The Mystery of the Mysterious Grandmother

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen includes a four-year-old girl called Juliet (b. 1813). Her mother was named as Venus.  The entry for Venus estimates her age as 31 (b. 1786) and notes that she was born in Africa. The 1820 return of 'increases' and 'decreases', the only one that records dates, adds another daughter, called Myrtilla (b. 6th of May 1819), and the 1823 return notes the birth of a son, Joe (b. 1822). The 1832 return records the death of Juliet, also known, by that date, as Jane McDonald, at the age of 19 (d. 1832). More about Top Hill Pen More about sources What are the limitations of the evidence? Isn't this too neat to be convincing? A note about the identity of fathers A note about the ages of mothers A note about descriptions of colour A note on language and tone Why have I posted this family tree?         

In the 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen, the mother's name of Polly is given for three daughters and two sons: Eliza (b. 1796), Judy (b. 1798), Tom (b. 1800), Plato (b. 1803) and Lucia (b. 1806). The only Polly listed was estimated to be 59 years old (b. 1772), and her birthplace was given as Africa.  The 1817 register also lists two grandsons: William (b. 1817), whose mother was Eliza and Gentleman (b. 1817), whose mother was Judy.  The 1826 return for the estate records the birth of James Smith, by then almost two years old, whose mother was Lucia. James Smith was described as Mulatto, indicating that his father was white. Lucia was nineteen years old when he was born. The 1832 return of 'increases' and 'deceases' records the death of Polly  aka   Mary Ann Green , who was born in Africa and estimated to be 59 years old. This could not be anyone other than the Polly listed in the 1817 register, but it isn't clear whether she had adopted an

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen lists six individuals whose mother's name was Molly:  William Girdwood, also known as Palmer (1790-1830), Joseph Thomas, also known as Ned (b. 1792), William Eccleston, also known as Quashie (b. 1793), Princess (1799-1826), Betty (b. 1802) and Fanny (b. 1810). In addition, the mother of Linda (b. 1802) was named as Moll. No woman named as Moll was listed in the register, so she may have died before it was compiled. Alternatively, Linda could have been another daughter of Molly. Molly, who was referred to as Old Molly later in her life, was born in Africa in about 1764 and died in Top Hill Pen in Jamaica in 1823.   Molly's daughter Princess had three children: Hellena (b. 1822), George, who was born and died in 1823, and Molly (b. 1824).  Hellena and George were described as Sambo, and since there is no indication that Princess had any European ancestry, it may have been their father who did .  Little Molly was born the y

In the slave lists from 1817 to 1832, five children were listed on Top Hill Pen with a mother called Juliet: Sarah Green, also known as Polly (b. 1812), Thomas (b. 1815), Peter (b. 17th of July 1817),* Judy (b. 1823) and Quashiba, who was born and died in 1832. The only Juliet listed on Top Hill Pen was born in 1794 in Africa. If she was the mother of all of these children, and if the age estimates were accurate, Juliet was 18 when her first child was born in slavery. * Peter's birth was included in the 1820 return of 'increases' and 'decreases', which is the only one that records dates. More about Top Hill Pen More about sources What are the limitations of the evidence? Isn't this too neat to be convincing? A note about the identity of fathers A note about the ages of mothers A note about descriptions of colour A note on language and tone Why have I posted this family tree?         

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen lists two individuals with a mother called Jenny: Phillis (b. 1798) and Quaw (m) (b. 1800). Phillis is also listed, and estimated to be 41 years old (b. 1776), though since she was born in Africa, this could only have been a guess.  Later returns from Top Hill Pen record that Phillis had two daughters, Diana (b. 1821) and Celia (b. 1826). Since no deaths are recorded in the lists of 'increases' and 'decreases' for this family, they may all have survived until slavery was eventually abolished . More about Top Hill Pen More about sources What are the limitations of the evidence? Isn't this too neat to be convincing? A note about the identity of fathers A note about the ages of mothers A note about descriptions of colour A note on language and tone Why have I posted this family tree?         

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen lists a woman called Sally, who was born in Jamaica in about 1796.  Her mother was Beatrice, who was estimated to be 46 years old (b. 1771). She was described as African (born in Africa). Going down a generation, Sally was listed as the mother of two children in the 1817 register: Jean Chorley (b. 1813), and Nancy (b. 1817). Later returns of 'increases' and 'decreases' records the births of Nelly (b. 16th of October 1819)* and Ben (b. 1823), and the death of Nancy in 1821.  Although Sally is not an unusual name, among the enslaved Top Hill Pen had a small population and there was only one Sally. The 1821 return records the birth and death of James (1829-1832), whose mother was Jane Charley. If this was Sally's daughter Jean Chorley, which seems likely, she was about 16 when James was born. James's father was white. * Nelly's birth was recorded in the 1820 return, which is the only one that provides da

