Robert Rainford senior

???? - 1804


Biography

Merchant and slave-trader in Kingston Jamaica, a partner with his brother Samuel Rainford (q.v.) and Jonathon Blundell jun. in Rainford, Blundell and Rainford. The two men had family in Wallasey in England who benefited under their respective wills.

  1. Administration of the will of Robert Rainford of Kingston [made in 1803] proved 22/06/1822. He left £400 to Edward Chaffers of Liverpool and a series of monetary legacies to about a dozen free people of colour in Jamaica, including £100 currency each to Elizabeth Bird and Eleanor Barclay (to each of whom he also left a female enslaved person to be chosen out of all his 'slaves'). He left £1400 and his residence on his pen to his housekeeper Bella Hall. He left £2000 each to his reputed sons Samuel Rainford and Robert Rainford, and £300 to Frances Powell Rainford, the wife of his reputed son Robert. He had, he said, lately purchased several 'new negroes' and placed them on the Mountain estate in St Thomas-in-the-Vale known as Cassava River, the property of his son Robert and the latter's wife Frances Powell Rainford. He was, he said, jointly concerned with Christopher Burrow and William Park merchants in a coffee estate called Mount Prospect in St Andrew, and he ordered this to be sold. His residuary heirs were his brothers John and Joseph Rainford and sister Jane Harrison of the towns of Wallasey and Bidston in the county of Chester and their children and grandchildren.

  2. In his will proved 27/02/1815 John Rainford of Wallasey left 'an interest in the estates of my late brothers Samuel and Robert Rainford' of Jamaica to his wife Sarah.


Sources

The firm of Rainford, Blundell & Rainford is the subject of a case study in Sheryllynne Haggerty, Merely for Money? Business Culture in the British Atlantic, 1750-1815 (Liverpool University Press, 2012) pp. 181-188.

  1. PROB 11/1658/111.

  2. PROB 11/1565/513.


Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
- 1804 [EY] → Joint owner

Legacies Summary

Commercial (1)

Name partner
Rainford, Blundell and Rainford
West India merchant  
 

Relationships (5)

Business partners
Extra-marital relationships
Father → Son
Testator → Legatee
Notes →
Robert Rainford left £300 currency to Frances Powell Rainford, the wife of his natural son Robert Rainford, in his will made in...
Brothers
Notes →
Aslo business...