Martin Williams

Awarded part of the compensation for the Spring estate in St James after counter-claiming with others against Richard Barrett the trustee of Samuel Barrett as annuitant and trustee under indentures of 1812. Trustees, probably of Martin Williams's marriage settlement, also claimed unsuccessfully for the Old Hope estate in Westmoreland Jamaica, while Martin Williams contested apparently without success a further claim against the Barretts on Retreat Pen in St Ann.  

1. Martin Williams (1782-1856) was the son of Martin Williams of Old Hope Westmoreland (1723-1786) and Elizabeth Barrett Waite (1754-1834), and half-brother of Samuel Barrett (1788-1824). He married Mary Maddocks in 1811 and had 4 daughters, including Mary who in 1839 married Henry Cornwall Legh, heir to the High Legh estate of Knutsford Cheshire, from 'one of the oldest and best families in the county, & possessed of an estate of £10,000 per ann.' according to Martin Williams. Another daughter, Elizabeth Charlotte, married Henry Robertson Sandbach (q.v.) in 1855.   

2. In 1841 and 1851 Martin Williams was living at Bryngwyn, Llanfechan, in 1851 aged 65 Landed Proprietor and Magistrate born Jamaica with wife Mary aged 60, 3 daughters and 3 Legh grand-daughters, a governess and 7 servants.

3. Will of Martin Williams of Bryngwyn Montgomeryshire [now in London, about to embark to Jamaica] [made in 1828] proved 16/02/1856. The will is very simple, leaving his entire property to his wife Mary for her disposal, commenting that 'in the present circumstances of my affairs this mode of bequeathing my real and personal estates will contribute most to the happiness and comfort of my dearly beloved wife and our dear daughters.'

T71/873 St James no. 651; T71/871 Westmoreland no. 219 (Old Hope).

1. R.A. Barrett, The Barretts of Jamaica: the family of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Winfield, Kansas, Armstrong Browning Library of Baylor University; The Browning Society; Wedgestone Press, 2000) pp. 147-48, 177.

2. 1841 and 1851 censuses online.

3. PROB 11/2228/97.