother of Evan Baillie (1742-1835). He married in Grenada on 26 April 1772 ¹, Colina, daughter and co-heir of Colin Campbell of Glenure (Argyll, Scotland), factor of the forfeited Stewart estates in Argyll and victim of the famous Appin murder in 1752. This meant that Colin[a] Campbell Baillie was the first cousin of James Evan Baillie and Hugh Duncan Baillie.

James and Colin[a] had three sons and three daughters. Between 1755 and 1771 the family lived in the West Indies, mainly at Grenada and St. Kitt.  Then in 1765 he and his elder brother Alexander became joint-owners when they purchased a 400-acre plantation in Grenada in 1765 and known as The Hermitage and the plantation Mount St. Bernard.

During his time in the Caribbean, he had visited every island except Jamaica, and had also acted as attorney for other plantation owners. Shortly before the outbreak of the American war, Baillie and two partners bought, as a speculation, the 4,400 acres in St. Vincent granted to General Richard Monckton in 1773. After the war the property was sold in lots.

In February of 1790, when he gave evidence before the committee of inquiry into the petitions of opponents of abolition of the slave trade, James stated that he complained to the committee that when abolition was bruited in 1788, potential buyers of his St. Vincent lots were frightened off, and that there remained unsold about 1,400 acres, which would become worthless if abolition was carried. ²  He was sole owner of the Northbrook plantation in Demerara, and later in 1790, he bought from the Bank of England two Grenada estates, Barolet and Chemin, for £100,000, paying a deposit of £45,000, with the balance to be paid at 4 per cent interest, in seven annual instalments. He subsequently conveyed the Chemin plantation to one Samuel Mitchell of Grenada. ³

At the general election of that same year James was to have come in for Horsham (West-Sussex, England) as a paying guest of Lady Irwin, but he and her son-in-law were beaten at the polls by nominees of the Duke of Norfolk. They were seated on petition in March 1792, by which time Baillie had been appointed agent for Grenada. This was when the politician William Wilberforce (1759–1833) sat down after moving abolition of the slave trade, 2 April 1792, James, speaking ‘in a low voice’ from the government side of the House, called for the petition of the West India planters and merchants to be read and then proceeded to argue at length, largely on commercial grounds, against the ‘wild, impracticable, and visionary scheme’ of abolition. James maintained that the negroes were generally well treated and that there was ‘more wretchedness and poverty in the parish of St. Giles’ than in the whole of the British colonies. ⁴  He subsequently had the speech published. In the renewed debate on the slave trade, 1 May, he claimed to have received information that several hundred fresh slaves had recently been sold in Jamaica, and when supporting the sugar bill, 22 May 1792, he contended that the planters ‘merited the peculiar protection’ of Parliament. No further trace of parliamentary activity has been found.

In his will, dated 12 August 1793, James Baillie left the Barolet estate in trust for his eldest son and his property at Ealing (West London, England), bought from the Duke of Argyll, to his wife, along with £1,000. He directed his executors to sell his other plantations and to apply the proceeds to payment of the balance owing for Barolet (about £40,000) and to provision of annuities totalling £3,000 for his wife, cash bequests of £10,000 for each of his five youngest children and other legacies in excess of £2,000. He died 7 September 1793.

 

Colin Campbell Lloyd, née Baillie (1781-1830) – the daughter of Miss Colin[a] Campbell and James Baillie.

 

Whist a baby, her father James commissioned a family portrait by the painter Thomas Gainsburgh in 1784, it includes her parents with their four eldest children and Colin is the fourth, shown as the baby on her mother’s knee. The painting was later bequeathed by a relation, Alexander Baillie, in 1868 to the Tate Art Gallery (London, England).

 

Collin [sic] Campbell Baillie married Edward Lloyd at St Marylebone in London (England) on the 8th August 1816.

