British Guiana 560C&D (Good Hope)

Parliamentary Papers p. 318.

The award was split.

Mrs Thornton received £4858 1s 3d; Saltoun and Bayley received £2429 0s 7d.  

T71/885: claim by Messrs. Thornton & Fraser, via their attorneys John Lawrie and James Matthews. Counterclaim by M.G. Hamer (Michael Greatheed Hamer, son of Joseph Hamer).  

Replication by Mrs J. Thornton, Saltoun and Bayley, stating 'that the slaves were duly made over to the claimants Messrs T And F and that counterclaimant has no [illegible]'.  

T71/429 p. 192: 444 enslaved persons were registered on Good Hope estate in 1832 by John McLean for Butler Edmund Thornton, Wm. Thomas Thornton and the devisees in trust of the late Simon Fraser, each one undivided third-part.

T71/1255: identifies the original partners as Edmund Thornton and Simon Fraser. Jane Thornton signed a document, dated 16/02/1836, executed in her presence by Greatheed, limiting his claim to the one-third owed to the Frasers.

The background to this award is set out in George Baillie, Series of 3 pamphlets of 'Interesting Letters' addressed to John Bolton, Evan Baillie and James Baillie published in 1809 (1809). States that (James) Baillie, (Edmund) Thornton and (Duncan) Campbell was failing in late 1794. In early 1795, it was rescued by Simon Fraser, of King's Arms Yard: 'the connection between your house and Mr Fraser continued for some years, and under his patronage you prospered' (pp. 18-20).