William Alves

Former partner with his brother Archibald Alves, George Baillie and George Inglis (each of whom q.v.). The executors of William Alves were awarded the compensation for the Rose Hall estate in British Guiana. His address was given as Enham House Hampshire in the announcement of the marriage of his son John Alves (q.v.) to Susan Barclay Katz (q.v.) in 1837, after William Alves' death.

1. Will of William Alves of London was proved 11/08/1835. In the will he rehearsed that under his marriage settlement of 04/07/1803, sums of £17,000, £5000 and £20,000 were placed in trust for his and his wife's benefit during their lives and then to their children: he wished that 3/17ths of the whole would go to his oldest son John and 2/17ths to each of the remaining children, and made elaborate arrangements to achieve this given that he could vary the original distribution on only half the trust money and had already appointed some of it to his daughters Lucy and Helen Baillie and to his son Duncan Davidson Alves. He left his residual estate 7/14th to John and 1/14th to each of the other seven children.

2. William Alves' wife was S[arah] C[handler] Davidson, eldest daughter of Duncan Davidson of Tullock MP for the county of Cromarty: she died at Leghorn [Livorno] in October 1824.

3. In 1818 the 204 enslaved people on Rose Hall & Inverness the property of William Alves and John Cameron had been registered by John Cameron.

Times 22/4/1837 p 7: Marriages: 'On the 20th inst. at Cheltenham [Gloucestershire], John Alves, Esq, eldest son of the late William Alves, of Enham House, Hampshire, to Susan Barclay, dau. of Simon Fraser Esq. and widow of the late W. Katz.'

1. PROB 11/1850/128; http://www.spanglefish.com/slavesandhighlanders/index.asp?pageid=225843 [accessed 04/03/2013].

2. Miscellanea genealogica et heraldica, Vol. IV 3rd series (1902) 'English and American Inscriptions in the old (and now closed) Protestant cemetery in Leghorn', p. 90, which source gives her as 'S.O. Davidson.'

3. 1819 Slave Registers Berbice

We are grateful to Jim Brennan for his help with this entry, which also draws on David Alston's Slaves and Highlanders material.