Unfortunately before she reached the age of 50, Mrs Colin Campbell Lloyd, apparently became the victim of the quack doctor John St John Long of Harley Street:

 

“On Wednesday morning, the 10th of November, 1830, at eleven o’clock, J. H. Gell, Esq., and a highly respectable jury assembled at the Wilton Arms, Kinnerton Street, Knightsbridge, to inquire into the death of Mrs Colin Campbell Lloyd, aged forty-eight, the wife of Captain Edward Lloyd, of the Royal Navy, whose death was alleged to have been occasioned by the treatment she had experienced under the hands of Mr St John Long. The jury retired for about half-an-hour, and then returned the following verdict: “The jury, having attentively and deliberately considered their verdict, can come to no other than manslaughter against John St John Long.” The coroner inquired on what grounds they found their verdict. The foreman said: “On the ground of gross ignorance, and on other considerations.” Upon this second charge Mr Long was tried at the Old Bailey on the 19th of February, 1831. The jury, however, returned a verdict of not guilty. Several ladies, elegantly dressed, remained with the prisoner in the dock throughout the day, to whom this verdict appeared to give great satisfaction. Mr Long died in the year 1834, and his body was consigned to a tomb in the Harrow Road Cemetery, where a monument was erected to his memory at the cost of his former patients, who, in an inscription, paid a handsome tribute to his talents.”

 

The burial of Mrs Colin Campbell Lloyd, of St Georges Hanover Square (London, England), took place on the 13th November 1830.

Trustees of the marriage settlement of Miss Colin Campbell Baillie (Sir George Young and Sir John Tylden Maxwell) made a claim on the 2^nd May 1836 to the Slave Compensation Commission (1812-1851) for the compensation for the 353 enslaved people on ‘Baillie’s Bacolet’ in St. David’s, Grenada and where awarded the sum of £8985 17s 2d.

Of cause the settlement wasn’t straight forward, a letter, dated 23 February 1836, from Hugh James Baillie (of Stone Buildings), asked how much was paid to his brother Alex Baillie, and the time of payment [T71/1609]. Then a claim against the settlemet was made by a John Wells (as receiver) which caused counterclaims from Janet Higgins (of Albemarle Street and widow of Matthew Higgins), as the assignee of a legacy under the will of their father James Baillie (1737-1793, MP of Bedford Square and Ealing Grove); Sir John Maxwell Tylden (of Milsted, Kent), and Sir George Young (of Formosa Place, Buckinghamshire), all as trustees for parties interested under the marriage settlement of our Miss Colin Campbell Baillie [T71/880].  The insident was reported in The Times on 16 July 1842 refering to Baillie versus Innes as “one of the numerous proceedings arising out of the failure of Mr Innes, who was formerly in partnership with Mr Nathaniel Winter as West India merchants” [p. 6].

In 1851, Edward Lloyd, aged 64, Captain RN, born Germany, was living at Cheltenham with his daughter Colin Campbell aged 33 and her husband Conway Whitehorne Lovesey (sometimes given as Lovesy).

Known Family Relationships – sister to Hugh James Baillie (1786-????), Alexander Baillie (13 Nov 1777-24 Jan 1835), and Janet Higgins (née Baillie, 1773-1841); niece to Evan Baillie (1741-28 Jun 1835); first cousin to James Evan Baillie (1781-14 Jun 1863) and Hugh Duncan Baillie (31 May 1777-21 Jun 1866).

 

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Sources

1. Midlothian: Edinburgh Register of Marriages, 1751-1800 Volume 5. The Register of Marriages. (Edinburgh Reg. Scottish Rec. Soc. liii, 33).
2. House of Commons Sessional Pprs. of 18th Cent. ed. Lambert, lxxi.
3. See also Baillie’s will (PCC 494 Dodwell).
4. Senator, iv. 512.
5. 1631 volumes of Slave registers and records of the Slave Compensation Commission (1812-1851), CO T71/880 Grenada no. 864, NAUK.
6. Douglas Hamilton, Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic world, 1750-1820 (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2005) pp. 89-90. History of Parliament Online for details of James Baillie.
7. The Tate artworks – gainsborough, n00789.
8. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921.
9. Newgate Calendar. Notice of death including report of the manslaughter verdict in the Annual Register (1830), Vol. 72 p. 277.
10. Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980; National Probate Calendar 1889.
11. 1851 census online.

 

 

We are grateful to Jim Brennan and David R. Fisher for his assistance in compiling this entry.

Grenada Heritage: Judith Philip – Her Legacies

Judith Philip was born to a French baker turned planter Honore Philip and his ex-slave wife Jeannette sometime in the late 1760s. Upon the death of her father around 1779 she, along with her seven siblings, Honore junior, Michel, Susannah, JB Louis, Joachim, Nicholas Regis and Magdalene inherited Honore and Jeannette’s accumulated property worth some 400,000 livres. This property included Lots in Grenada and the outlying islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique. The family was a close knit one and repeated transactions show all of the siblings interacting with one another continually throughout their lives. Judith, her brothers and sisters also had white French uncles who also lived in Grenada and who owned property. One of them, Francois was particularly prominent as a Justice of the Peace and a Protector of Slaves.

