John Welch

Former owner of Hutchinson estate on St Kitts, which he reportedly sold to 'Mr Rawlins' in 1790 to secure a legacy for his sister [Jane Akers Byam, q.v.] and jointure for his mother, retaining a mortgage. He was determined a lunatic shortly afterwards, and by the 1830s was living in an asylum at Laverstock House Wiltshire under James Lacy.

T71/1295: St Kitts No. 674, counterclaim from John Welch (a lunatic), as mortgagee, by James Lacy, of Laverstock House nr. Salisbury, Wiltshire (in whose house he is). Statement showing the trusts upon which the Hutchinson estate etc. are vested in Mr John Berkeley. John Welch had sold the estate to Mr Rawlings in 1790, for the purpose of securing a legacy to his sister the claimant and jointure to his mother, lent on a mortgage of £7500 in the names of the trustees. He soon after became lunatic.