Sir Alexander Crichton

Sir Alexander Crichton, physician to Tsar Alexander I, claimed as owner-in-fee of 1/6th of the enslaved on the Morant estate in St Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica. The compensation money appears to have been paid to new trustees of his marriage settlement appointed at the time of compensation.

1. Marriage of Alexander Crichton, Doctor of Physick, to Frances Dodwell St George Hanover Square, 27/09/1800. Frances Dodwell (1772-1857) was the daughter of Edward Dodwell (1747-1828) and his wife née Frances Jennings (and sister of Edward Dodwell (1776/7-1832, in the ODNB as traveller and archaeologist). Other awards under this claim flowed from the will of Frances or Francis Jennings, spinster, daughter of Sir Philip Jennings Clerke. Crichton's wife was a co-heiress of a Jamaican estate, as the grand-daughter of Henry and Dulcibella Dodwell.The ODNB entry for Sir Alexander Crichton characterises his wife as 'heir to an Irish estate', and a strong Irish identity as well as Royal Naval and military linkages runs through the awardees under this claim.

T71/867 St Thomas-in-the-East No. 507. E.M Tansey 'The life and works of Sir Alexander Crichton 1763-1856' Notes Rec. R. Soc. London 38 (1984) pp. 241-59; J.H. Appleby 'Sir Alexander Crichton' Notes Rec. R.Soc London 53(2) (1999) pp. 219-30; John H. Appleby, ‘Crichton, Sir Alexander (1763–1856)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004), online edn, Jan 2009 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6693 [accessed 31/10/2012].

1. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]; Yolande Foote, 'Dodwell, Edward (1776/7-1832)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004), online edn, May 2008, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7762 [accessed 31/10/2012]. The ODNB entry for Edward Dodwell is silent about any maternal connections with Jamaica.