| Description | Content Advice: This file includes items relating to enslavement, as well as offensive terms or terms that have changed meaning over time. In some cases these terms are included in our catalogue descriptions in order to provide information about the content and nature of the source.
Comprising letters and documents compiled mainlyduring period of administration of the plantation by John Whittaker on behalf of trustees of William Gale deceased. They include:
1 List of deeds recorded in Jamaica from July 1761 to September 1764.
2 Copies of letters to John Whittaker concerning the water works at York; directions for erecting pump (reference to a model and directions) and windmill and dam, including copies of Mr Cole's table of references for plan; a list of timber to be prepared; and remarks on the water breaking its boundaries at the York estate (9 pages), dated 28 November 1783 to 29 February 1784.
3 Document entitled ‘Mr Cole’s Remarks on the water breaking its boundary at York Estate’.
4 Document entitled ‘Table of References for the Plan & Drawing of York Works’.
5 Sketch entitled ‘New & old works of York Estate as described by Mr Sharp Jan[uar]y 1785’.
6 Letter from John Whittaker to William Gale, dated 30 September 1784 and concerning news about the management of the York Estate, with mentions of enslaved people.
7 Letter from John Whittaker to William Gale, dated 13 January 1785 and concerning news about the management of the York Estate, including mentions of a dam wall and the crop.
8 Letter from John Whittaker to Long, Drake and Long, dated 20 March 1785 and concerning the receipt of Mr Gale's will and the management of York Estate, with mentions of enslaved people.
9 Document concerning the opinion of John Maddock of Lincoln’s Inn regarding the bequest of Mr Gale's horses and personal possessions, dated 02 February 1785.
10 Minutes of a meeting of Mr Gale's executors concerning claims on Mr Gale's property, signed by John Fisher and dated 06 April 1785.
11/1 Document (undated) from the trustees of Mr Gale to John Whittaker regarding a request for details and a survey of York Estate, with two draft notes included (11/2, 11/3).
12 Note from Messrs Kettle, Pearson and Loggan to Mr Long, dated 23 June 1785, regarding the Master of the Rolls' opinion that Mr Morant's claims are invalid.
13 Copy document, dated 1785, regarding the Dawkins v Morant case in the Chancery, including Mr Long's examination and schedules of personal property of Mr Gale in question.
14 Note from Mr Kettle to Messrs Long, Drake and Long, dated 12 July 1785, concerning the will of Mr Gale and the claim of Mr Morant.
15 Letter from John Thorp, dated 12 September 1785, to the trustees of Mr Gale’s estate, Messrs Dawkins, Morant and Long, concerning the affairs of Mr Gale's estate.
16 Copy of a letter from the trustees of Mr Gale’s estate, Dawkins, Morant and Long, to John Thorp, dated 23 December 1785, concerning the affairs of Mr Gale’s estate and the purchase of land.
17 Letter from John Thorpe dated 5 June 1786, presumably to Messrs Dawkins, Morant, and Long, concerning the exchange and sale of land formerly belonging to Mr Gale’s estate.
18 Letter from John Thorpe, dated 17 June 1786, presumably to Messrs Dawkins, Morant, and Long, concerning land formerly belonging to Mr Gale. It includes John Thorpe’s recommendations for the number of enslaved people that ought to be on each property. It also includes a postscript notifying the recipients that John Thorpe has given the power delegated to him to act for Mr Gale’s property to Mr Whittaker, whom he notes will ‘receive his reward’ for ‘transacting the estate’s business, & other trouble’.
19 Letter from John Thorpe dated 7 August and 5 October 1786, also 5 June and 17 June 1786, to Messrs Long, Drake and Long. It notes that ‘we are at this moment under the most general distress that this country ever experienced’ after several dry months which caused crop failures, with Mr Thorpe stating that ‘I do actually believe this parish could not support 1000 mouths for a week, without foreign supply’. However, Mr Thorpe notes that York estate has received supplies from New York which has made those enslaved on the estate ‘in better health’ and ‘more effective’ than ever before. There is also a postscript detailing the ‘moderate use of white lime’ on sugar.
20 Document entitled ‘Copy of Survey of Gale & Eastwick’s patents, belonging to the Estate of William Gale Esquire Deceased’, dated 16 February 1791. It includes a plan of Gale and Eastwick’s patents in property in Saint Elizabeth, Cornwall, Jamaica, patented 30 April 1723. It is signed ‘Robert Brown Surveyor’.
21 Letter from John Whittaker to Messrs Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins, dated 17 July 1791. It includes accounts for the Boiling and Still Houses for the year’s crop. It also notes that the people enslaved on the estate are 'sickly', as are most in the parish.
22/1 Document entitled ‘An Account of Bills of Exchange drawn upon Messrs Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins of London, on account of the Estate of William Gale Esq. Deceased’ dated 1792. It includes an account of individuals who have received payments, followed by the reasons for their payment.
