James Lee Brodbelt

Eliza Lee Brodbelt, James Lee Brodbelt and Thomas Lee Brodbelt were creditors on three estates in Clarendon St Catherine and St John. The three were the 'reputed children' of Francis Rigby Brodbelt Stallard Penoyre (née Brodbelt) (q.v.) who died in England in 1827.

1. Their mother was Jemima Johnson Lee - Eliza and James were baptised 30/09/1800 in St Catherine where the record describes their mother as "free mul[atto]". Thomas was baptised 26/08/1803 with his mother given as Jemima Johnstone, "free mulatto".

2. James and Thomas graduated as Doctors of Medicine from Edinburgh University, 01/08/1824 when they were listed as "from Jamaica".

3. James Lee Brodbelt married Charlotte Varlo Stransham in St Mary Magdalene, Woolwich, England, 15/07/1826.

4. James and Thomas are registered as the owners of nos. 50 and 54-58 Leadenhall Street, London, which were tenanted, 1836-1842. At this time, James's address is given as St Helier's, Jersey, and Thomas's as 24 Bentinck Street, Cavendish Square. The three Brodbelts were given as 'Great Britain' in the compensation records. Catherine was resident in Tredegar Park, St Catherine, when she wrote her will in 1850. The compensation for enslaved people on Tredegar Park was awarded to Jemima Johnson Thomson (née Lee) as executor of her late husband Isaac Deleon Thomson.

5. James Lee Brodbelt and his wife emigrated to Columbus, Ohio, in 1848, where Brodbelt Street is named after them. According to a 2008 report in the Columbus Dispatch, James "moved in abolitionist circles".

6. The legal case Brodbelt v. Thomson (1858) reveals further details of this family. James Lee of Jamaica wrote his will in 1821 bequeathing his house in Spanish Town to his friend John Gardner Milward and all rest and residue to Francis Rigby Brodbelt and Brodbelt's reputed children Eliza Lee Brodbelt, James Lee Brodbelt and Thomas Lee Brodbelt as tenants-in-common. In a codicil written at sea a week later, he revoked the gift of his house to Milward and instead bequeathed it to his reputed daughter Jemima Johnson Lee, daughter of Eliza Gardner Johnson and also made Jemima an executrix. James Lee died on the voyage. Later that year, Jemima Johnson Lee married Isaac Deleon Thomson; the only child born of the marriage was Adriana Lee Thomson. Francis Rigby Brodbelt, for reasons unspecified, changed his name to Stallard Penoyre, and bequeathed his property from the will of James Lee to his three reputed children Eliza Lee Brodbelt, James Lee Brodbelt and Thomas Lee Brodbelt as tenants-in-common; Stallard Penoyre died in 1826. Jemima Johnson Lee survived her husband, and died 13/06/1833. Thomas Lee Brodbelt died in 1844 and bequeathed his property to James Lee Brodbelt and Eliza Lee Brodbelt. Eliza Lee Brodbelt died in 1850 having bequeathed her property to James Lee Brodbelt. Adriana Lee Thomson brought a legal claim in 1852 for the recovery of a moiety of the house in possession of James Lee Brodbelt which she claimed was previously the property of her mother Jemima Johnson Lee.

T71/859 Clarendon claim no. 414; T71/854 St John claim nos. 283 A & B.

1. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

2. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 22 (Edinburgh, 1824) p. 442.

3. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online].

4. Ancestry.com, London, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1965 [database online]. T71/1187 Clarendon claim no. 414 counterclaim. PROB 11/2155. T71/852 St Catherine claim no. 685 (Tredegar and Park pen).

5. 'Brodbelts put historic stamp on lane', Columbus Dispatch, 17/01/2008.

6. James Lee Brodbelt v. Adriana Lee Thomson, http://www.commonlii.org/uk/cases/EngR/1858/865.pdf [accessed 28/07/2020].

We are grateful to Robert Lancashire, Peter Selley and William Norton for their assistance with compiling this entry.