British Guiana 568A&B (Bachelors Adventure and Enterprise)

Parliamentary Papers p. 318.

The award was split -

568A: £4533 17s 3d went to each of the three Hopkinsons (Benjamin, David and Jonathan). .

568B: £22669 6s 4d went to Grant, Chichester and T. Hopkinson.

T71/885: J. Grant, W. Chichester and T. Hopkinson claimed as the executors of John Hopkinson. Counterclaim from Hugh Hopkinson, of Liverpool, as owner in fee of 1/8th part under the will of John Hopkinson. Counterclaim from Eliz., Benj., David and Jonathan Hopkinson, as owners in fee of 1/8th part each under the will of John Hopkinson. Counterclaim from J. Grant, as one of the executors of John Hopkinson and as an executor substituted by Wm. Chichester, under 1st mortgage (dated 05/11/1828) with £6000 still due (against only 1/8th?). Counterclaim from John Philip Beavan, of Sackville St., by virtue of a mortgage for £5479 17s 4d. Replication by J. Grant, stating that John Philip Beavan's mortgage is only a second mortgage and 'therefore posterior to the 1st mortgage which amounts to more than 1/8th of the compensation money claimed'.

T71/1594 p. 320, 15/06/1840: shows Jonathan Hopkinson as a West India merchant, of 113 Fenchurch Street.

T71/1593 p. 322: letter, dated 11/11/1836, to Thos. Hopkinson, 30 Sackville Street.

See also British Guiana claim no. 572 for another Hopkinson claim.

Times 11/08/1828 p. 3: story involving a fraudulent man of colour from Demerara named George Barrow, alias John Thomas Hopkinson, who appears to have had some knowledge of the Hopkinson family, including 'Thomas Hopkinson of Cambridge College'. The story alludes to 'Mr Hopkinson, the banker' (Times 14/08/1828 p. 3) and 'the respectable banker in Regent-street' (Times 25/08/1828 p. 4).

Times 17/09/1828: states that Thomas Hopkinson, of Trinity College, now in Demerara, was himself a man of colour possessed of estates in the West Indies.

See also British Guiana claim no. 616 for John Thomas Hopkinson and British Guiana claim no. 572 for Benjamin James Hopkinson.

T71/1256: agreement over the compensation of Benj., David and Jonathan Hopkinson, all signing in London.

J.J. Cheveley's Journal p. 147: the author states that, outside Georgetown in 1821, 'I came to "Bachelor's Adventure", a large cotton estate owned by the family of John Hopkinson, Ben's (= Benjamin James Hopkinson) white father's brother, both having left a coloured race behind them'. John Grant is referred to as the 'old Manager'.

John Hopkinson bequeathed his estates in Demerara and elsewhere in trust for his nine natural children (seven sons and two daughters), as tenants in common. The will was proved in March 1822. The children were the offspring of two women of colour, one of whom resided in Aigburth Hall and the other in London. Survivors joined in conveyance to Samuel Amory in 1840 in trust for sale of the estates. See http://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=369224 [accessed 21/03/2012].