Rev. Richard Bathurst

Younger son of Edward Bathurst (1680-1772) of Finchcocks, Kent, and his second wife (name unknown). Matriculated St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 06/06/1744 age 16; BA Brasenose College, 1748. Richard's elder brother Charles (d. 1767) bought Finchcocks and his father's Jamaican property two years before Charles's death, and bequeathed them to Richard.

It's not clear how Edward Bathurst acquired property in Jamaica. His eldest son by his first marriage (also Edward) died in Jamaica in 1751. Some online genealogies give Edward Bathurst senior's mother as Ann Gamon, suggesting a Jamaican connection, although William Berry's County Genealogies give her as Anne Dawson (c. 1642-1708). Both Barry and online genealogies give Anne as widow of Lancelot Bathurst at the time of her marriage to Edward Bathurst senior's father William Bathurst of Wilmington.

Richard Bathurst sold Finchcocks in 1796.

Died at Rochester in 1803, a minor canon at the Cathedral. His will makes no mention of Jamaican property. An online unsourced blog states that Richard's eldest son Edward (bap. 1774) was a friend of the Prince Regent and lost his estate to gambling debts.

Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919) vol. 4 p. 282; will of Charles Bathurst, PROB 11/925/433.

Kent Archaeological Society Monumental Inscriptions in the churchyard of Goudhurst Church, https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Libr/MIs/MIsGoudhurst/01.htm [accessed 29/08/2018]; William Berry, County genealogies : pedigrees of the families of the county of Kent (1830) p. 199.

History of Finchcocks, https://www.finchcocks.com/history/ [accessed 29/08/2018]: note this mentions his father Edward and brother Richard but omits to mention Charles.

PROB 11/1387/273; http://bathurstnz.blogspot.com/ [accessed 29/08/2018].