Industry Plantation

Tentatively assumed to be the estate plotted as Brock's on William Robertson's 1804 map of Jamaica.

This estate first appears in the 1811 almanac (based on the givings-in of the March Quarter 1809), unnamed but with 97 enslaved people owned by John Brock. This may be a mistranscription for James Brock who owned 82 enslaved people in St Anne, presumably on Industry estate, in 1815, although James Brock would only have been 16 years of age when Robertson surveyed St Ann in 1798 and 27 years of age in 1809.

When James Brock died in 1829 he bequeathed Industry to his 'housekeeper' Margaret Gibb and their seven surviving children. Shortly after his death, Margaret moved to Scotland with the children. She has not been traced after 1829 and may have died in Scotland before 1841. Of the children, Sidney died in 1837 (without issue) and Mary in 1889 (without issue). John Alexander apparently died without issue as well, although he has not been traced. Helen, Elizabeth, James and Margaret all had children of their own who later inherited a share of the property.

In 1840, an inventory of James Brock’s estate was carried out and documented in the Court of Session, possibly after the death of Margaret Gibb. At this time, three of his children were minors and living with various family members in the Denny area, one son had died in 1837, and the other three were now adults. The Court of Session document states that James Brock’s remaining assets, including £3500 that James Brock had invested in “three per cent consols,” and the assets of the Industry plantation in Jamaica were now divided 6 ways. The sum of £1300 was reported to have been already remitted to Scotland from proceeds from the plantation but the “state and condition thereof being unknown the amount or value thereof cannot be condescended on”. Proceeds from the estate may have continued to be paid to the six Brock children and their families for many years after this inventory.

Around 1925, the Industry estate was being managed by a Mr Fisher. He had received an offer to purchase, and retained Russel & Aitken, Writers, Falkirk to investigate which of James Brock’s beneficiaries now held title to Industry Plantation. In a memorandum dated 15/05/1925 it is stated that while James Brock’s will had been mostly carried into effect, “Industry Plantation was, for some reason, left unrealized and the free rents paid from time to time to those understood to be entitled to them, down to the present time.” The memorandum states that since James Brock’s children were illegitimate, the shares of the proceeds from now-deceased beneficiaries had been incorrectly allocated, and the remaining beneficiaries would legally be entitled to only half the proceeds of the sale of the property. Attempts by various descendants of James Brock to clarify the legal situation with the Industry Plantation continued for many years, ending unsuccessfully in the 1950s when the property passed out of family control and was acquired by Reynolds Mines.

The lcoation suggests that coffee was the main crop of Industry Plantation, and James Brock was listed as a coffee planter on the death certificates of several of his children.

Copy of last will and Settlement of James Brock, Jamaica, 21/02/1829 (copy is dated 1857). "Children of James Brock, Falkirk," 1840; Court of Session Document, CS314/430 (National Archives of Scotland). "Memorandum as to Industry Plantation," May, 1925, Russel & Aitken, Writers, Falkirk.