Margaret Martin Heron

Profile & Legacies Summary

1807 - ????

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Most probably Margaret Martin Heron, natural daughter of Robert Heron of St Elizabeth parish (q.v), and his slave Elizabeth Goudie (q.v.). Together they had three children: Robert (1801-11), Margaret Martin and Anna Maria (b. 1808). The first two were born into slavery but subsequently manumitted, along with their mother, by Robert Heron Snr. on the 1st August 1808. Anna Maria was born free in the December of that year. This perhaps explains why on Margaret Martin's baptism record, logged in 1807 in the parish of St Elizabeth, her parents are named only as 'Heron'.

In his will Robert Heron referred to Elizabeth Goudie as his 'housekeeper' (frequently used in the Caribbean at this time to mean mistress), leaving her and his 'reputed children' one acre of land in Alligator Bay, upon which he instructed his executors to build a house and offices. He also bequeathed Elizabeth an annuity of £15 currency and each child annuities £20 currency each, as well as use of all his furniture and wearing apparel. Robert Heron also bequeathed to the family's use an enslaved women named Martha and all her future offspring and to his son Robert a 'negro boy named Samson'. He stipulated that after the death of Elizabeth Goudie (1811) that his children should inherit the land in Alligator Bay 'share and share alike'. Robert left instructions to his executors to ensure the education of his children and declared them guardians, imploring his sister Ann Heron to give her 'attention to my poor reputed infants'.

Sources

Will of Robert Heron, transcribed by Richard Mitchell: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~heron1/HERON_Robert_1766/scrapbook.htm

Robert Heron genealogy page. Sources not specified by information appears reliable: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~heron1/fam1422.html

Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1879, available through Familysearch.org: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VH6D-YJV

We are grateful to Cynthia Gentles for her help compiling this entry.