This property inheritance was divided up among the children in portions with Judith taking the main plantation – Grand Ance, Carriacou where she lived, along with several smaller parcels of land. Rapidly Judith added to this initial inheritance by buying more land from her siblings when some of them moved out of planting and others moved to Trinidad to start successful branches of the family there. Further gains were made in the late 18th century when her brother Nicholas Regis died and another family friend Louis Monque also passed away leaving his wealth to Judith and her siblings.

Sometime in the 1770s she began a relationship with Englishman Edmund Thornton (q.v.) who was then a junior attorney and plantation manager looking after estates on Carriacou. It is quite likely that at this stage it was Judith who was the wealthier of the two. While on Carriacou the couple had three children: Ann Rachel Thornton, Louis-Edmund Thornton, Magdalene Thornton.

In the 1790s with war and revolution tearing through the Caribbean the situation on Grenada had become precarious. By 1794 Edmund Thornton and Judith Philip decided to go to England. Possibly connected with this relocation was the education of their children. Judith Philip’s property, that now included not just property in Grenada and its dependencies but Trinidad as well, was placed in the hands of managers and her extended family.

This move to the UK was fortuitous. In the 1790s Judith’s younger brother Joachim, in contrast to the rest of his siblings, fell deeply into debt. In 1795, a short while after being sued by his creditors he took up with the revolutionary Julian Fedon, becoming one of his most trusted lieutenants. While it was ultimately unsuccessful, the 1795 Fedon Rebellion destroyed Grenada’s prosperity. It was to be years before it recovered to its pre 1795 levels. The British reprisals were savage and uncompromising particularly to those of mixed race who were seen as the main instigators of the conflict. Despite initially escaping, Joachim was eventually caught in 1803 and hung in the market square St Georges. Despite her brother’s involvement it is a testament to Judith Philip’s standing that she and the rest of the extended family escaped recrimination.

After purchasing a house in London at 33 Great Coram Street Judith left Carriacou and lived in London round the corner from Edmund Thornton. Judith and Edmund’s relationship became a complex one however when, in 1796, Thornton married Jane Butler the daughter of wealthy Cheshire gentry. Despite Thornton’s marriage he and Judith shared two more children together: Philip Thornton born sometime in the nineteenth century and Judith Thornton born in 1807.

In 1808 Judith left Thornton and returned to Carriacou where until her death in 1848 she remained a prominent and respected part of the Grenadian plantocracy with connections to some of the empires biggest merchant families such as the Campbells, and the Baillies. Her extensive property that included, not only the land she owned in Grenada and the house at Great Coram Street (in England) but other property in London (England) as well was divided up among her surviving children; Ann Rachel, Magdalene and Judith. Her two sons Louis Edmund (a London based merchant) and (who was training to be an attorney) died in the 1820s. Louis Edmund however had five children who also inherited from their grandmother: William Wheeler Thornton, Ellen Ann, Magdalene, Francis Catherine and Jeannette Rose Thornton. With the death in 1848 of Ann Rachel Thornton, the two surviving daughters of Judith Philip moved to London to be with their nieces and nephews. By 1855 the family had sold all the remaining property in Carriacou, Petite Martinique and Grenada and Judith Philip’s well-managed wealth was divided between them.

Following the act of 1811 abolishing the slave trade the colonies instituted registers of negroes lawfully held in slavery. A further act of 1819 established an Office for the Registry of Colonial Slaves in London, England.  Then in 1834 slavery was abolished in British colonies and to ensure it effectiveness the act of 1833 provided a sum of £20 million to ‘compensate slave proprietors‘. Its distribution was entrusted to a Slave Compensation Commission which began to meet in October 1833 and was terminated at the end of 1842.

