Associated People (11) |
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The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:
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- 1773 [LA] → Owner
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1788 [EA] - 1814 [LA] → Owner
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1788 [EA] - → Attorney
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1795 [EA] - 1795 [LA] → Not known
Shown as owner in 1795 but the estate appeared to have belonged to Alexander Macourtie's brother John. |
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1795 [EA] - 1797 [LA] → Attorney
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1803 [EA] - → Overseer
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1807 [EA] - → Attorney
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1815 [EA] - 1821 [LA] → Attorney
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1817 [EA] - 1820 [LA] → Previous owner
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1820 [EA] - → Owner
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1823 [EA] - 1839 [LA] → Not known
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Notes |
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In 1773 a parcel of land patented by Jacob Stoakes was divided into two: a 67 acre plot in the possession of John Patterson (which would later become part of Mount Charles) and the remaining c. 133 acres which was in the possession of John Nixon (later to be named Mavis Bank). By 1808 Mavis Bank was 302 acres in size and an established coffee plantation. Some of the enslaved people on this estate were sold to Woburn Lawn and Windsor in St David in the early 1820s. The estate was subdivided and sold off in lots in the early 1840s, apparently without mention of coffee growing. Blue Mountain Coffee's website states: "Mavis Bank Coffee Factory, MBCF, is Jamaica’s largest and only fully integrated Jamaica Blue Mountain® Coffee facility. Approximately 1.4 million pound of green beans from over 6000 farmers are processed here annually. Mavis Bank remains a place where time seems to stand still. It is a corner of the world where modern conveniences sit quietly amid unspoiled terrain. Where simple sounds and the slightest temperature changes are amplified. Favored by the ultimate combination of the ideal altitude, mineral-rich soil, gentle cloud cover, mountain shade and ample sunlight, the berry grown in the Blue Mountains take longer than others to mature. More time, some claim, for its rich flavor and aroma to develop. More time, others argue, for its signature character to evolve. All of our coffee is processed at the Mavis Bank Coffee Factory." |
Sources |
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Quote from http://www.bluemountaincoffee.com/index.cfm?method=AboutUs.CoffeeFactory& [accessed 23/06/2016]. |
Estate Information (22) |
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1773
[Name] Mavis Bank
[Size] 133 'The earliest documented reference to Mavis Bank, a plantation located in the parish of Port Royal, appears on a diagram of a division of patented land performed in 1773... According to this diagram, before this date Mavis Bank was part of a larger parcel of land patented by Jacob Stoakes. In 1773, this land was divided between John Patterson, who received 67 acres (which would later become part of Mt. Charles plantation), and John Nixon, Esq., who was granted the remaining parcel of land, which the diagram represents as having 133 acres. It is Nixon's parcel that would eventually become Mavis Bank.'
James A. Delle, An Archaeology of Social Space: Analyzing Coffee Plantations in Jamaica's Blue Mountains (New York, 1998) ch. 3.
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1788
[Name] Meavis Bank
[Crop] Coffee Account filed by Robert Spalding as attorney to John McCourtie Esquire of Great Britain.
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/15 371 f.205
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1795
[Name] Meavis Bank
[Crop] coffee Property of Alex.r McCourtie Esq. Account filed by James Rattray of the parish of St Andrew.
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/21 210
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1795
[Name] Mevis Bank
[Crop] coffee One of the premises of Raymond Hall under the care and direction of John Nicolson of the parish of Kingston. Account filed by said John Nicolson for the period 31/12/1795 to 31/12/1796.
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/24 44
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1797
[Name] Mevis Bank
[Crop] coffee One of the premises of Raymond Hall under the care and direction of John Nicolson of the parish of Kingston. Account filed by said John Nicolson for the period 31/12/1796 to 31/12/1797.
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/24 41
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1803
[Name] Mavis Bank Estate
[Crop] coffee Account filed by William Brakenridge as overseer for the period 31/12/1802 to 31/12/1803.
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/31 104
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1807
[Name] Mavis Bank
[Crop] Coffee Under the care and direction of William Breakenridge.
Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/37 100
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1808
[Name] Mavis Bank
[Size] 302 [Crop] Coffee Surveyed in November 1808 by Major John B. Pechon as 302 acres of which six coffee pieces formed 75 acres. 'Between February and July 1808 Mavis Bank shipped an impressive 73,339 lb of coffee, all of it consigned to London merchants. In the previous year the plantation had sold only 43,687 lb and in 1809 output stood at 53,348 lb.
B. W. Higman, Jamaica Surveyed (Mona, Jamaica, 2001) pp. 167-168
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1810
[Number of enslaved people] 99(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank [Stock] 14 Registered to John McCourtie.
Jamaica Almanac (1811) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL11PtRoyl.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1811
[Number of enslaved people] 100(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank [Stock] 14 Registered to John McCurtie.
Jamaica Almanac (1812) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/a1812and.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1815
[Number of enslaved people] 98(Tot)
[Name] Mavis-Bank [Stock] 5 Registered to Walker & Biggar.
Jamaica Almanac (1816) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL15royl.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1816
[Number of enslaved people] 106(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank [Stock] 10 Registered to John Biggar.
Jamaica Almanac (1817) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/a1817_04.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1817
[Number of enslaved people] 106(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank [Stock] 10 Registered to John Biggar.
Jamaica Almanac (1818) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1818al07.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1817
[Number of enslaved people] 107(Tot) 51(F) 56(M)
[Name] [no name given] In the possession of John Biggar as attorney to the exors of John McCourtie Esquire deceased.
T71/119 27-30
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1819
[Number of enslaved people] 66(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank [Stock] 11 Registered to John Biggar.
Jamaica Almanac (1820) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/Al20p08.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1820
[Name] [no name given]
In the possession of John Biggar as attorney to the executors of John McCourtie Esquire deceased. All sold since 1817: to William Rae of Sharwood Plantation, St David; to David B. Davies of New Battle Plantation, St David; to James Grierson of Mavis Bank Plantation, Port Royal.
T71/120 157
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1820
[Number of enslaved people] 71(Tot)
[Name] [no name given] In the possession of John Biggar, as agent of James Grierson Esquire owner. By purchase from the executors and trustees of John Macourtie deceased and enrolled by John Biggar as their attorney in 1817.
T71/120 144-146
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1821
[Number of enslaved people] 71(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank [Stock] 2 Registered to John Biggar.
Jamaica Almanac (1822) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/Al22p08.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1823
[Number of enslaved people] 34(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank Registered to John Barclay.
Jamaica Almanac (1824) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL24royl.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1825
[Number of enslaved people] 30(Tot)
[Name] Mavis Bank [Stock] 10 Registered to John Barclay.
Jamaica Almanac (1826) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1826al10.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1839
[Name] Mavis Bank
[Size] 302 Registered to John Barclay.
Jamaica Almanac (1840) transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples/AL40PtRoyal.htm. The almanac was based on the givings-in for the previous March Quarter, hence the earlier evolution date.
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1841
[Name] Mavis Bank
'...the plantation lands of Mavis Bank were subdivided soon after emancipation. Thus John M. Smith produced a plan of the property "as sold in lots in the years 1841 & 1842" which listed 17 principal purchasers. A church occupied a corner of the old coffee piece II, and a chapel of the "Westleyian Methodist Association" was located just to the east of the pulping mill site. Smith did not identify the coffee works or the pulping mill on his plan, suggesting strongly that these had ceased to funtion by the 1840s. In the 1980s, however, Mavis Bank was once again to come synonymous with coffee processing.'
B. W. Higman, Jamaica Surveyed (Mona, Jamaica, 2001) pp. 167-168
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1805 - ????
Enslaved man brought to England as a domestic servant; his former owner was indicted for the mistreatment of Thompson in 1824.
Document comprises 4 parts, written recto and verso across 5 folios: 1. An inventory and valuation of enslaved persons at Windsor Estate, St Elizabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 2. An inventory and valuation of enslaved persons at Williamsfield settlement, St Elisabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 3. An inventory of animals at Windsor Estate, St Elizabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 4. A cover note outlining the contents of the document.
© Copyright Legacies of British Slavery - UCL Department of History 2024
CITING THIS RECORD:
'Mavis Bank [ Jamaica | Port Royal ]', Legacies of British Slavery database, http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/10903 [accessed 21st November 2024].
