Jamaica Portland 246A & B (Unity Valley Estate)

Parliamentary Papers p. 52 and p. 300.

Portland claim no. 246A is shown as uncontested for Vanhouse; 246B was litigated and awarded to Forbes & Hale on 29/05/1837. The number of enslaved persons and compensation amount is for both claims. Parliamentary Papers shows no split between 246A & 246B, but simply duplicates the number of enslaved persons and compensation amounts under both 246A & B. The database consolidates these into this single claim to avoid doublecounting.

T71/868: claim from J. Vanhouse, as consignee and manager under Court of Chancery. Forbes and Hale are acting for others in this case.

T71/1593 p. 99: correspondence with Mrs Pearson and Mrs Ann Pearson, at Mr Vanhouse's, 37 Mincing Lane, re. this claim.

T71/1607: letter, dated 20/11/1835, from James Vanhouse, writing as trustee to Mr and Mrs Pearson and consignee and manager under the Court of Chancery. Letter refers to a counterclaim from Wm. Pearson for one moiety by virtue of intermarriage, commenting: 'Mr P has never paid to my knowledge one shilling towards the support of his wife and four children, since the execution of the deed by which I act now, above 12 years, and there is due above £5,500 arrears of annuity'. Letter from Mrs A.H.B. Pearson, stating: we are losing one-third of the crop on the estate; the difficulty can only be met by the payment in question; the counterclaim is acknowledged to be intended only as an obstruction; 'my children have only my energy to look forward to for their advancement in life...I will only further trouble you with the judgement of Lord Stowel in the Ecclesaistical court...that such a series of brutal and unmanly conduct on the part of a husband had scarcely on any occasion been brought before him and that he must be mad'. Letter, dated 02/03/1836, stating that Wm. Pearson had entered a counterclaim, and offered to withdraw it if Vanhouse paid him: 'MR VANHOUSE let him have it depending on his honor!'; 'After he obtained it, he renewed his counterclaim'.

Jamaica Almanac (1832 & 1833): Unity Valley estate registered to the heirs of James Williams.

T71/1201: counterclaim by John James Shean, now residing in Paris, by his attorney John Hopton Forbes. James Williams died in February 1806 [sic], leaving 1/2 of the plantation to his daughter Emma, who married Major James Shean.  Mrs Anne Pearson was the sister of Emma Shean. Wm. Pearson was of 24 Oxford St., Middlesex. His marriage was solemnised without settlement.