Judith made three uncontested claims to this Slave Compensation Commission. In 1834 she registered her slaves and made her claims the following November of 1835 for 64 slaves at ‘Petit Ance Estate‘ (£1,499 18s 9d, Claim No. 912), 68 at ‘Susanna Estate‘ (£1,558 8s 5d, Claim No.944), and 143 at ‘Grand Ance Estate‘ (£3,546 17s 5d, Claim No. 948). [T71/328 p. 105]

While her two surviving daughters would die as spinsters, three of Judith Philip’s grandchildren married and had issue – William Wheeler who became a prominent Anglican Minster would die in the 1890s worth well over £30,000 pounds which was inherited by his son Edmund. Ellen Ann married the Anglican Minister Thomas Boys the brother of William Wheeler’s wife and had a least three daughters. Magdalene married a prominent academic Henry Amedroz – one their two sons was killed in the Boer war while the other died a wealthy barrister in 1917 without issue. Jeannette Rose and Francis Catherine remained as spinsters. When Magdalene Thornton died in London in the 1890s she left an estate worth over £35,000.

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Sources

1. Lorna McDaniel ‘The Philips: A ‘Free Mulatto’ Family of Grenada’, Journal of Caribbean History 24 (2) (1990), pp. 178-94.
2. Kit Candlin, The Last Caribbean Frontier 1795-1815 (Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan, 2012), ch. 1, ‘What Became of the Fedon Rebellion’, pp. 1-23.
3. ‘Carriacou Plantation Slave Registers’, 1833, pp. 2-12, T-71/319, National Archives of the United Kingdom (NAUK) and ‘Grenada Compensation’, 1836, no.780, ‘Judith Philip’, NDO 4/10, NAUK.
4. ‘Judicial Report of the Evidence in the Case of Jose’, 1834, pp.136-138, CO 101/78, NAUK.
5. Honore Philip to the Heirs of Honore Philip, 10 Sep 1785, p.50, Deeds K3, Supreme Court Registry of Grenada (SRG).
6. ‘Judith Philip to Michel Philip Release’ 26 May 1789, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Deeds: Unnumbered Box, SRG.
7. ‘Catherine Philip to the Heirs of Honore Philip Deceased’, 15 Jun 1786 pp.560-562, Deeds V1, SRG.
8. ‘Marie-Magdalaine Vigi Philip to Henry Hilaire de Moussacq’, 27 Jan 1807, pp. 61-66, Deeds S4, SRG.
9. ‘Articles of Agreement between the heirs of Honore and Jeanette Philip (Deceased)’ 7 Sep 1778, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Deeds: Unnumbered Box, SRG.
10. ‘Description of the Grenadines’, S.V. Morse, 1778, CO 101/16, NAUK.
11. ‘Philip Family Indenture’, 10 Sep 1785, Deeds K3, SRG.
12. ‘Articles of Agreement Between the Philip Family’, 10 Sep 1785, pp.51-61, Deeds K3, SRG.
13. ‘Last Will and Testament of Judith Philip’, 25 Nov 1848, Probate, 11/2105, NAUK.
14. ‘The Children of Edmund Thornton and Judith Philip to their Attorneys’, 09 Apr 1855, pp.289-292, Deeds W-C3, SRG.
15. UK Articles of Clerkship 1756-1874, ‘Philip Thornton to Stacey Grimaldi witnessed by Edmund Thornton’ 15 Feb 1816.
16. H. Gordon Slade, ‘Craigston and Meldrum Estates 1769-1841’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 114 (1984), pp. 481-537.
17. ‘Judith Philip about to Depart for England and May be Absent For Some Time Appoints Duncan Campbell, James Baillie and Suzanna Philip as her Attorneys’, 24 Jun 1794, Deeds E2, SRG.
18. ‘Judith Philip About to Depart for England Appoints Pierre Charbonne and Joseph Newton as Attorneys’, 30 May 1803, pp.492-493, SRG.
19. For Thornton’s Address and his marriage to Jane Butler see ‘Edmund Thornton sale of Morne Rouge’, 9 Jul 1814, pp.448-451, Deeds Y2, SRG.
20. ‘Joachim Philip with William Scott’ no.3288, Court of Common Pleas 1794-1796, SRG.
21. ‘Secretary of State Portland to Houston’ pp.238-242, Governors In Letters Grenada, CO 101/34, NAUK.
22. ‘Children of Judith Philip: Intention to sell’, 9 Apr 1855, Deeds W-C3, SRG.
23. ‘Last Will and Testament of Ann-Rachel Thornton’, 04/04/1849, Deeds B4, SRG.
24.  1631 volumes of Slave registers and records of the Slave Compensation Commission (1812-1851), CO T71, NAUK.

