James Wright Turner

Resident in Jamaica, awarded a share in 1/16th of the compensation for the Dunbarton estate in St Ann, and several awards in Clarendon, including for Pindar's Valley, of which he was owner-in-fee. Brother of several co-claimants for the Dunbarton estate. Nephew of William Gale Redwar (q.v.).

1. Son of Dutton Smith Turner and Mary Gale née Redwar, grandson of Henry Redwar and brother of other claimants under the Dunbarton estate. Baptised 09/09/1799 in Clarendon, Jamaica.

2. 8 children were baptised in Clarendon, Jamaica, to James Wright Turner and his wife Sarah Elizabeth: George (12/02/1826), Mary Anne (26/06/1828), James Dutton (28/09/1828), Sarah Coward (09/02/1830), Harriett Bowerbank (26/09/1833), Theodora Foulks (16/10/1835), Emily (14/08/1837) and James Wright (18/05/1839).

3. In 1836, the Marquis of Sligo wrote that the Spring Vale estate, 'under the management of Mr. James Wright Turner, exhibits an absence of complaint which is quite extraordinary. The most curious part of the case is [...] the effect of his management on the [enslaved people] he has recently hired from Dr. Loane, the member for that parish; they were proverbially, previously, the worst conditioned [enslaved people] in the parish; since they have been there, they are reported to have acted in the most correct manner, and no fault whatever has been attributed to them.'

4. Living at Teak Pen, Clarendon, at the time of the baptism of his daughter Emily in 1837. Churchwarden in Clarendon in 1839.

5. Pindar's Valley may have come into James Wright Turner's ownership through his wife Sarah Elizabeth. The compensation for ownership of enslaved persons on this estate was awarded to William Dutton Turner (q.v., brother of James Wright Turner) as trustee of the marriage settlement of James Wright Turner and his wife, dated 19/04/1825. An unsourced online query gives James Wright Turner's wife as Sarah Elizabeth née Coward.

6. Will of James Wright Turner proved 19/02/1842 (the probate index gives no indication of place). A mural tablet in St Paul's Church Chapelton, Clarendon Jamaica shows 'James Wright Turner Esq., b. in this parish 22 Aug. 1799 and died in it 14 Nov. 1840.'

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

T71/857 St Ann claim nos. 407 and 565 [Dunbarton]; Clarendon claim nos. 147 (Pindar's Valley), 148 (Pindar's Valley), 234 (Rose Hill) and 407; T71/857 St Ann claim no. 121 (Islington); T71/854 St John claim no. 51 (Spring Vale).

1. www.familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Registry Transcripts, 1664-1880 [copy of parish record online]. See separate entries for Mary Gale Redwar, Henry Redwar and William Gale Redwar.

2. www.familysearch.org batch nos. I04151-6, I03863-0, I031817-8 and I03873-7.

3. Despatch No. 528 from the Marquis of Sligo to Lord Glenelg, 9 July 1836, in Great Britain Emigration Commission, General Report of the Emigration Commissioners, p.56. London: William Clowes & Sons for H.M.S.O., 18.

4. www.familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Registry Transcripts, 1664-1880 [copy of parish record online]. Jamaica Almanac (1838).

5. T71/859 Clarendon claim no. 148. http://genforum.genealogy.com/melville/messages/415.html [accessed 23/07/2012].

6. PROB 11/1958/313; Higman, Plantation Jamaica pp. 77 and 91.