William Alers Hankey formerly Alers

London banker, awarded the compensation for the enslaved people on Arcadia estate in Trelawney Jamaica as owner-in-fee.

1. Son of Thomas Hankey (died 1793), half-brother to Thomas Hankey (q.v.) and John Barnard Hankey, and partner (1789) and then senior partner (1830) in the banking firm of Hankey & Co.

2. He was initially named William Alers and married Mary Martin on 26 July 1797 in Stepney St Dunstan. They had at least nine children: Mary Hall (1798-1866), William Augustus (1801-[1803?]), John (1803-1872), William (1804-1866), Thomas (1806-1872), Elizabeth (1807- [?]), Stephen (1809-1878), Sarah (1812-1887), and Alfred (1815-1902). William was granted a Royal License to take on the name Hankey in 1816.

3. He was a co-founder of both the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1804, and the Eclectic Review, in 1805.

4. Born London 1771, son of Thomas Hankey (1740-93) and Elizabeth Weaver [sic]. Edinburgh University. Sons John Alers Hankey (1803-72) left £140,000 and Thomas Alers Hankey (1806-72) left £500,000. Treasurer of London Missionary Society 1816-32.  Left £250,000 at death.

5. William Alers Hankey gave evidence to the 1832 Select Committee on the Extinction of Slavery, in which he explained that Arcadia had come to him 'by succession', the bank having originally the mortgagee of the estate. He  postioned himself as a reluctant slave-owner committed to compensated Emancipation and described himself as 'a dissenter.' He took the view that the ‘negroes’ were not yet ready for emancipation but that slavery should be abolished with preparation of the enslaved through religious instruction:
   'You say that the negroes are not fit at present for emancipation; to what do you ascribe the fact that those persons are not in a condition to exercise the ordinary rights and duties of human nature? — To that absence of just information and knowledge, and at the same time to that absence of proper and manly feeling which the circumstance of slavery itself involves; it is a degrading system, consequently the individual under that system is degraded, and requires to be elevated by instruction and preparation before he can make a proper use of liberty.' (q. 4650, p. 314)

T71/874 Trelawney nos. 25, 26 and 27.

1. http://heritagearchives.rbs.com/wiki/Hankey_%26_Co,_London,_1685-1865 Hankey & Co., London 1685-1865 accessed 19/12/2010.

2. London Metropolitan Archives, Saint Dunstan And All Saints, Register of marriages, P93/DUN, Item 049. Ancestry.com. Pallot's Marriage Index for England: 1780 - 1837 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2001. http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/904129/person/-1600910855 [accessed 16/04/ 2013]. http://trees.ancestry.co.uk/tree/44813967/person/6262120722 [accessed 16/04/ 2013]. William Phillimore Watts and Edward Alexander Fry, An index to Changes of name [electronic resource] : under authority of act of Parliament or Royal license, and including irregular changes from I George III to 64 Victoria, 1760 to 1901, (London: Phillimore & Co., 1905), p. 4.

3. George Browne, The history of the British and Foreign Bible Society: from its institution in 1804, to the close of its jubilee in 1854: compiled at the request of the jubilee committee (London: The Society's House, 1859). John Foster, Biographical, Literary, and Philosophical Essays: Contributed to the Eclectic Review (G. S. Appleton, 1844).

4. Rubinstein reference 1859/50, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 (MS).

5. Report of the Select Committee on the extinction of Slavery throughout the British Dominions, PP1831-2 Vol. 20 (721), pp. 307-17.

We are grateful to Jim Brennan for his assistance with compiling this entry.