 

For details of the lives of her descendents, such as inheritance, estate value at death, marriage etc see the various items for the family at Ancestry.com.  We are grateful to Kit Candlin for compiling this biographical-outline.

 

Further Information

Absentee?             Transatlantic

Children                [With Edmund Thornton] Ann Rachel, Louis-Edmund, Magdalene, Philip, Judith (1807-)

Occupation           Planter

Religion                Roman Catholic

Relationships

Aunt                      Marie Magdalaine Vigi Philip
Niece                     Jeanne Rose Philip
Nephew                 St Luce Philip

Grenada Heritage: Our Artists

A Gallery Called Poui

I remember the first time I met Jim. In my purple and green hair days, I was a young dreamer-of-being-an-artist. After working up the gumption, one day I called to ask if I could visit his gallery. A soft voice on the other end of the line, told me to look for the painted wall on Cross Street, and follow that along, up the steps and ring the bell.

Jim greeted me then, the same way he greets me now when I drop in for a visit – well perhaps with a bit more gusto, since we’ve known each other for donkey’s years. I had brought some samples of my work to him and he was kind. Kind enough to say go work on them some more, and bring them back. Years later, I’d brought them back, and he did take them, and many sold!

The art on the walls and the floor and just about everywhere in that small Cross Street space was not what I had learned in school to be called art. We good convent girls were raised on colouring inside the lines, and attempting with certain failure, to recreate European masters from lumpy tempera on grey sugar paper.

At the time I went to see Jim, I was trying too hard to become an artist instead of letting the art flow. Perhaps if I had paid attention at the time, I would have realised the opportunity to study with Jim and benefit from his years in MOMA and his eye for what was saleable. I would have been much farther along in my career.

Two weeks ago, Haitian artist Jean Renel Pierre Louis (Prensnelo) and I dropped in to have a chat with Jim. Surmounting the staircase, I breathed deeply, (because either the steps have gotten steeper or me slower), of the smell peculiar to old documents and archives, the smell of history. In this case, art.

In the absence of an art museum or archive, right now, Jim holds the information about Grenada’s art and artists, about how far we’ve come, and in what direction(s) our art may or may not be heading. Jim believes that art is not ‘something for people with no grades, or people with money to waste’ to do. He is a firm believer in art magnifiying the soul, of the artist and of the country they represent. “For about three years I used to install small exhibitions of a particular artist’s work at Barclays Bank (now CIBC First Caribbean), till they changed the interior and blocked the wall space. I used to write articles about what was shown which were printed in The Grenadian Voice,” said Jim.

So how did Jim end up in Grenada? Short answer, snow.

The family business in New York was signmaking and neon lights. He would draw the outlines and his father would bend the tubes. His father saw his interest in drawing, and registered his son at Pratt Institute. After a series of art and photography courses, Jim’s art career was distracted by a stint in the US Navy – damage control he says – but returned to the art world on the GI Bill, studying art history. Art was always there. After his art history course, he was determined to work at MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art. So one Friday he applied for a job, any job, and on Monday was at work. He stayed there for 4 years until the cold of the New York winters drove him to find somewhere warmer to live. “It was a toss-up between Greece and Grenada,” he said. “Grenada won.” He and wife Cornelia read about Grenada and decided to try it, for a new perspective, a new space to breathe, to be warm.

In 1966 they came to Grenada. Two years later, the first commercial art gallery in Grenada, the Yellow Poui was born, in the Purcell building on Granby Street, across from the market in Saint George’s. The first artist in his newly established gallery was Elinus Cato. (The first time I saw Cato’s work was in the lobby of the lower Church street premises of Co-op Bank. Trying to identify all the images Cato packed on his canvas, helped me pass the time standing in the sluggish line.)

Cato was the first artist on Jim’s books, then Gordon Hamilton. In those days the public interest was thin, but the artists were happy to have someone take an interest in their works. Jim also displayed work from Carriacou’s pride, Canute Caliste, as well. He connected with Canute on the recommendation of a religious worker at Madonna House in Carriacou in the early 70s. Jim began showing his work and his childlike approach to painting and his misspellings, immediately caught on.

“Canute used to divide his canvas or board in two, paint the sky with a few clouds and the occasional bird, but all his action was below the line, below the horizon. I encouraged him to put in a palm tree, or something to connect the bottom to the top.” With the inclusion of his unique narratives artwork titles, Canute’s work was well received by the purchasing public, mainly cruise ship visitors and hotel guests.

Any success stories?

