UCL

Drax Hall

Barbados | St George

Estate Details

Associated People (5)

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
- 1819 [LA] → Owner
Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor [I]
1803 [EA] - 1832 [LA] → Attorney
Forster Clarke

Forster Clarke assumed management of the Estate on 11 July 1803.

1804 [EA] - → Attorney
John Barrow

John Barrow was appointed Attorney by Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor, 27 September 1804. 2 pages (partially damaged) Letter from appointing John Barrow as his Attorney.

1819 [EA] - 1828 [LA] → Previous owner
Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor [II]

It is assumed that Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor took ownership on the death of his father - also called Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor (q.v.) - in 1819. In the 1820 Slave Register, John Mayers was shown as selling to 'Earl Grosvenor' 38 enslaved people.

1832 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Owner
John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax

Associated Claims (1)

Barbados 3784 (Drax Hall)
£4,293 12S 6D

Notes

Drax Hall Estate was where the first sugar cane was cultivated in 1642; the hall remains one of only two remaining Jacobean houses in Barbados. The estate has belonged to the Drax family since the early 1650s and remains a sugar plantation.
See also notes on the Staple Grove estate.

Sources

For the current plantation see the brief description here.

Estate Information (7)

What is this?

1804
[Number of enslaved people] 209(Tot)  
 

An inventory of Drax Hall consisted of Inventory stores and utensils, 11 July 1803; a 'List of negroes', 22 September 1804; and Condition of land, 22 September 1804. A copy was made, 6 October 1804.

The first part is an inventory of stores taken on the first day on which Forster Clarke entered on the management of the Estate (11 July 1803). It covered the Boiling House, the Still House, the Curing House and In the Yard. Buildings include a Dwelling House (‘quite out of repair’), Curing House, Still House, Rum House (‘quite fallen to decay’), Horse Stable (‘an indifferent shed’), Sick House (‘…indifferent and uncomfortable’), New Water Still ('built by Mr Clarke'). The 'List of the Negroes and their occupations on Drax Hall Plantation' was taken 22 September 1804, the day on which John Barrow 'took possession of the property'. (For the letter from Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor, 27 September 1804 appointing John Barrow as his Attorney see BDA. Z9/11/6)

Men: 56 (including 2 ‘absent many years’
Women: 69
Boys: 43 (including 12 'too young to work')
Girls: 41 (including 12 'too young to work')

The detailed listing was:
Men; Boiler: 1; Driver: 2; Ranger: 1; Caster: 1; Carpenter: 2; Mason: 2; Cooper: 2; Smith: 1; House: 2; Groom: 1; Cook: 1; With the cattle: 2; Field: 30; Others; Including 2 ‘absent many years’: 8; Total: 56
Women: ; Gang driver: 2; Sick nurse: 1; House keeper: 1; [Illegible]: 2; Washer: 1; Stock keeper: 1; [Other] ‘cares little negroes’(?): 1; Raises labour? Cabou?: 21; Field: 19; Others: 20; Total: 69
Boys: ; 2nd gang: 11; 3rd gang: 19; Carpenter’s boy: 1; Too young to work: 12; Total: 43
Girls: ; 2nd gang: 9; 3rd gang: 19; In the house: 1; Too young to work: 12; Total: 41
Total all: 209

Also listed were animals: 1 Bull; 56 Oxen; 45 Cows; 39 Calves; 27 Hogs; 40 Sheep; 8 Horses; 2 young colts

 
Barbados Department of Archives. Z9/11/5
1817
[Number of enslaved people] 171(Tot) 98(F) 73(M)  
 

Return of Forster Clarke, Attorney, the property of R. E. D. Grosvenor.

 
T71/520 693-6
1823
[Number of enslaved people] 168(Tot)  
 

Return of Forster Clarke, Attorney, the property of the estate of Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor, (deceased).

 
T71/531 42-3
1826
[Number of enslaved people] 173(Tot)  
 

Return of Forster Clarke, Attorney, the property of the estate of Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor, (deceased).

 
T71/535 307-8
1829
[Number of enslaved people] 177(Tot)  
 

Return of Forster Clarke, Attorney, the property of the estate of Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor, (deceased).

 
T71/543 36-7
1832
[Number of enslaved people] 180(Tot)  
 

Return of Forster Clarke, Attorney, the property of the estate of Richard Erle Drax Grosvenor, (deceased).

 
T71/550 38-9
1913
[Name] Drax Hall  
[Size] 957  
 

Listed in St George, property of Dunsany.

 
Barbados 1913 list from the Hughes-Quere indexes transcribed at https://creolelinks.com/1913-barbados-plantation-owners-names.html.