George Davidson or Davison Seddon

1. George Davidson (or Davison) Seddon was the eldest of two sons and two daughters of George Seddon (1786-burial 05/01/1811) with Sarah Ivy Board, a "free mulatto". Born in Kingston 07/12/1802 and baptised 21/03/1803. His father, George Sedden, was born c. 1760. He was a white man, possibly a coffee trader, who became Ensign (1787), then Major (1799), then Lieutenant Colonel (1801) in the First Battalion of the Kingston Regiment. After withdrawing from these duties around 1808 he became a Common Councillor and was made Sexton to Kingston Parish Church for which he received annually $70 (probably meaning £70). This George Seddon produced at least 15 children by at least 3 different partners, of whom Sarah Ivy Board was the third. His previous partner was Frances Barnett (c. 1761-1798), variously described as a "free mulatto" and "free quadroon", by whom he produced three girls and three boys, including another George Seddon (1786-1826).

2. In 1817, Sarah owned 9 male and 22 female slaves in Kingston, Jamaica. By 1832, these slaves now numbered 47 and were inherited jointly by George Davison Seddon and his brother and sisters “by devise under the will of Sarah Ivy Board”. By 1843, George had established himself as a Surgeon Dentist, perhaps on King Street, where his family later owned various commercial and residential properties. He had two daughters (Georgiana Newman, 1841-1881, and Catherine, 1843-1931) and one son (George, 1842-1902) by Catherine McIntyre (1803-1888), and died between 1843 and 1873. In 1873, his daughter Catherine married Daniel Virtue Sutherland (1824-1884), son of James Sutherland of the Dunrobin Plantation.

3. George Davidson Seddon, dentist of Kingston, received property in King Street, Kingston, in the will of Moses Nunes Henriques (1836). After Seddon's death the property was to go to Seddon's sister Eliza Muirhead.

1. Jamaica Church of England Transcripts online; INVENTORY OF RICHARD GILBOURNE, COFFEE PLANTER, JAMAICA, 1795, Jamaica Archives, Spanishtown, Probate Inventories#1B/11/3, vol. 83, p. 152, where he is recorded as having owed over £292 to Richard Gilbourne, coffee planter of St Catherine, information through https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0ahUKEwjgoszlz43UAhWqBcAKHVfNDFwQFggyMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fblogs.stockton.edu%2Fhist3605%2Ffiles%2F2012%2F01%2FHIST-3605-Plantation-Comparison-Primary-Document-Exercise.doc&usg=AFQjCNGyUzMM5d34-apbcXux2l-IZANMkQ&sig2=qGWzzEMAW229CECyzIdL4w [accessed 23/01/2017].

2. Jamaica Church of England Transcripts. Kingston. Baptisms 1793-1825, Vol. 2, fol. 132; Returns of Slaves. Kingston, Jamaica 1817, image 477; Slave Registers, Kingston Jamaica 1832; Baptism record for Catherine Seddon, 20 Dec. 1844. Wesleyan Methodist Baptisms. Wesley Chapel, Kingston; Jamaica Gleaner, 20 Sep. 1873.

3. PROB 11/1863/7.

We are grateful to Dr Michael Rhodes for compiling this entry.