Walkers [previously Willoughby's; incorporating Brace's later Workman's]

The plantation was established by the Willoughby family from at least 1674. In 1680 it was owned by Lady Ann Willoughby, widow of John, Lord Willoughby of Parham, who was the heir of Governor William, Lord Willoughby of Parham, 317 acres in St. George. Under her will of 1683 it was bequeathed to her nephew, Thomas Gunning (or Gonning or Gouning). In 1704 Gunning, by then living in Essex, England, bequeathed two plantations – Willoughby’s and Austin’s – to his two daughters, Ann and Dorothy. Ann married George Walker, Dorothy married Henry Evans. Under a property settlement of 1722 between Walker and Evans, George Walker became the sole owner of Willoughby’s with 106 enslaved people on 347 acres. Under George Walker’s will of 1723, his wife Ann Walker was to live in a dwelling house on the plantation while the property including the enslaved were bequeathed to their son, George Walker. However, in 1739 Ann obtained a court judgement against her son, his father’s heir, for £3,110. A levy on the plantation was appraised as: Windmill and its equipment £200, boiling house £300, dwelling house £230. The highest valued enslaved man was £45, woman, £40. The dwelling house, sugar works, enslaved people and animals but not the land were awarded to Ann Walker. For subsequent developments see evolutions. [In 1791 the Executors of the will of Ann Workman, widow of St. George, deceased, sold to Thomas Applewhaite for £6,295, Brace’s plantation (also known as Workman's) of 155 acres in St. George, which Thomas Applewhaite added to Walker’s].

Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.