John Frere III

Middlesex magistrate, son from the relationship between Applewhaite Frere II (q.v., who owned the Lower estate in 1810) and Frances Payne. Apparently only very distantly connected with John Frere of Roydon and the latter's son, the diplomatist John Hookham Frere (both in the ODNB, together with several of John Hookham Freres' brothers), although John Frere of Roydon's daughter Jane (who died in 1829) had married Sir John Orde, Governor of Dominica, in 1793.

1. Baptism of John Frere Payne [sic], son of Applethwaite [sic] Frere and Frances Payne 20/07/1792 at Westminster, London. Subsequent censuses show John Frere born Middlesex as magistrate, living in Stamford Brook Lodge [sic], with servants. Will of John Frere late of Stamford Brook, Chiswick who died 15/07/1864 at Stamford Brook proved 20/08/1864 by Tobias Frere, brother, effects under £40,000. (Tobias Frere in 1851 aged 56 fundholder born Chiswick was living with his wife Cassandra aged 66 born Barbados in Whitchurch Hampshire: he died in 1865 at Stamford Brook leaving £70,000).

2. Applewhaite Frere had been a founding member of the Barbados Society of Arts. Applewhaite Frere of Stamford Brook, son of Hon. John Frere of Barbados Lieut-General and President, died 31/10/1830 aged 78. Frances Payne spinster was living with him when he made his will in 1811.

Simon D. Smith, Slavery, Family, and Gentry Capitalism in the British Atlantic. The World of the Lascelles, 1648–1834 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 216. The text suggests that part of the Frere family settled in Nettlecombe Somerset, presumably at an earlier date, since no trace of them has been found in the 19th century censuses.

1. Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Christening Records, 1530-1906 [database online]; 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses; National Probate Calendar 1864. The baptism name of John Frere Payne presumably reflects the unmarried status of the parents; 1851 census online; National Probate Calendar 1865.

2. David Lambert, White Creole Culture, Politics and Identity during the Age of Abolition (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 59; Caribbeana Vol. III p. 41.

We are grateful for the help of Audrey Dewjee with this entry.