James Lawrence Hilton

Resident slave-owner in Jamaica, a founder of the Colonial Church Union.

1. James Lawrence Hilton, son of John Hilton and his wife Sarah, was born 06/08/1778 and baptised 12/03/1780 in St Ann, Jamaica.

2. Said to have “greatly distinguished himself during the late (1831) insurrection”. In 1833, on account of his support for the Church Unionist objective to expel Baptist and other Non-conformist ministers and missionaries from Jamaica, he was stripped of his commission as Major-General commanding the St Ann’s Regiment.

3. Member of Assembly for St Ann, 1835 (apparently he had been such from 1826.

4. Described as late Custos of St Ann in the obituary notices of his widow and daughter.

5. One of six defendants in a Chancery suit concerning the Wakefield plantation against whom judgment was entered for £26,552 Jamaican currency in 1826.

6. By his wife Anne he was father of 7 children:
   James Lawrence, born 29/08/1807 and baptised 27/10/1808
   Frances Lawrence, born 20/07/1812 and baptised 02/01/1816
   John Lawrence, born 31/07/1814 and baptised 21/01/1816
   Mary Utten Lawrence, born 02/01/1817 and baptised 13/01/1821
   Utten William Lawrence, baptised 06/01/1823
   Charles Whitehorne, baptised at Scarborough 11/05/1815, aged 17 months (Rev. Charles Whitehorne Hilton, uncle of John C. Paget of Harrow on the Hill, was living in the United States in 1886)
   Anna Hilton: married, 1834, Lieut. Paget, RN, commanding HMS Magnificent; as widow of Capt. John Paget, RN, she died at Chelsea, 29/03/1859, aged 49.

7. Anne, relict of John Lawrence Hilton, died at Scarborough, Jamaica, 18/12/1849, aged 65.

Diana Paton (ed.), A Narrative of Events since 1st August 1834 by James Williams, an Apprenticed Labourer (2001) pp. 34 and 36.

1. Familysearch.org, Jamaica parish registers, St Ann, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1768-1839 p. 28.

2. Caledonian Mercury, 10/04/1833; Nottingham Review, 12/04/1833.

3. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 31/10/1835; for earlier position see editorial notes to Paton, Narrative of Events since the 1st of August 1834 p.34.

4. As 6 and 7 below.

5. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, 7 and 14 October 1826. For further details see Wakefield: 1826.

6. Familysearch.org, Jamaica parish registers, St Ann, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1768-1839 pp. 174, 242, 319, 328; St Dorothy, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1693-1826 p.107; Naval and Military Gazette, 20/09/1834; Morning Post, 02/04/1859.

7. Morning Chronicle, 12/02/1850.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for compiling this entry with additional help from Steven Carter.