“The most successful to my mind were Cato and Caliste. They were unique and humorous. They told stories.” Of Cato, Jim said, “He was a marvelous artist. Cato just painted and painted, and his work began to catch on with tourists and word spread, and his work sold. Then came Gordon Hamilton and Betty Traynor, and after that, other artists started coming.” Jim’s gallery became the beacon for local artists’ works to be seen, and more importantly, to be purchased.

The gallery moved from Granby to Bruce Street, next door to Charles of Grenada, then to an upstairs on Cross Street, the current location of a radio station. That location was Jim’s absolute best in terms of walk-up customers, visibility and sales. He painted a mural of brilliant colours on the wall leading from the street, to encourage passersby to come up to have a look. A move to Richmond Hill did not auger well. His final destination, the Young Street location, is across from the Antilles Building, housing the National Museum and Tikal, and down the sidewalk from MNIB, aka marketing board.

Several times I have enjoyed watching art videos with Jim. He has scores of videos for public use and education. This is an excellent resource for visual art students, because after the movie, there is Q and A, with the distinct possibility that Jim will be able to answer almost any question a student may have pertaining to art.

Jim represents about 35 Grenadian artists, including Jackie Miller, Doliver Morain, Joseph Browne, Oliver Benoit, and long-time residents Chris Mast, Trish Bethany, and Marie Messenger. Is there a distinct Grenadian style? Jim said, “The Grenadian art ‘style’ develops I think from the artists’ desire to show Grenada in various ways, mostly landscape and flora, but also Grenadians at work and at play, as in regattas. Exceptions are Oliver Benoit and the long-time residents.”

Jim’s contribution to Grenada art has not been fully told, and he has no plans to write any time soon. He represents/has represented close to 45 artists from Europe, the UK and the US, plus Trinidad titans Boscoe Holder, Jackie Hinkson, Sundiata, MP Alladin and Pat Chu Foon, (he is godfather to Pat’s son). He encouraged a few to come to Grenada to paint, and in 1986, Hinkson had a solo show of drawings and watercolours, ‘All Works of Grenada’ at the Yellow Poui.

Forty-five years and several relocations later, Jim is still on the job, displaying artists’ works, and making himself available as an art resource for artists, teachers, students and persons interested in Grenadian art. Poui, in its present and possible last, reincarnation, is a 2-room gallery, at the top of 2 flights of steps, of a building original to the early days of Young Street. The short covered walkway from the street to the steps was once the entrance for horses, in the days when they were a regular sight in the town. Jim has taken the work of obscure Grenadian painters and shown them alongside Caribbean greats in his gallery, the Yellow Poui. The significance is not lost on me.

Jim Rudin. US Navy Veteran. Artist. Photographer. Gallery owner. Art encyclopedia. The possibility of life without Jim and Poui… I have no words.

By Suelin Low Chew Tung

Grenada Heritage: Plantations – Baccaye Estate

Baccaye Plantation Estate

Baccaye Plantation Estate now know as Westerhall Estate is in the parish of St David, Grenada.  The map shown here shows its location on the south coast. The survey of 1824 shows the estate was a sugar plantation of 951 acres – considered one of the largest on the island – although today only rum is produced. Many go to sample the wares but you can also retrace the footsteps of one James MacQueen (1778-1870) who worked on the estate when it was owned by the Johnstone family of Dumfries, Scotland [1]. It seems that William Johnstone Pulteney was involved with a disputed compensation claim for over £4800 for 176 slaves on Westerhall in 1837. MacQueen himself was a large scale claimant of compensation for enslaved peoples on St Kitts.

 

 

 

