Jamaica St Thomas-in-the-East, Surrey 105 (Amity Hall)

Parliamentary Papers p. 299.

 

Award split: £1915 16s 5d to Cussans; £957 18s 2d to Bond & Pearse; £957 18s 2d to Dehaney & Scott.

 

T71/867: original claim by  John Nelson Bond as attorney of Thomas Cussans as to a moiety; in his own right as joint owner-in-fee with Henry Pearse to 1/4th; on behalf of Miss Cussans of the remaining 1/4th. Counterclaim from John Bond of St Thomas-in-the-East and Henry Pearse of Finsbury Place London 'heading under firm of Bond and Pearse'.  William Knight Dehaney and Matthew Scott were possibly trustees/executors for Jemima Cussans, the sister of Thomas Cussans III.

 

T71/1200: counterclaim of John Bond the younger late of Finsbury Pl.  but at present of the Island and Henry Pearse, sets out background of mortgage by Thomas Cussans of Amity Hall to Ebenezer Maitland et al in 1797.

 

T71/150 p. 133: 216 enslaved persons registered by Charles Scott as attorney to Thos Cussans.

 

Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey, The West Indies in 1837 (London, Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1838) p. 315: Amity Hall is 'a fine estate near the centre of the savanna'. Kirkland was the resident overseer and joint attorney of the estate. 'This estate is managed with more lenity than most in the district, a circumstance which is owing to the proprietor and his family residing upon it for a short time and to his selection of the present overseer.' 'The apprentices obtained their half Fridays, when the owner was in the island, but have again be deprived of them since his departure' without any agreement to compensate them.

 

James A. Thome and Joseph H. Kimball, Emancipation in the West Indies: A six months' tour in Antigua, Barbadoes, and Jamaica in the year 1837 (New York, American Anti-slavery Society, 1838) p. 296: visit to Amity Hall in 1837 when Thome and Kimball responded with warmth towards Mr Kirkland the manager and his [white] family, 'the first and last family circle we were permitted to see among the planters of that licentious colony.'