| Description | (Indexed by correspondent. Letter of 3 October 1833 to Captain Philip Browne [one of the landowners and Harbourmaster Port Morant] refers to 'the general state of Immorality among the people of Morant' and 'the great importance of promoting religion & morality among the Black people not only as a matter of conscience, but likewise on the score of the pecuniary interests of the proprietors', adding that 'the lives of all the white people on the Estate are in direct opposition to all laws of religion & morality and.. you appear to think all attempts at improvement hopeless and .. the man whom you so anxiously wish to be employed as the Overseer of the Estate is the brother of the woman whom you acknowledge to be living with you in an unlawful connexion'. Letter of 18 October 1833 to William Davidson concerns the concerns the manumission (granting of freedom) of 'a brown woman' named Diana Hamilton and her children. Letter of 15 May 1837 to Captain Browne regarding proposals for schools on the estate. Letter of 14 April 1838 to James McWilliam suggesting that following the forthcoming emancipation of the slaves of Jamaica they 'may refuse to work upon reasonable terms', and that replacement labourers might be imported from Malta. Notes also that 'there is an excess of Apprentices in Barbadoes [Barbados] ... but we have ... heard that these poor people are so much attached to their Island, and have such a horror of Jamaica Overseers that it is not likely they will emigrate to us'. [Apprentices were former slaves who were still bound to work for their employer for fixed wages.] Letter of 1 January 1839 to J W Cooper [the agent at Morant] states, 'It may be ... difficult & impolitic to attempt an equalization of wages throughout the island or even throughout a district - it probably cannot be attempted without risking the loss of property on the one hand or committing an act of oppression on the other'. One letter of 1 July 1837 to Joseph Whatley of Reading relates to Miss Jennings's Whitley Estate, Reading.)
[Frances Jennings was the daughter of Sir Philip Jennings Clerke, MP (1722-1788), and granddaughter of Colonel Richard Thompson of Coley Park, Reading, and Jamaica. She died in 1821, leaving her Berkshire and Jamaica estates to her niece Frances (1786-1861), wife of Sir George Henry Rose.] |