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen lists a two-year-old whose mother was Susey. Maryann was described as Mulatto, which means that her father was white.  Later returns of 'increases' and 'decreases' on Top Hill Pen add two more children with the same mother: Alick (b. 14th of November 1819), whose birth is recorded in the 1820 list and Charlotte, who was born in 1822, and recorded in the 1823 list.* Alick and Charlotte were both described as Negro, indicating that they were of wholly African ancestry. The 1817 register lists one woman called Susey, who was estimated to be 20 years old (b. 1797). She would have been 18 when Maryann was born. Susey's mother was called Barbary, and the only Barbary in the 1817 register was estimated to be 42 years old (b. 1775). Her birthplace was recorded as Africa, making her the first of three enslaved generations in her family.  * Only the 1820 list recorded dates. The others just provided a list of individua

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen includes a 13-year-old girl called Keaty whose mother was Bessy. There was only one woman called Bessy on this small estate, and she was estimated to be 42 years old, though no-one could be sure how old she was when she was brought from Africa. The 1826 return for Top Hill Pen records the birth of Bella (b. 1824) to Katey. No Katey, Kate or Catherine was listed in 1817, and the nearest name is Keaty. It's therefore possible that Bella was Bessy's granddaughter. However, Katey could also have been short for Catalina (b. 1788), whose family tree is discussed in ' Catalina of Top Hill Pen '. More about Top Hill Pen More about sources What are the limitations of the evidence? Isn't this too neat to be convincing? A note about the identity of fathers A note about the ages of mothers A note about descriptions of colour A note on language and tone Why have I posted this family tree?         

The 1817 slave register for John Tharp's Top Hill Pen lists two girls with a mother named Catalina. Both Beneba and Monimia were estimated to be two years old (b. 1815), and age estimates tend to be more accurate for children than for adults. They may have been twins, but it's also possible that they were born close together from separate pregnancies. Catalina's age was estimated as 29 (b. 1788) and her birthplace was given as Jamaica. Her own mother wasn't named, presumably because she had died before 1817. The 1826 return for Top Hill Pen records the birth of a girl called Bella (b. 1824), whose mother was Katey. This could have been short for Catalina, or Bella could have been the daughter of Keaty (b. 1804), whose family tree is discussed in a post titled ' Bessy of Top Hill Pen '. More about Top Hill Pen More about sources What are the limitations of the evidence? Isn't this too neat to be convincing? A note about the identity of fathers A note about th

Furness   notes that John Tharp's Top Hill Pen was 'about a mile and a half south-west of the village of Martha Brae' (shown on the map). It was used primarily for livestock and not for the cultivation of sugar and conditions may have been more primitive than on the larger plantations. James Wyld's map of 1843 After Tharp's death,  all of his Jamaican estates were overseen by attorneys . These were originally William Green and Simon Taylor, and 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 throughou

Content warning: violence, sexual violence, exploitation My x6 great grandfather, John Tharp owned ten sugar plantations in Jamaica, called Good Hope, Covey, Lansquinet, Wales, Potosi, Pantrepant, Windsor Pen, Merry Wood, Chippenham Park Pen and Top Hill Pen. He died before slavery was abolished, but in 1837 claims were made on behalf of his heir for  compensation for the value of 2319 individuals who'd been freed . There are various surviving lists of the people who John Tharp enslaved, dating from 1795 to 1832 and these name 4039 individuals, of whom about a quarter died before abolition. I do discuss these people as individuals elsewhere, but in this post I'm mostly analysing the stats based on the slave lists . I hope it doesn't come across as impersonal, but it helped me to grasp the brutality of the institution of slavery. For 814 individuals, the place of birth is given as Africa. Making allowance for a death rate of about 14% on the voyage across the Atlantic , they

There is a mystery at the heart of my own family tree. My mum's grandmother was adopted and didn't know her birth parents  and I used DNA matches to identify her ancestors ( accessible overview ;  impenetrable detail ) to discover that her three times great grandfather was John Tharp, a major slave owner in the Jamaican parish of Trelawny. Finding out that my ancestors were slave-owners was horrifying. Of course transatlantic slavery was a shameful and terrible period in European and American history, but I'd always thought it had nothing to do with me. My ancestors were agricultural labourers and factory workers, not landowners and sugar barons, so I felt confident that they hadn't benefitted directly from slavery.  This was short-sighted, I now understand, because money from slavery made the Industrial Revolution possible and improved ordinary people's lives in Britain in numerous ways. Money generated by forced labour was spent, directly or indirectly, on better

Lists of slaves drawn up in the period after the abolition of the slave trade can be mined for genealogical information,  but using these lists as historical evidence depends on understanding the ways in which their contents are unstable. They are useful sources of information about communities of enslaved people, but conclusions about individuals have to take into account the following limitations: About 9% of individuals were listed with two different names Other individuals may also have had additional names that weren't listed Relationships may be obscured and correlation between entries will be impossible if an individual is listed under different names in different places Estimates of ages are unreliable, particularly for older people, sometimes varying by ten or fifteen years Places of birth are not 100% reliable. Book-keepers recording the death of an enslaved person may not have known about their origins or cared about accuracy, and some individuals who were born in Africa