William Villiers Amiel

William Villiers Amiel, sixth child of Henry Strachey Amiel (c.1760-1823) and his wife Charlotte (c.1770-1829), daughter of Samuel Court of Pennisborough, Hertfordshire. Henry Strachey Amiel was an American Loyalist and Captain in the 8th West India Regiment who was dismissed from the army for embezzlement and fled abroad. William Villiers Amiel was baptised 04/01/1799 in Holy Trinity, Guildford, Surrey. From 1818-1829 he was a Licensed Free Mariner in Bombay, India.

1. William and his wife Elizabeth were awarded compensation for ownership of enslaved people on Prospect estate in Jamaica in 1836. One of these two awards was intially made to Eliza Gordon as executrix of Amelia Bell but then amended to William Villiers Amiel and Elizabeth Amiel. (Prospect Farm was registered to Amelia Bell in the Jamaica Alamacs of 1830 and 1833 and enslaved people were registered to Amelia Bell as tenant-in-tail in St Mary's 1817-1829.) Marriage "On Thursday last, the 3d instant, at Marley great house, by the Rev Mr. McGrath, of Mosely Hall, Mr. William Villiers Amiel, to Elizabeth Gordon, of Prospect Pen, in St. Mary's."

2. William may have moved to Jamaica before 1830: a "Mestee" named William Fomerat Amiel, son of Lydia Ann Harrison, an unmarried mother, was baptised in St Mary, Jamaica on on 22/08/1830.

3. Eliza Gordon's mother Amelia Bell was described in the will of Eliza's father Larchin Richard Gordon as a "free person of colour" and two of Eliza's siblings were given at baptism as "free mustee".

4. Harry Strachey Amiel, age 2 years, was baptised 12/09/1839 in St Mary, Jamaica; his parents were Wm Amiel and Eliza his wife, father's occupation Planter, abode Prospect Farm. William V. Amiel was a vestryman in St Mary in 1839 and Prospect Farm was registered to "William Vellers Amiell" in 1840. No further records of William Villiers Amiel have been found.

See http://www.rawes.co.uk/merryweather/harvest.htm chapter 24, forthcoming, and http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/51469300/person/13205281540 [accessed 25/03/2013].

1. T71/856 St Mary claim nos. 308, 309A&B. John Malcolm Bulloch, The Making of the West Indies. The Gordons as colonists (Buckie, privately printed, 1915) p. 24. Jamiaca Almanacs (1830 and 1833); Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database online]; Royal Gazette of Jamaica 12/12/1835.

2. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

3. See separate entry for Amelia Bell.

4. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; Jamaica Almanacs (1839 and 1840).

We are grateful to Alan Merryweather and Peter Selley for their assistance in compiling this entry.