Arthur Foulks

Awarded the compensation for 426 enslaved people on the Lodge estate in St Dorothy Jamaica. He lived at Redland House Gloucestershire and died at Clifton in 1840.

1. Arthur Foulks son of Theodore Foulks of Jamaica admitted fellow commoner at Trinity Cambridge aged 18 03/11/1794, Harrow School (although not in the Harrow Sch. Reg.), living at Redland House 1825; marriage of Arthur Foulks to Mary Mackenzie Downton Wiltshire 20/10/1803; in 1818 Arthur Foulks of Redland had agreed to preside over a meeting at King Street meeting house for the purpose of forming an Auxiliary Baptist Missionary Society for the city of Bristol, but was unavoidably prevented from so doing - Joseph Smith took the chair in his stead; in 1819 he was Treasurer of the Bristol Association of the Church Missonary Society; death at Clifton of Mary, wife of Arthur Foulks, esq., of Jamaica and late of Redland house; will of Arthur Foulks of Clifton Bristol proved 21/07/1840.

2. At Spanish town Jamaica, on the 15th of July last of yellow fever, [death of] Arthur Foulks, youngest son of the late Arthur Foulks esq., formerly of Redland-house Gloucestershire (1842).  Marriage of Arthur Foulks of Piccadilly son of Arthur Foulks Esq., to Louisa Locke Glenie, daughter of James Sutherland Moncriefe Glenie, clerk in Holy Orders, Trinity Church St Marylebone 15/06/1841. Death of Miss Elizabeth Mackenzie Foulks, dau. of late Theodore Foulks of the Lodge, St Dorothy Jamaica and sister of late Arthur Foulks, of Redland house Gloucestershire (1855).

3. Theodora Elizabeth Lynch (1812-1885), daughter of Arthur Foulks and Mary Ann Mackenzie, is in the ODNB as poetical and prose writer. Born Dale Park Sussex. Her father was a Jamaica sugar planter and on his estate The Lodge in St Dorothy she was married 28/12/1835 to Henry Mark Lynch, son of John Lynch of Kingston Jamaica. After his death in 1845 she returned to England and devoted herself to writing works of fiction, many set in Jamaica.

4. Theodore Foulks, father of Arthur Foulks of this entry, was a Member of the House of Assembly for Clarendon in 1796; a lease for Pidford House was signed 27/08/1809 between Rev. Sir Henry Worsley Holmes of Newport and Theodore Foulkes [sic] late residing at Dale Park Sussex but now of Pidford House; will of Theodore Foulks of Pidford House Isle of Wight proved 21/02/1811; will of Sarah Theodora Foulks spinster of Clifton Gloucestershire proved 27/09/1838. The Theodore Foulks who wrote 'Eighteen months in Jamaica: with recollections of the late rebellion' (London and Bristol, 1833) must be a relative of Arthur, a son, nephew or possibly brother. The text is unrevealing about the author: it combines conventional travelogue with vivid tales of the barbarity of the enslaved people in the 1831 revolt and anti-abolitonist rhetoric.

5. Ann Morgan Foulks, Mary Burbury Foulkes, Sarah Foulkes spinster sisters leased their enslaved people to their brother Arthur in 1807, along with their niece Elizabeth. Arthur to have the benefit at The Lodge, parish of St Dorothy, County Middlesex Jamaica. He to have the benefit of any increase - births - and to make up any deficiencies caused by death to the women. The legal document lists the names of the enslaved people owned by each of the women and their value. All the family are listed as of Brokenhurst, in the New Forest, outside Southampton.

T71/853 St Dorothy claim no. 2.

1. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900 [database online]; Ancestry.com, England and Wales, Marriages and Banns, 1538-1940 [database online]; The Baptist Magazine 1818 'Religious Intelligence' p. 436; Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society 1819 p. 25; Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 161 June 1837 p. 668; PROB 11/1930. According to Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 169 1840, p. 109; Foulks was in his 63rd year on his death in 1840.

2. Times 08/10/1842 p. 8; Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]; Times 06/03/1855 p. 1.

3. ODNB online, Thomas W Krise, 'Lynch [nee Foulks], Theodora Elizabeth (1812-1885), poet and novelist'.

4. Jamaica Almanac (1796); Isle of Wight Record Office Heytesbury Estate JER/HBY/89/2; PROB 11/1519; PROB 11/1900.

5. Southampton Archives D/M Box 64/3/100/1-2 and 64/3/101.

We are grateful to Cheryl Butler for her assistance with compiling this entry.