Charles Henry McDermott

1. Charles Henry McDermott, surgeon, was Senior Magistrate of St Thomas-in-the-Vale in 1848. In 1839 Charles Henry McDermott had been one of the Parish’s ‘Assistant Judges and Magistrates.’
2. In 1817, aged 12, in St Thomas-in-the-Vale, he ‘owned’ two enslaved people (as did his siblings Francis (who owned one person), and Mary Ann (who owned seven people),). The enslaved were held by his father as ‘Guardian,' and fifty more were registered to his father as owner. In 1820, aged 15, Charles Henry McDermott was given the enslaved female Polydore, aged 22, by Mrs E[lizabeth]. McKenzie, widow, deceased (who also gave other enslaved people to his siblings, Henry, Elizabeth and Mary Ann McDermott).
3. After his father’s death, Charles Henry McDermott became owner of many more enslaved people, including 43 in 1832 (probably in relation to the Cotswold estate). Acting as executor for Elizabeth Hannah Clement, he came to own 85 enslaved people (probably Orangefield estate).
4. In 1807, the list of baptism sponsors for Charles, son of Charles and Ann McDermot, included Mrs E. Clement, indicating a link to the Clement family going back over two decades.
5. Charles Henry McDermott's wife was Elizabeth Sloe Snaith, who in 1851 was living at Orangefield estate.
6. Charles Henry McDermott was probably the same Dr Charles McDermott who was surgeon of the St Thomas-in-the-Vale House of Correction at Rodney Hall. In 1837, Dr McDermott gave expert testimony to minimise the severe ill-treatment of apprentice George Robinson. He was described as ‘the paid medical attendant on New Works; himself an owner of slaves, and most unkind and unfeeling in his treatment of sick apprentices.’
7. Charles Henry McDermott died in 1850 at the age of 45.

We are grateful to Steven Carter for his assistance in compiling this entry.

1. Accounts and Papers. United Kingdom: n.p., 1849, p. 61. Jamaica Almanac, 1839.
2. T71/25, pp. 449, 445-8, 452. T71/26, p. 257.
3. T71/32, pp. 204, 202. Jamaica Almanac, 1833.
4. T71/25, p.453-5. Baptism Record at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/family- tree/person/tree/186502005/person/132440615015/hints?usePUBJs=true
5. FamilySearch database online. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-DXNY-W?i=129&cc=1827268; and https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-DX99-JZ?i=92&cc=1827268.
6. Jamaica Almanac, 1839, at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/AL39Lis4.htm. The British Emancipator, 14 Feb 1838, p. 6, reporting the George Robinson case.
7. Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, at https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-D692-XK?cc=1827268&wc=M6GG- 8NL%3A161382801%2C162006001.