Five women called Betty on Good Hope

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Good Hope estate listed nine individuals with a mother called Betty: Behaviour (b. 1768, whose mother was called Betty C [=?Coromantee, from Fort Kormantine in Ghana), Duke (1769-26th of November 1818,* who was described as Sambo), Mary (b. 1779), Atty (b. 1780), Lacoo (1780-28th of September 1819),* Joe (b. 1783), Yankee (b. 1784, whose mother was listed as A. Betty [=?African]), Nancy Grey (1790-1820) and Cuba (1793-5th of October 1818).* 

There were five women called Betty who could have been the mother of some or all of these children:

1. Betty (b. 1745), who was born in Africa. She would have been 23 when Behaviour was born and 48 when Cuba was, so could have given birth to any or all of these children.
2. Betty (b. 1753), who was born in Africa. She would have been between 15 and 40 when these children were born, so could have given birth to any or all of them.
3. Betty (b. 1755), who was born in Africa. She would have been 13 when Behaviour was born and 38 when Cuba was, so could theoretically have given birth to any or all of these children, but is more likely to be the mother of some of the younger children.
4. Betty (b. 1759), who was born in Jamaica. She was too young to be the mother of Behaviour or Duke, but could have given birth to Mary at the age of 22, and to any of the younger children.
5. Betty (b. 1767), who was born in Jamaica. She was too young to be the mother of Behaviour or Duke and, in any civilised world (which this wasn't), she was also too young to have Mary, Atty, Lacoo, Joe or Yankee between the ages of 13 and 17, but she could have had Nancy Grey at the age of 23 and Cuba at 26.

The 1823 return for the estate records the death of a 68-year-old called Betty who was born in Africa. Both Betty (b. 1753) and Betty (b. 1755) would have been 68 in the period covered by this return and there is an annotation after her name (shown here) which  presumably indicates which of the two had died. Unfortunately, I've been unable to decipher it.

The 1826 return records the death of a 56-year-old Jamaican-born Betty. Betty (b. 1767) would have been 56 during the period covered by this return, so I have tentatively given 1823 as her date of death.



Going down a generation, Behaviour's children are discussed in a post called 'Behaviour of Good Hope'. I originally transcribed Spim's mother's name (as shown) as Nancy Guy, but Nancy Grey is a more likely reading given that there was a woman of that name on the estate. Spim's birth was recorded in the only return which gives precise dates, and he was born on the 15th of March 1819. 

Other possible children for Nancy Grey are discussed in a post called 'Six women called Nancy on Good Hope'.

Mary was named as the mother of two children: Cook or Cork (b. 1797) and Hood (b. 1804).


* These deaths were recorded in the 1820 return of 'increases' and 'decreases', which is the only one that gives dates.




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