Esther Swete (née Prickman)

Esther Swete was the widow of the Antiguan slave-owner Main Swete of Train Devon whose will was proved on 10/07/1736. In 1817 Thomas Norbury Kerby registered 28 enslaved people for the representatives of Mrs Hester Swete, and in 1824 Daniel B. Garling registered 21 enslaved people in Antigua as attorney to Very Rev. Henry Beeke [or Beke] Dean of Bristol, and John Beaumont Swete, reps. of 'Mrs Hester Swete'. Her executors also appear in the Jamaican Slave Registers in linked entries in 1799-c. 1815 for Bog Estate, Retrieve, Strathbogie and Ackendown Pen which indicate that her executors claimed 'joint possession' of the estates.

1. Possibly the Hester Prickman who was baptised in Falmouth, Devon, in 1712, daughter of Thomas Prickman. Ester Prickman married Main Swete 24/04/1728 in Kingsteignton, Devon. She died 28/01/1779 age 68 and was buried in Ermington, Devon, 03/02/1781. There is a memorial to Esther Swete in St Peter and Paul's Church, Ermington.

2. The will of Esther Swete widow of Bath Somerset [made in 1778] was proved 23/20/1781. In the will she secured legacies on her unnamed estate in Antigua, which was let out to Daniel Mathew deceased: one of the contingent beneficiaries under the will was 'Harry Beeke' but the main beneficiary was the Rev. John Tripe [who changed his name to Swete in accordance with the will]. In the will she instructed her trustees and executors to sell her interest in the estates and enslaved people in Jamaica that had been willed to her by her friend Mary Hynes. [These estates for a long period were in the hands of the two William Beckfords, father and son, as mortgagees-in-possession].

T71/245 p. 145. By 1828 the enslaved people had been sold 'by Rev. John Swete' to John Billinghurst, T71/249 p. 78. The will of Main Swete was PROB 11/678/87.

1. Findmypast.co.uk, Cornwall Baptisms [database online]; Findmypast.co.uk, Devon Marriages And Banns [database online]; Findmypast.co.uk, Devon Burials [database online]; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/193788694/esther-swete [accessed 17/01/2022].

2. PROB 11/1075/73.

We are grateful to Philippe Planel for his assistance with compiling this entry.