Three women called Margaret on Good Hope

In the 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Good Hope estate, two boys were listed with a mother called Margaret: March (b. 1813) and York (b. 1816). Later returns for the estate added Cato (1st of January 1818-18th of January 1819,* whose mother was named as Maggy), Cretia (21st of January 1819-13th of July 1819),* Joans (as shown) (b. 20th of April 1820),* Sam (b. 1821), John Pickett (1825-1829) and Elizabeth Pickett (b. 1832). John and Elizabeth Pickett were described as Quadroon.

There were three women called Margaret on Good Hope who could have been their mother:

1. Margaret (b. 1783), daughter of Mary Ebo [=Igbo, from Nigeria]. See 'Mary Ebo of Good Hope'. She would have been between the ages of 30 and 49 when these children were born and could theoretically have been the mother of any or all of them.
2. Margaret McCullock (b. 1800), who was described as Mulatto and was the daughter of Behaviour. Given the colour descriptions, she is the only one who could have been the mother of John and Elizabeth Pickett, on the assumption that their father was white. I have included them and her in the family tree in 'Behaviour of Good Hope'. 
3. Margaret (b. 1804), whose mother was not named. She is unlikely to have given birth to York at the age of 12, but could have given birth to Cato at the age of 14, and to any of the younger children shown in the family tree.


The dotted line in the family tree indicates that Margaret (b. 1804) could only have been the mother of the four younger children, while Margaret (b. 1783) could have been the mother of all six.


* The 1820 return of 'increases' and 'decreases' is the only one that provides dates.

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