22/2 Note of Ships, dated 1792.
23 Letter from John Whittaker to Messrs Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins dated 26 June 1792. It chiefly concerns the insurance of ships, as well as accounts of the estate of the late William Gale, reported 22 July 1792. It also includes an account of an ‘accident’ on York Estate in which an enslaved woman died by drowning.
24 Copies of correspondence between John Whittaker and Messrs Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins between 04 December 1793 and 06 October 1794. They chiefly concern the upcoming expiration of the trust of York Estate under Mr Gale’s will, and requests for information by the trustees regarding the condition of the estate and those enslaved upon it. John Whittaker also informs the trustees that he has a son [not named] aged five years old by a ‘quadroon’ woman on York Estate and expresses his wish to purchase his son’s freedom and send him to England for schooling. He makes a similar request on behalf of John Waugh, whom he notes has a ‘mulatto’ son [not named] on the estate and wishes to do the same for his son. The recipients however respond that it is not in their power ‘to do anything of the kind’.
25 Extract of a letter from John Whittaker to Messrs Longs, Drake, Long and Dawkins, dated 12 May 1795. It concerns the 'devastation' made on the coast of Africa by the French, resulting in a lack of new 'Eboes' [Igbo people, members of an ethnic group from areas of Nigeria, in West Africa] from which Whittaker was to select people to be enslaved on York estate. He notes that the last delivery of enslaved people had been on 06 October of the previous year.
26 Copy of questions proposed to Mr Solicitor General and Mr Mansfield regarding Mr Gale’s case and their joint answers, dated 30 May 1795. They chiefly concern the repair of old works and John Whittaker’s reasoning for their not having been repaired and delivering the possession of the trust estate to the tenant for life.
27 Extract of a letter from John Whittaker to Messrs Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins, dated 25 June 1795. It concerns diagrams of runs of land on a survey by Robert Brown, opened by Whittaker at a cost of £60. It also notes a new survey is to be made.
28 Letter from John Whittaker to Messrs Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins, dated 28 June 1795. It primarily concerns improvements and plans to complete new works.
29 Instructions from William Gale’s will, dated July 1795, directing trustees to (among other things) complete the new works that were unfinished at the time of his death, repair the old works, and maintain the number of enslaved people on York Estate at up to 700. The expense for the works was to be defrayed from his savings by the trustees of his will prior to 01 January 1796. Upon expiration of the trust, Mr. E. G. Morant is entitled to possession of the plantation. The trustees are requested to survey the condition of the old works and estimate the cost of replacing them. They are then to report any objections to carrying Mr Gale’s plan into execution.
30 Letter from James Pearson to [?], dated 30 June 1795. Encloses Mr Sharp’s and Mr Whittaker’s letters. It chiefly concerns the instructions in Mr Gale’s will, and surveyors of the estate.
31 Copy of a letter from Messrs Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins to John Whittaker, dated 3 July 1795. It requests a response from Whittaker, chiefly concerning the repair of old works and the purchase of more people to be enslaved on the estate. They also request a survey to be taken by 'indifferent surveyors' and suggests the best witnesses would be 'two captains of ships' or other persons coming to London.
32 In Chancery, Dawkins v Gale and others, copy ordering part of decree, dated 10 June 1796. It includes decision of the Lord Chancellor that the deceased Mr Gale’s will is 'well proved' and that it should be fully carried into execution. It requests an enquiry into the sum of money necessary for the erection of new works and adding new enslaved persons on the plantation so that there will be a total of 700.
33 Copy of letter from Henry Dawkins and Samuel Long (as executors of Mr William Gale’s will) to John Whittaker Esq. Dated 07 December 1796. It concerns the receipt of money from mortgage made between Catherine Harding, widow of the one part, and John Thorp as the attorney for the executors and the late Edward Morant (the surviving executors of Mr Gale), of the other part.
34 [item missing] Long etc to Whittaker (extract only), dated 01 Feb 1797. Memorandum concerning the decree in Chancery concerning York Estate and the Old and New Works.
35 Account of expenses of executors of the will of William Gale to Pearson and Loggan, in relation to Chancery suit. Payment dated 30 June 1795.
36 Extract of letter from Long, Drake, Long and Dawkins to John Whittaker, dated 01 February 1797. It concerns the recent decree of the Court of Chancery. It notes that the chancellor has given “permission to the trustees to build the new works where it is most advantageous to the property”. It also notes that the trustees must reserve £30,000 from the savings in order to “purchase” 270 more people to be enslaved.
37 Document detailing the salaries and expenses of “The Trustees of William Gale, deceased, in account with their Attornies in Jamaica”, on various dates between 1797 and 1798.
38 Letter from Harwood and Green to Edward M Gale, dated 21 June 1810. It concerns the handing over of accounts up to 31 December 1809.
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