Lansquinet plantation

Furness notes that John Tharp sold the land he'd inherited from his father (including Batchelor's Hall in Hanover) and the land he'd acquired through marriage (Potosi in St James), to consolidate his holdings in that part of St James which was later separated as Trelawny parish, where he bought the adjoining plantations of Good Hope, Wales and Lansquinet from their previous owner, Thomas Williams, in 1769. Furness suggests that he probably also had to borrow to fund the purchase, but no evidence of a loan survives. Together, the three estates were 3000 acres, and Tharp acquired 473 enslaved people with his purchase. 

Because it was on the Martha Brae river, Lansquinet had ready access to water power to mill sugar.


James Wyld's map of Jamaica (1843)

After Tharp's death, all of his Jamaican estates were overseen by attorneys. These were originally William Green and Simon Taylor, though the planting was overseen by John Harwood, Tharp's slave-born son. It was a cause of resentment in the family that later replacements were appointed by Tharp's trustees until his grandson came into his inheritance. In 1817 the attorneys were William Fairclough and William Shand, and William Tharp (another grandson) told his uncle that they were both incompetent and corrupt:

The great defection in the crops is easily accounted for, nor is there one single planter in the island but is of my opinion. In fact, Mr F[airclough]’s bad management is the universal topic of conversation throughout the island. He not only forbids the overseers to make the negroes work, but actually appears to me to wish to encourage them in all manner of idleness and insubordination, to the great annoyance of the neighbouring properties and to the utter ruin of my ancestors (quoted in Furness, p. 39)

By 1823 William Mitchell Kerr had stepped in as attorney, joined by Francis James Phillips before 1826 (his sister, Anna Maria, was married to Tharp's son John). By 1829, the attorneys were Kerr and William Tharp, with William Tharp left as the sole attorney by 1832.


The 1817 slave register for Lansquinet lists 222 enslaved females and 178 enslaved males, with an average age of about 27. Over a fifth (22.5%) were aged ten or younger, and about 6% were estimated to be sixty or over. Later almanacs show the plantation's population peaking at 403 in 1819-20. Across the lists from 1817 to 1832, 580 individuals were listed by name, of whom about 9% had a white father (10% of those born in Jamaica). About 10% of those who were enslaved on Lansquinet had been born in Africa.

Long after Tharp's death, when slavery had been abolished, his estate (still being managed by trustees) received compensation of £6113 6s 7d for the value of 309 enslaved individuals on Lansquinet. The Measuring Worth website translates that into modern values as follows:

If you want to compare the value of a £6,113 6s 7d Income or Wealth in 1836, there are four choices. In 2021 the relative:
real wage or real wealth value of that income or wealth is £612,200.00
labour earnings of that income or wealth is £5,582,000.00
relative income value of that income or wealth is £7,431,000.00
relative output value of that income or wealth is £26,290,000.00

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