John William Spencer Griffith

Attorney in Jamaica and awardee in right of his wife of Long Hill estate, later known as Prospect, in St Elizabeth.

1. John William Spencer Griffith was born 11/06/1770; baptised 6/07/1770, London. His parents were the late John William Griffiths (sic.) and Ann his wife.

2. The date and place of marriage to Catherine Campbell Shakespear has not been established, but LBS has already identified her as his wife. She was the daughter of David Shakespear (q.v.) and was herself an enslaver who successfully claimed compensation for the loss of enslaved people (q.v. claim 43042). He had no known links to the Caribbean or slavery before his marriage, but his relationship with the Shakespear family would have provided strong connections to underpin his career as an attorney once he and his wife were settled in Jamaica by the early/mid-1790s.

3. With Catherine Campbell he had (at least) nine children, all baptised in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, except Frances Sarah, baptised in Devon. They include:

   • Catherine Ann (28/05/1795-1874?): married (i) James White (ii) Admiral John Erskine Douglas (1758-1847), with whom she had two daughters, Helen Catherine and Louisa.
   • John Shakespear (1796-1798)
   • Maria/Mary (1798-1877): known to have been in England from 1851.
   • Smyth (1800-1870): joined Royal Navy in 1812, as ‘Third-cl[ass], Boy’; served in the Mediterranean and St Helena; promoted Lieutenant 1819; operated in the Caribbean. Married Helen Galloway in 1834 and had four children. Died in the Naval Asylum, Great Yarmouth, in 1870.
   • Eliza Down (1802-1874)
   • William Shakespear (1807-1829): matriculated at Cambridge University 1822; died Long Hill, St Elizabeth 1829.
   • Anna Maria (1810-?): married Andrew Cooke (q.v) and had five children; after his death in c. 1842 she migrated to Britain with all or some of her children.
   • Frances Sarah (1811-1885): migrated to Britain probably with her mother, Catherine Campbell Griffith (q.v.) and sister Mary; died in Kent in 1885.
   • Henry Downe (1813-1879); Army Officer, served in 77th and 46th Regiments of Foot; in 1861 living near Stroud, Gloucestershire; died Steyning, Sussex, 1879.

4. John Griffith was an enslaver, but made his living primarily as an attorney, managing rather than owning properties, in most cases probably for absentee owners. In 1817 he was managing some nine properties in Manchester and St Elizabeth. Higman found that in 1832 Griffith was managing nine properties, comprising (unusually) no sugar estates, four livestock pens and five plantations (coffee, pimento etc. rather than sugar). The properties were worked by just over 1200 enslaved people. He was one of the 52 attorneys in Jamaica who met Higman’s criteria as ‘large’ attorneys. He died in 1841.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings, Mary Hewitt and David Barker for their help with compiling this entry.

Email from Paul Hitchings 04/03/2019 sourced to Daily Gleaner 27/04/1931 p. 31; Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]. Findmypast.co.uk, Index To Death Duty Registers 1796-1903 [database online]. Westminster, London, England, C of E Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1558-1812, 6 July 1770; Jamaica, C of E Parish Record Transcripts, St Elizabeth, 1795-1813; Devon, England, C of E Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812, Bideford 1812; London, England, C of E Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923, Westminster, St Marylebone, 1819; Census 1851, Leamington Priors; Census 1861 and 1871, Edinburgh; Edinburgh, Scotland, Cemetery Registers, 1777-1935, died 19 Dec 1874, Edinburgh Southern Cemetery; UK, British Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849, Smyth Griffith; Censuses 1841-1861; Norfolk, England, Transcripts of C of E Registers, 1600-1935, Great Yarmouth Burials, Sept 1870; Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900, St John’s 1822; Census 1851, Barnstaple; 1861, Devon, Bishops Tawton; UK Burial and Cremation Index, 1574-2014, Burial 24 March 1885, Tunbridge Wells, Kent; East Sussex, England, C of E Deaths and Burials, 1813-1995, Hove, St Andrew, Sussex, 17 May 1879; B.W. Higman, Plantation Jamaica.