Edward Pratter

Kingston merchant, and slave-factor for the South Sea Co. there. Deceased c. 1735. An entry was given in the Accounts Produce for 1741 for the estate of Edward Pratter Esq. deceased, by Edward Manning as executor, for house rental and pen hire. The estate of Prospect was filed in the Accounts Produce in the same terms as well. This estate was Prospect Plantation in Carpenters Mountains, co-owned with John Anderson, not yet further traced by LBS, and subject to the suit of Manning v Smith in 1743.

1. Will of Edward Pratter merchant of Kingston made 06/04/1735 was proved 11/05/1736. He indemnified his uncle Edward Serle [sic] and his friend Richard Thompson both of Great Britain who were his securities [guarantors] to the South Sea Co. He left: £100 to Serle; Serle's daughter Catharine £50; his other daughter Elizabeth £500; £100 to his sister Anne Gardiner and £2000 to each of her [unnamed] sons at 21 and £3000 to her daughter; £20 to his aunt Yarnton and £100 to her children; £50 to each of the daughters of his aunt Manning; £20 to Capt. Robert Turner; £500 to his kinsman Edward Manning (q.v.); £100 to the children of his aunt Crowder and £100 to the children of his aunt Andrews; £100 to the children of his late friend John Legay; £50 to Richard Thompson. All these gifts were specified to be sterling amounts. He provided £100 and £300 to buy annuities for his kinsman Edmund Crowder. He left £50 to his good friend and partner John Mereweather and £50 to his 'plantation partner' John Anderson out of what Anderson owed him; and £50 to each of Charles Spencer and John Bell 'that now live with me': these last four legacies were island currency. He manumitted his 'negro woman' named Juno and left her 'my negro woman named Fortune and her pickaninny and any other child she may bear during my life, and also a new Angola girl named ____'. He also manumitted an enslaved 'mullato' woman named Betty and left her two 'negro girls' named Marimma [sp?] and Nanny, and £20 p.a. He made his nephew Edward Gardiner his residuary heir, and left him his real estate on Jamaica, subject to a carve-out of two parcels of land in St Thomas-in-the-East near the plantation of Lord Onslow that he declared to be only in trust for Lord Onslow. He made his uncle Edward Searle and his sister Anne Gardiner his executors, and Edward Manning his executor in Jamaica. In an addendum of 01/08/1735 he said that a daughter had been born to Betty since he made his will, that Betty should look after the child until she was four, when she was to be sent to be looked after by his sister Anne Gardiner, and he ordered the sale of his 'house negroes' so that they not be a burden upon his estate.

https://amesfoundation.law.harvard.edu/ColonialAppeals/CaribAppeals/Report_carib_print_mysqli.php?report_no=JAM_1721_00 [accessed 15/09/2022].

Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives, IB/11/4/1 pp. 188-189.

PROB 11/677/85.