However, more interesting is the earlier period which has been illuminated by David Lambert’s work on MacQueen’s imperial career, especially when he was the resident overseer on Westerhall, 1797-1810 [2]. MacQueen was part of a wider migration from Scotland during the period 1750-1800 in which up to 17,000 young men temporarily relocated to the West Indies in search of fame and fortune. He arrived on Grenada in the immediate aftermath of the failed Fedon’s rebellion of 1795 (provoked when the English island leaders not honoring the French move to emancipating all their colonial slaves) and Lambert cites correspondence outlining the damage done during the revolt: ‘most of the canes at Westerhall that were uncut had been burnt, together with the Dwelling House and Out Houses at the Point, and I have since learnt that the Works on the Estate, as well as on almost every other Estate in the Island, were also burnt’ [3]. The rebuilding of Westerhall thus represented a formative period in the Scottish sojourner’s life.  Originally from Crawford in Lanarkshire in Scotland, MacQueen entered into a decimated plantation economy and a colonial society divided by religion and nationality which, according to Lambert, shaped his conservative, anti-Catholic and anti-French outlook. According to Lambert, MacQueen oversaw the rebuilding of Westerhall in the aftermath of the rebellion for which he was paid £40 sterling per annum. His role in subsequent years as overseer would have included managing the estate’s enslaved peoples and promoting labour through the whip. His work complete by 1810, MacQueen travelled home and later became the editor of the pro-slavery Glasgow Courier and was employed by the Glasgow West India Association to disseminate similar propaganda in the 1820s. Sadly these days, Westerhall holds no record of MacQueen’s employment but there are lots of clues to the estates past.  You could envision MacQueen walking through this boiling house (which would have been covered by a roof) up to the upper reaches of the estate where the ‘big house’ was situated and then down to the sugar fields nearby the sea. The date at the top left of this adjoining building (probably sugar works) outline it was built in 1800 just after the rebellion. You may almost hear MacQueen barking orders in a thick Lanarkshire accent to masons over from Scotland and to the enslaved persons employed in the works. The stills here are said to be a remnant when the estate was under French control sometime before 1763. The surviving mill and aqueduct illustrates the transition to heavy industry from slave labour after emancipation in 1834.

 

 

The mills were made in Glasgow in 1860-1861 and this example underlines how Scotland profiteered in successive stages of the colonial economy. The primitive accumulation of capital was made in the New World which fuelled Scotland’s rise to industrial nation. By the 1860s, Scottish manufactories were exporting engineered goods across the British Empire. MacQueen lived a long life (dying aged 92) and would have seen many changes, how often would his thoughts turned to Westerhall and the thirteen year period that shaped his life? 

 

 

MacQueen returned with wealth based on the expropriation of labour from enslaved peoples which must have funded his activities in Glasgow. So you may now return with a new understanding of the Scots in the Caribbean and their legacy today.

 

 

 

Reference

[1] For a thorough account of the Johnstone family, see Emma Rothschild’s magisterial The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth Century History, (U.K.: Princeton University Press, 2011),

[2] See David Lambert, ‘The “Glasgow King of Billingsgate”: James MacQueen and an Atlantic proslavery network’ Slavery and Abolition29 (2008), pp. 389-413 and his more recent account, Mastering the Niger: James MacQueen’s African Geography and the Struggle over Atlantic Slavery, (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2013).

[3] David Lambert, Mastering the Niger: James MacQueen’s African Geography and the Struggle over Atlantic Slavery, (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2013), p.247.

Grenada Heritage: Scots In Grenada (part 2)

A Scot Travels From The Carenage To Carriacou

As a local or a visitor why not take a stroll around the Carenage area of St George’s, Grenada – it allows one to get an understanding of the hustle and bustle of a working port in the early nineteenth century. Its was ‘Leitch & Smith’ – one of the premier Glasgow merchant firms on the island in this period who purchased one acre of land here around 1810, no doubt to facilitate the transfer of cargo and produce from their warehouses to the waiting ships destined for Glasgow [1]. Representatives of the firm on the island transported the sugar and the cotton from estates across the island and the broad Scots accent would have been a familar sound. Carenage was also the main departure point for many Scots adventurers who made the short journey up to Carriacou, an island of the north coast off Grenada. There has always been a strong early Scottish connection and you may decided to recreate this journey from the Carenage to the near sister island of Carriacou. It is an enchanting little island of 13 square miles (with a tiny population of around 7,000) and remains mainly untouched by the commercialism of the larger resorts. You’ll travel from the capital, Hillsborough to go looking for the onetime Scottish cotton plantations Craigston and Meldrum which were then owned by the Urquhart family of northeast Scotland. They followed the pattern of naming their estates after places at home [2]. Today much of Craigston has been broken up for housing although Meldrum seems to be intact and the map here illustrates the location of both. The legacies of British Slaveownership project reveals that William Urquart claimed over £8,000 compensation for enslaved peoples on the emancipation of slavery in 1834.

Meldrum Estate, 2014

You may also make the trip up to Windward in the north of the island, where there is a small, white community –  who are said to be descended from Scots and who retained traditional shipbuilding skills from the eighteenth century. It is marvellous to see a half built ship near the beach. If you speaking to the many friendly locals you’ll note there is an understanding that Scots were involved in Carriacou and you’ll receive a great welcome.

