Hon. John Nethersole

Hon. John Nethersole merchant in Kingston, Jamaica. Eldest son of Michael Nethersole and Sarah nee Smith of Dover, Kent. It is likely that several of Nethersole's siblings were also in Jamaica. John Nethersole arrived on the island in 1808, subsequently owner of Castle James, Mount Woolfrys and Cassell in St Andrew. In Kingston Nethersole owned a tannery and shoemaking establishment, which James Logan described in his 1838 account Notes of a Journey Through Canada, the United States of America, and the West Indies referenced below. Served as Custos* and magistrate in parish of Kingston, as well as overseer of Jamaica Bedlam.

He married Sarah Holcombe (d. 1838 in London) in Jamaica, with whom he had at least eight children: John (1815), Frederick (1818), Eliza (1820), Helen Matilda (1823), Jane (1825), Maria (1826), William (1828), George Bradfield (1831). Sarah Holcombe died in London January 1838. John Nethersole died in Kingston in 1862, buried in Kingston Parish Church. He spent 53 years in Jamaica.

His eldest daughter, Eliza, married Scottish barrister William Cunningham in London in 1848. In the 1851 census she is recorded as living at Oakley Square, St Pancras, London with her husband, 1 year old son and siblings William (a civil engineer) and Maria.

The Times recorded his death: "on 4th June 1862 at Kingston, Jamaica the Hon. J. Nethersole , Custos of the parish of Kingston in his 71st year and for upwards of 53 years an inhabitant of the Island of Jamaica."

• meaning Custos rotulorum literally "Keeper of the rolls" but in Jamaica the title for "The King or Queen's representative in a Parish."

Births and Baptisms, Jamaica Family Search.

James Logan Notes of a Journey Through Canada, the United States of America, and the West Indies (Edinburgh, 1838), pp. 244-49. Available through Googlebooks: https://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=7TIZAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&pg=GBS.PA244

Hon. John Nethersole, Memorial Inscriptions: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Nethersole&GSbyrel=in&GSdyrel=in&GSob=n&GRid=118674592&

1851 census, accessed through Ancestry.com

Morning Post, 18/12/1848

We are grateful to William Norton for his help compiling this entry.