Three women called Nelly on Good Hope


Returns from the Good Hope estate in 1826 and 1832 record the birth of two children who were described as Mulatto to a mother called Janet or Janett Forbes: Jean (b. 1825) and Peter McBean (b. 1831).

The 1817 slave register records that Jeannet Forbes (b. 1804) was the daughter of Nelly, and the same mother's name was given for Rebecca (b. 1817). Both Jeannet and Rebecca were described as Mulatto. 

Six women called Nelly are included in the Good Hope lists, but only four were alive at the right time and old enough to have given birth to Jeannet or Rebecca. Two were born in Africa in about 1772, but no other information about them is available. Either one of them could have given birth to either or both of these children.

The third possible mother was the daughter of Madam, born in Jamaica in 1802 (see 'Madam of Good Hope'). She could have given birth to Rebecca at the age of 15.

The fourth possible mother was Nelly Grey (1785-1824), whose family tree is discussed in 'Keaty of Good Hope'). She was described as Mulatto and while she could theoretically have been the mother of these children with a father of mixed heritage, her name was given in full in the records for her other children. This suggests that Nelly Grey was not the mother of Jeannet and Rebecca and that is the assumption I have worked on in these family trees.

Since Jeannet and her children were all described as Mulatto, it is probable that her partner would also have been described in the same way. There was a man called Daniel McBean on the Potosi estate (b. 1799) who fits the bill, but I have no evidence to prove a connection, and their father could have been free, or enslaved on a neighbouring estate belonging to someone else.


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