Nicholas Bourke

Owner of Fontabelle in St Mary. Member of Assembly for Kingston in 1754 and 1755, for Portland in 1761 and Clarendon in 1757, 1766, 1768 and 1770. Speaker of the House in 1770. Dead by 1772.

Nicholas Bourke was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 1020 acres of land in St James and 871 acres of land in Clarendon, total 1891 acres.

Nicholas Bourke of Clarendon, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1772. Slave-ownership at probate: 486 of whom 257 were listed as male and 229 as female. 90 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £39030.96 Jamaican currency of which £11944 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £2248.87 currency debts and £691 currency plate.

Hon. Francis Dennis, Member of Assembly for St Mary, married Miss Bourke, daughter of Nicholas Bourke deceased, at Spanish Town, 1781.

W. A. Fuertado, Official and Other Personages of Jamaica from 1655 to 1790 Compiled from Various Sources (1896), transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/bfeurtado01.htm.

'A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.

Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 01/12/1781 (marriage), 24/02/1781 (constituency).