 

But it may seem quite surreal sitting in the Sportsman Bar on the beach discussing the impact of Sir Alex Ferguson on English football! A wonderful amazing place with warm, friendly people and you’ll be back.

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

1. Stephen Mullen, ‘A Glasgow-West India Merchant House and the Imperial Dividend, 1779-1867’, Journal of Scottish Historical Studies,(2013), pp.196-233.

2. See H. Gordon Slade ‘Craigston and Meldrum estates, Carriacou 1769-1841’ Proceedings of Society of Antiquarians of Scotland 114 (1984), pp. 481-537.

Grenada Heritage: Scots In Grenada (part 1)

Scots on Grenada in the Parish of St Patrick

An introduction to Grenada is often made a lot easier by a chance meeting in ‘Maurice Bishop’ airport with another Scot or even a friendly local or distant relation.

With your friends you can explored the island of Grenada in a 4×4 jeep. Along the way, any Scots will managed to stop for a photograph at Dunfermline, Grenada. Like many eighteenth century travelers, the Scots had the habit of naming their estates after places back home – leaving an indelible legacy across the Caribbean.

Map of Grenada, 1826

In this map, the yellow line roughly represents our journey. The estate marked in green was owned in 1826 by the Glasgow firm John Campbell Senr. & Co. of Glasgow (which you’re not visiting) and the estate marked in red was owned by the ‘heirs of the Houstons’ (which you should visit).  This estate, known as Belmont, was once the property of a Scot, Mr Aitcheson, before being purchased c.1780 by Robert Alexander Houston, the son of Alexander Houston of Jordanhill. Alexander Houston & Co. were the the premier sugar merchants in Glasgow, before their spectacular bankruptcy in 1801 [1]. Despite the failure of the merchant firm – essentially due to a lack of liquid capital – the Houston’s retained Belmont beyond this period.

 

Belmont Estate, April 2014

 

 

 

Indeed, the Legacies of British Slaveownership project reveals that after the emancipation of slavery in 1834, Robert Houston was a large scale-claimant of compensation and was awarded £5024 for 194 slaves on Belmont Estate on 16 November 1835. Belmont estate is still in use today. However, before emancipation, sugar was the main crop and chattel slaves provided the labour.

Sugar cane growing in Grand Etang park, Grenada

Today cocoa is grown by wage labourers. There you can spend an interesting few hours finding out how cocoa is grown and harvested and the guide explained how some traditional methods have been retained. Some mistakingly thought the Houston’s were English but you can point out they were definately Scottish!  You’ll also notice some pointers to the estates past as a sugar plantation.

Belmont Estate, 2014

The big bell may once have been rung by Scots to wake up the enslaved peoples for work at 5am whilst the large bowls (imported from Europe) would have been used to boil the juice from the sugar cane into the semi-refined muscovado – perhaps destined for the Clyde. However, there is no source detailing the lives of the enslaved people who resident on the estate. A quick search of the Ancestry website which holds digitised images of the Slave Registers, which are held the National Archives at Kew, London, illustrates this side of the story. For example this record shows a female baby named Adelaide was born in 1831, and was thus registered by William Houston as an ‘increase’ in the resident slave population on Belmont in 1832. As a child under six, Adelaide would have been freed automatically (as long as her mother wasn’t destitute) under the terms of the Emancipation Act 1833.

However, many others like her between 1807 and 1834 would have lived, worked and died on the plantation.  Don’t automatically conclude that all the enslaved were badly treated, this is entirely false –  many platation owner would not automatically mistreat their workers.

Source: Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834, original from the Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission (The UK National Archives, T71, 317)
[now accessable on-line via Ancestry.com]

This poignant snippet adds an element of social history and illustrates the human dimension to what has recently been described by many writers. Having visited these islands and plantations, this trip can really helped to shape you thoughts on the activities and location of Scots in Grenada (and other islands) as well as their legacy today.

 

Reference

[1] For a good account of this see Douglas Hamilton’s ‘Scottish Trading in the Caribbean: The Rise and Fall of Houstoun & Co.’, in Ned C. Landsman (ed), Nation and Province in the First British Empire: Scotland and the Americas, 1600-1800 (Bucknell University Press, 2001), 94-126.