John Robley

In 1804 John Robley and Charles Brooke agreed to pay Alexander Donaldson £69,511 1s 6d for mortgage debt of £94,511 1s 6d secured on the estates (and the enslaved people) of Sir William Young bart. The estates were identified as Old Road in Antigua and Calliaqua and Pembroke in St Vincent. No cash appears to have changed hands upfront: instead John Robley & co. issued to Alexander Donaldson bills drawn on themselves. On 10 & 11 September 1804 Betsey's Hope on Tobago and the enslaved people on it were added to the security package underpinning the £94,511 1s 6d mortgage debt and any further advances Robley might make (up to £10,000 was envisaged for Betsey's Hope, it appears). In 1808 John Robley agreed to buy Betsey's Hope from Sir William Young for £45,000, subject to a pre-existing mortgage for £4000 to 'James Cuthbert Ramsay' [in fact, James Ramsay Cuthbert, MP and merchant (q.v.)]: the estate was conveyed to him 22/12/1808. In 1809 he bought the equity of redemption of Calliaqua and Pembroke under a sale by the Provost Marshall. In 1814 in a deed establishing an annuity of £200 p.a. for Portia Young, one of Sir William Young's sisters, Betsey's Hope was described as having since the death of Sir William Young become vested in John Robley 'in trust for himself and the said Charles Brooke, as tenants in common in fee simple.'