UCL

Rock Hall

Barbados | St Peter

Estate Details

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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
- 1834 [LA] → Executrix
Mary Skeete (née Bishop)
- 1801 [LA] → Owner
John Brathwaite Esq.
1752 [EA] - 1762 [LA] → Owner
Thomas Alleyne of Inner Temple
1801 [EA] - 1833 [LA] → Owner
Hon. John Brathwaite Skeete
1817 [EA] - → Attorney and Manager
Edward Skeete

Associated Claims (1)

Barbados 4955 (Rock Hall)
£3,588 14S 0D

Notes

This comprised 2 plantations joined c. 1745. One was called Four Hills until the merger and must not be confused with Four Hills owned by the Walker family. During the 17th Century, Four Hills plantation meant a plantation in the geographical location called The Four Hills. See also returns for Four Hills. In 1674 Thornhill was identified as the owner. In 1680, Timothy Thornhill senior owned 170 acres in St. Andrew and 150 enslaved. in 1688 a marriage settlement: Thomas Alleyne, son of Abel Alleyne, married Judith Thornhill, daughter of Col. Timothy Thornhill, deceased and sister of Sir Timothy Thornhill, Bt. The plantation of Sir Timothy Thornhill settled on Thomas Alleyne in return for a contribution of £3280 sterling to Thomas Alleyne by his father, Abel Alleyne: 164 acres in St. Peter. In 1723, the Hon. Abel Alleyne of St. James & Reynold Alleyne, sons of Hon. Thomas Alleyne, deceased, released their brother, John Alleyne, from financial obligations on the Four Hills plantation in St. Peter on the occasion of John Alleyne’s marriage to Mary Peers, daughters of Hon. Henry Peers> The land was 240 acres in St. Peter and there were 94 enslaved. In 1738 a surveyor’s platt of all or part of Four Hills plantation, 120 acres, sold to Dr. Joseph Gibbes for debt. [This plantation was shortly to be joined to Rock Hall. Shown as Reynold Alleyne on the border of St. Andrew & St. Peter and the eastern bounder on Rock Hall in the release of 1723 above. Shown as Alleyne’s Old Mill in the Parsons Map of 1871] In 1747 Haynes Gibbes of St. James, son of Dr. Joseph Gibbes sold to Peers Alleyne of St. Peter, son of Thomas Alleyne, deceased, for £9500 paid in full. Four Hills plantation, 165 acres in St. Andrew, St. Peter & St. James. There were 79 enslaved.

Sources

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

Estate Information (10)

What is this?

1752
[Size] 205  
 

Thomas Alleyne, brother and heir of Peers Alleyne, deceased, married Hannah Downes in 1747. He was not then of age and therefore could make no marriage settlement. By 1752 was of age and made a settlement. Thomas Alleyne’s 2 plantations adjacent to each other: (1) Rock Hall, 205 acres; (2) Four Hills, 165 acres. Total 370 acres.

 
Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.
1762
 

Marriage settlement. Thomas Alleyne, lately of Barbados but now of Hanover Square, Middlesex, England, married Margaret McCartie of England, widow. Rock Hall & Four Hills, 300 acres, St. Peter & St. Andrew.

 
Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.
1801
 

By the Will of John Brathwaite of England he bequeathed the Rock Hall plantation in St. Peter to his great nephew, John Brathwaite Skeete, son of his nephew, John Brathwaite [in fact, John Skeete] and grandson of testator’s sister, Elizabeth Skeete née Brathwaite, the wife of Dr. Edward Skeete, deceased.

 
Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.
1817
[Number of enslaved people] 168(Tot) 95(F) 73(M)  
[Name] Rock Hall  
 

Return of Edward Skeete, Attorney and Manager, the property of the Hon. John Brathwaite Skeete.

 
T71/522 518-22
1823
[Number of enslaved people] 166(Tot)  
 

Return of John Brathwaite Skeete, his own property. Previously 166 enslaved.

 
T71/532 71
1826
[Number of enslaved people] 169(Tot)  
 

Return of Hon. John Brathwaite Skeete, his own property. Previously 166 enslaved.

 
T71/538 210-11
1829
[Number of enslaved people] 170(Tot)  
 

Return of Hon. John Brathwaite Skeete, his own property.

 
T71/542 328-9
1832
[Number of enslaved people] 170(Tot)  
 

Return of Hon. John Brathwaite Skeete, his own property.

 
T71/551 286
1834
[Number of enslaved people] 167(Tot) 98(F) 69(M)  
[Size] 424  
 

Inventory of John Brathwaite Skeete, deceased. Executrix: Mrs Mary Skeete. Dated: 1834.
Total enslaved: Men: 38, Women: 57, Boys: 31, Girls: 41.

Rock Hall lay in the parishes of St Peter, St Andrew and St James.

Total value of the estate (including the enslaved, land, mansion house, boiling house, windmill, and cattle) was given as:
Land (423 acres, 2 roods, 16 perches) etc. valued at £60 per acre: £25,416; 1 horse (£20), 88 head of cattle @ £12 10 0d per head (=£1,100) and 167 enslaved valued at £60 per head: £10,020.
The total value of the estate was: £36,556.

The occupations of the enslaved were given as: Ranger: 1; Driver: 1; Herdsman: 1; Carpenter: 2; Smiths: 2; Mason: 1; Domestic (Men): 3; Others (male): 27; 2nd gang boys: 4; 3rd gang boys: 12; 4th gang & nursery boys: 15; Domestic (Women): 2; Women: 55; 2nd gang girls: 8; 3rd gang girls: 12; 4th gang & nursery girls: 21.

The combined value of the Rock Hall and Mangrove (q.v.) estates was £60,602 10 0d.

 
Barbados Department of Archives. Inventories.
1913
[Name] Rock Hall  
[Size] 486  
 

Listed in St Peter, property of McAndrew.

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