Mary Buddle

Daughter of John Buddle. A "free woman of colour", mother (with John Blyth, q.v.) of John Buddle Blyth, Charles Cathcart Blyth and Henry Blyth.

1. "Buddle, Mary, a free woman of Colour the daughter of Mr John Buddle late a Saddler at Sav-la-mar in the parish of Westmoreland and of Ann Hawkins her Mother who was baptized by The Rev’d Willliam Stanford about the year 1792 then Rector of Westmoreland but as no certificate was given to her and none appearing in the parish Register of her Baptism she is again baptized by the same name this 11th April 1816 at Mesopotamia by me Edmund Pope LLD, Rector of Westmoreland."

2. In his will dated 1832, proved in 1836, John Blyth left his estate to Mary Buddle and his sons John and Henry. He stated that the money he had used to buy Kendal he had in trust from John Buddle, Mary's father, so he acknowledged the estate was hers. Charles Cathcart Blyth is not mentioned in the will so had presumably died by 1832.

3. John Buddle Blyth, "a free child of colour about [blank] years of age son of John Blyth Esquire of Berkeley Square in Westmorland and Mary Buddle, a free woman of colour of the same parish was baptised at Mesopotamia in said parish on the 11th April 1816 by me Edmund Pope LLD Rector of Westmorland." John went to school in Dumfries and matriculated at Glasgow Univeristy in 1830. and spent two years at Giessen University in Germany and six months studying in Berlin. He became a distinguished chemist and with August Wilhelm Hofmann, was the first person to use the term "synthesis". He worked at the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester in 1847 and was the first professor of chemistry at Queen's College, Cork, Ireland, in 1849. He died 24/12/1871 and was buried at Blackrock, Cork.

4. Henry Blyth was baptised in Hanover, Jamaica, 20/11/1831. He matriculated at Glasgow University in 1847 and studied Greek, Logic and Ethics.

1. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

2. PROB 11/1869/412.

3. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; Robert Lancashire, “Jamaican Chemists in Early Global Communication”, Chemistry International, Volume 40, Issue 2, Pages 5–11, ISSN (Online) 1365-2192, https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2018-0202; "University of Glasgow Story" https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH26249&type=P&o=&start=0&max=20&l= [accessed 17/07/2018] ad John Binddle Blyth.

4. Familysearch.org batch no. I03817-7; "Matriculated Students of the University of Glasgow", http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/bcarib02.htm; email from Robert Lancashire, 02/05/2018 sourced to Archive ref: R9/1/2, Class catalogue1838-1853.

We are grateful to Robert Lancashire for his assistance with compiling this entry.