James Berney Bourdieu

London merchant, partner in James Bourdieu & Sons, the successor to the firm of Bourdieu, Chollet and Bourdieu, awarded the compensation for the Colibrie estate on Dominica; party with his brother William Bourdieu (q.v.), as executors of a third brother John, to the Chancery suit into which the compensation was paid for Hoghole estate in St Thomas-in-the-Vale and Kendal estate on Tobago, and almost certainly the same man as the 'James Bourdieu' awarded the compensation for an estate described as Souffriere on Dominica and as trustee of Thomas Gudgeon for Litchfield and Phoenix plantation in British Guiana. Son and partner of James Bourdieu (1715-1804) and Philippa Berney, daughter of Robert Berney. Brother of John Berney Bourdieu (d. 1825) and William Bourdieu (q.v.).

1. James Berney Bourdieu married Ann Whitham at St Andrew Undershaft 25/06/1825. James Berney Bourdieu of 45 Lime Street was buried at the same church 11/11/1843.

2. Will of James Berney Bourdieu of Lime Street City of London proved 27/11/1843. Under the will, made in 1836, he said: 'I hereby disclaim all benefit of survivorship' in the estates and 'negroes' purchased by his late father James Bourdieu and Samuel Chollet also deceased 'and myself', and conveyed to them as joint tenants, and to which his late brother John Berney Bourdieu 'by admission into our partnership' acquired a beneficial interest, leaving his interest as trustee to Samuel Chollet of Croydon. In a codicil he said that when he made the original will he had been engaged in an arduous and complex Chancery suit arising from his role as trustee of Thomas Gudgeon, and in a further codicil he made George Bourdieu Rogers his residuary legatee after his wife Ann.

T71/881 Dominica nos. 172 ('Souffriere') and 773 (Colibrie); Tobago no. 65; St Thomas-in-the-Vale no. 301; T71/885 British Guiana no. 289.

1. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online].

2. PROB 11/1987/366.

We are grateful to Mary Mill for her help with this entry, and to Sean Creighton for his assistance with the entries concerning the Bourdieu family and the firm of Bourdieu, Chollet & Bourdieu.