La Bonne Mere

Estate Details


Associated People (2)

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:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1817 [EA] - 1817 [LA] → Owner
1826 [EA] - 1832 [LA] → Previous owner

Associated Claims (3)

£17,841 15S 6D
£826 14S 8D
£280 14S 3D

Notes

'This property went through all the phases of misfortune which befell outlying estates after the Emancipation of the slaves.' It belonged to the same proprietor as Goedverwagting (Mr Lebelmondier [sic]), who manfully struggled against difficulties until at last the Adminstrator General had to step in. About 1856 it was sold to Mr George Lillie and Mr W. Jones; Mr Jones, an attorney for various sugar estates, then became sole owner, after the capital costs deterred Mr Lillie. $15,000 was sepnt on a draining engine, but 'an unfortunate allottment of Madras "Coolies" (who became little better than hospital birds) soon prodiuced adverse balance sheets.' The estate was handed over to Humphrey C. Ewing 'in an amicable arrangement', who then brought in Mr Wilkie. By 1883 the estate was run by the trustees of the late Mr Ewing and Mr Wilkie.

Registered under Trois Ami[e]s in Berbice in 1817 and under La Bonne Mere in Demerara in 1826.


Sources

Walter Rodney (ed.) Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the late nineteenth century, a contemporary description from the ‘Argosy’ (Release Publishers, Georgetown Guyana, 1979) pp. 68-69. Walter added a footnote [p. 95] on the 'Madras Coolies', observing that 'most Indentured Indians were from the North and came via Calcutta. In 1883 it was estimated that only 5% of the Indian population in British Guiana spoke Tamil. These were the so-called "Madrasis" of Guiana. There was a strong planter prejudice against this South India labour, based on the questionable assertion that they were not sturdy and would become "Hospital birds" - as the text describes them.'


Estate Information (4)

What is this?

1817
[Number of enslaved people] 224(Tot) 97(F) 127(M)  
[Name] Trois Amis & La Bonne Mere  
 

Robt Douglas atty of Jos Labalmondiere prop.

 
T71/397 T2 1378
1826
[Number of enslaved people] 323(Tot) 146(F) 177(M)  
[Name] La Bonne Mere, Ceres and Trois Amies  
 

Property of the estate of late Joseph Balmondiere by Andrew Jackson qq the executors

 
T71/417 1396-1403
1832
[Number of enslaved people] 341(Tot) 159(F) 182(M)  
[Name] La Bonne Mere  
 

Attached to La Bonne Mere, belonging to the heirs of the late Labalmondiere by their attorney A. Jackson

 
T71/429 89-97
1883
[Name] La Bonne Mere  
[Size] 997  
[Crop] 900 tons muscovado  
 

In 1883, the estate was operated by the trustees of the late Mr [Humphrey C. Ewing] and Mr Wilkie. 572 acres in canes, 100 in provisions, 325 not cultivated. Crop about 1000 hogsheads (900 tons) muscovado. Population 43 'Natives', 45 of other lands and 349 Asiatics (447 not indentured in the Immigration returns).

Walter Rodney (ed.) Guyanese Sugar Plantations in the late nineteenth century, a contemporary description from the ‘Argosy’ (Release Publishers, Georgetown Guyana, 1979) pp. 68-69.

 
Rodney, Guyanese Sugar Plantations pp. 68-69