Bryan Castle Estate

Estate Details

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Associated People (10)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1807 [SY] - 1832 [LA] → Previous owner
1776 [EA] - 1798 [LA] → Owner
1778 [EA] - 1780 [LA] → Attorney
1803 [EA] - 1803 [LA] → Previous owner
1817 [EA] - → Trustee and Executor
1817 [EA] - 1820 [LA] → Trustee and Executor
1817 [EA] - 1820 [LA] → Trustee and Executor
1823 [EA] - → Manager
1823 [EA] - → Manager
1826 [EA] - 1832 [LA] → Receiver

Associated Claims (1)

£4,590 6S 0D

Notes

Bryan Hall (later renamed Bryan Castle) in Trelawny was (together with the neighbouring estate of Brampton Bryan) settled in or before 1792. Bryan Castle is within three miles of the Port of Rio Bueno. A view of the great house is given in Hawkwill’s Picturesque Tour in the Island of Jamaica London, 1825.

On 2 April 1802, Lady Nugent wrote in her diary of going ‘to Bryan Hall, to dine with Mr. and Mrs. Galloway. The Hall was the seat of the late Bryan Edwards, where he wrote the greatest part of his History of the West Indies. It is really a beautiful place; the house is a good one, and tolerably well furnished, and has a Turkey carpet in the drawing room —an extraordinary sight in this country. The house stands rather higher than Arcadia, and is surrounded by pimento (allspice) groves, so laid out, as to make the prospect of the sea and the country more picturesque, through vistas.’

In 1803, Bryan Castle estate (which Mrs. Nugent refers to as Bryan Hall) was advertised for sale. The estate was described as comprising 1402 acres, of which about 300 were in sugar canes, 400 in grass and pimento, and 700 in provisions and wood. The estate held 167 enslaved.

We are grateful to Steven Carter for his assistance in compiling this entry.


Sources

Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent's Journal: Jamaica One Hundred Years Ago. Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 112. Maria Nugent, Lady Nugent's journal of her residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 The University of the West Indies Press, 2002, p. 83.


Estate Information (30)

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1776
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Crop] sugar, rum, pimento  
 

Belonging to Bryan Edwards Esq. Account filed by Philip Doherty.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/6 137
1777
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Crop] sugar, rum, pimento  
 

Belonging to Bryan Edwards Esq. Account filed by Philip Doherty.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/6 137
1778
[Name] Bryan Castle Pen  
[Crop] Fustick  
 

Account filed by Zachary Bayley Edwards Esq. as one of the attorneys of Bryan Edwards Esq.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/9 141
1778
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Crop] sugar, rum, pimento  
 

Belonging to Bryan Edwards Esq. Account filed by Philip Doherty.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/6 136
1780
[Name] Bryan Castle Pen  
[Crop] Fustick  
 

Account filed by Zachary Bayley Edwards Esq. as one of the attorneys of Bryan Edwards Esq.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/9 197
1793
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
[Crop] sugar, rum  
 

Property of Bryan Edwards Esq under the direction of Zachary Bayley Edwards and George Goodin Barrett Esq.s as attornies. Account filed by John Jones for the period 01/01/1793 to 31/12/1793. Brampton Bryan and Bryan Castle estates filed together. Crops not differentiated by estate.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/20 87-88
1794
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Crop] sugar, rum, some cattle  
 

Property of Bryan Edwards Esq under the direction of George Goodin Barrett Esq as attorney. Account filed by Edward Hale as overseer for the period 31/12/1793 to 31/12/1794.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/20 186-187
1797
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
[Crop] sugar, rum  
 

Account filed by John Whittaker as overseer.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/24 58-59
1798
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
[Crop] sugar, rum, pimento, some cattle  
 

Property of Bryan Edwards Esq. Account filed by John Whittaker as overseer.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/24 246
1799
[Name] Bryan-Castle  
[Crop] Sugar  
 

Plotted In Trelawney as a sugar estate with a cattle mill in James Robertson's 1804 map of Jamaica.

