Henry Gunter

1. Probably Henry Gunter, son of Mary Morison, a 'free quadroon', and William Gunter. Born 18/01/1813 and baptised 29/11/1813 in St Andrew, Jamaica.

2. Henry Gunter, born c. 1813, merchant of England, appears in the New York and New Orleans Passenger Lists in 1838, 1843 and 1844. Of 4 Norton Street, Liverpool, when he married Elizabeth Agnes Sharples at Christ Church, Liverpool 04/02/1839; groom's occupation and that of his father both given as merchant; his half-brother William Morrison Brown was one of the witnesses. Listed in electoral records at a counting house in India Buildings, Liverpool, in 1840.

3. In the census of 1841 his wife Elizabeth was still living at London Road, Liverpool, in the house of her mother Jane, a shop-keeper. Henry's address was given as London Road and his occupation given as merchant and book-keeper respectively at the baptisms of his sons William Henry (1840) and Archibald Clavering (1848). William Henry has not been found in the 1841 census - he may be the William Henry Gunter of Victoria Terrace, Southwark, age 8 months, buried at St Mary Newington, Southwark, 13/12/1842, although his age at death would be inaccurate. Elizabeth and Archibald were living with Elizabeth's mother Jane Sharples at 52 London Road in the census of 1851 (both Jane and Elizabeth were born in New Brunswick and Jane was a "smallware dealer").

4. According to a short biography of Archibald Clavering Gunter ("American novelist, dramatist, stockbroker, mining and civil engineer and publisher... a prolific and popular literary figure in late nineteenth century America") the Gunter family travelled to New York from Liverpool c. 1853 and soon moved to San Francisco where Henry Gunter was the proprietor of a theatre called the National.

5. Henry Gunter died 19/10/1856 "of disease of the heart", age 42 years and was buried in Lone Mountain Cemetery, San Francisco. Elizabeth remarried, and died at her home in San Francisco, 23/09/1900, "wife of Robert R. Provines, and mother of Archibald Clavering Gunter."

1. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; Ancestry.com, New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1963 [database online].

2. Familysearch.org, New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891 [database online]; Ancestry.com, Liverpool, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 [database online]; Ancestry.com, Liverpool, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1970 [database online].

3. 1841 census online;

4. 'Guide to the Archibald Clavering Gunter Plays 1880s-1890s', University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center, https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.GUNTERPLAYS#idp141565912 [accessed 04/06/2020].

5. Liverpool Mercury 03/12/1856; Ancestry.com, California, Mortuary and Cemetery Records, 1801-1932 [database online]; San Francisco Call 26/09/1900.

We are grateful to David Barker and Paul Hitchings for their assistance with this entry.