Samuel Martin of High Point

Father of George Savage Martin and John Halliday Martin (both q.v.), dying at Edinburgh in 1830. Owner of Nibbs estate in Antigua, the compensation for which was paid to family members and mortgagees.

1. At least four children were born to Samuel Martin and his wife Grace and baptised in Marylebone, London: Georgina (born 28/11/1780 and baptised 31/12/1780), John Halliday (b. 23/04/1782 and baptised 23/05/1782), Francis William (b. 28/12/1787 and baptised 28/12/1787) and Samuel Savage (b. 01/03/1789 and baptised 23/05/1789).

2. An unsourced genealogical website gives Samuel Martin marrying Grace Savage in Antigua in 1778, although there are inconsistencies in the records on this site.

3. Will of Samuel Martin of the Island of Antigua and now residing at Lincoln Lincolnshire (made in 1828) was proved 13/08/1831. He left his estate including unnamed plantations on Antigua, in trust to his sons George Savage Martin and William Henry Martin to secure an annuity of £200 p.a. to his daughter Isabella, and legacies to the children of his late son John Halliday Martin. A series of codicils specified that George Savage Martin had become the attorney and manager of the Antigua estates: one of these dated 1829 placed Samuel Martin in Edinburgh. Another codicil of June 1829 reflected on the necessity for 'George' [his son and executor George Savage Martin] to reach an arrangement with Thwaites & Co. over the annuities Samuel Martin was paying, £150 p.a. to Miss Wightwick and a similar sum to Sir David Maxwell out of his Custom House annuity, as well as 'some small annuity' to his daughter Isabella: 'owing to the low prices of sugars and indifferent crops for some years back my worldly prospects are very gloomy' although 'having been wonderfully and mercifully relieved hitherto', he reiterated his faith in providence.

T71/1622: includes the arbitration by the Commission, dated 15/05/1837. The enslaved persons were subject to: (a) payment of an annuity of £400 per annum to Elizabeth Martin, a widow, by indenture of 16/11/1816 between (1) Samuel Martin (deceased) (2) John Halliday Martin (deceased, the son of Sam. Martin) and Elizabeth Martin, then the wife of John Halliday Martin (3) Robt. and Archibald Kelso; (b) a mortgage of £5000, of 1828, between Sam. Martin, George Savage Martin (the son of Sam. Martin) and Francis Thwaites, James Trecothick junior and J.H. Roper; (c) a mortgage of £3000, of 1829, of Anna Maria Wightwick. James Trecothick, of London; the Kelsos, of the county of Ayr, Scotland; and Wm. Martin were trustees for Elizabeth Martin as first priority (and Elizabeth Martin could force the sale of capital for arrears). Then the residue goes to James Trecothick etc., then to Anna Maria Wightwick, then to George Savage Martin as claimant.

1. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. Neither JohnHalliday Martin nor Francis William Martin appears on the family tree in Vere Langford Oliver History of Antigua Vol II p. 242-3, which shows a son Samuel baptised 1791 at St John's Antigua and Georgina baptised 1785 at St John's.

2. http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/a/r/g/Evelyn-Arguedas/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0021.html [accessed 15/03/2013].

3. PROB 11/1789/227; his death on 6th cur[ren]t [i.e. February] 1830 at Edinburgh was recorded in the Dumfries Weekly Journal dated 9th February 1830. Transcriptions by Diana Henry and Robert Wells appear at http://rjw-data.info/DWJ/PDF_files/1830.pdf [accessed 16/02/2014].