 
To the King's most excellent Majesty, this map of the island of Jamaica, constructed from actual surveys. . . (London, J. Robertson, 1804), based on Robertson's survey of the county of Cornwall which he compeleted in 1799.
1803
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
[Crop] sugar, rum and pimento  
 

Belonging to Bryan Edwards, Esq, deceased. Account given in the name of John Shand of the parish of St Catherine, late one of the attorneys of John Simpson of the Kingdom of Great Britain, acting trustee under the will of the said Bryan Edwards.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archvies 1B/11/4/32 20
1807
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Crop] sugar, rum and pimento  
 

Belonging to Alexander Donaldson Esq. Account filed by William Hughes as overseer.

 
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/38 95
1815
[Number of enslaved people] 154(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan-Castle  
 

Registered to Grant and Green. Page torn so no number of stock.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1816) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL15trel.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1817
[Number of enslaved people] 157(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 276  
 

Registered to Grant & Green.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1818) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1818al17.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1817
[Number of enslaved people] 155(Tot) 73(F) 82(M)  
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
 

In the possession of Alexander Grant, John Meek, and Joseph Green as Executors and Trustees of Alexander Donaldson deceased.

 
T71/226 1037-1044
1819
[Number of enslaved people] 163(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 279  
 

Registered to Meek and Green Grant.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1820) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/Al20p17.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1820
[Number of enslaved people] 164(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 36  
 

Registered to Meek and Green Grant.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1821) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/al1821_13.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1820
[Number of enslaved people] 165(Tot) 78(F) 87(M)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
 

In the possession of John Meek and Jospeh Green as Executors and Trustees of Alexander Donaldson deceased.

 
T71/231 [unpaginated]
1821
[Number of enslaved people] 167(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 262  
 

Registered to Meek and Green Grant.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1822) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/Al22p17.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1823
[Number of enslaved people] 162(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 220  
 

Registered to Green and Miller.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1824) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL24trel.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1823
[Number of enslaved people] 156(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
 

In the possession of Joseph Green & William Miller as Managers appointed by the Court of Chancery in England and confirmed by the Court of Chancery in Jamaica in cause of Grant vs. Meek & of the Trust Estate of Alexander Donaldson deceased. Registered in Trelawney in 1820 by John Meek & Joseph Green Esquires as Trustees & Executors of the late Alexander Donaldson Esquire.

 
T71/232 [unpaginated]
1825
[Number of enslaved people] 153(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 245  
 

Registered to James and William Miller Grant.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1826) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1826al20.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1826
[Number of enslaved people] 153(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
 

In the possession of William Miller as Receiver appointed by the Court of Chancery in England & confirmed by the Court of Chancery in Jamaica in the Cause of Grant vs. Meek (sp?) & the trust Estate of Alexander Donaldson deceased.

 
T71/235 [unpaginated]
1827
[Number of enslaved people] 152(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 29  
 

Registered to heirs of A. Donaldson.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1828) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1828al19.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1828
[Number of enslaved people] 148(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 194  
 

Registered to heirs of A. Donaldson.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1829) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/al29trel.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1829
[Number of enslaved people] 149(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
 

In the possession of William Miller as Receiver appointed by the Court of Chancery in England and confirmed by the Court of Chancery in Jamaica in the cause of Grant vs Meek and the Trust Estate of Alexander Donaldson deceased.

 
T71/239 [unpaginated]
1830
[Number of enslaved people] 254(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 33  
 

Registered to heirs of Alexander Donaldson.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1831) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1831trel.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1831
[Number of enslaved people] 238(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 206  
 

Registered to heirs of A. Donaldson.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1832) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/al32trel.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1832
[Number of enslaved people] 232(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle  
[Stock] 19  
 

Registered to heirs of A. Donaldson.

 
Jamaica Almanac (1833) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL33Trel.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in of the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
1832
[Number of enslaved people] 232(Tot)  
[Name] Bryan Castle Estate  
 

In the possession of The Honorable William Miller as Receiver appointed by the Court of Chancery in England and confirmed by the Court of Chancery in Jamaica in the cause of Grant vs. Meek and the Trust Estate of Alexander Donaldson deceased. Increase of 113 enslaved people through purchase "By purchase 1- July 1829. Registered in St Ann by John Alexander the owner in 1817/1820/by his Executors in 1823, 1826 & 1829".

 
T71/242 91-94

Associated documents (1)