James Whitehorne

Awarded the compensation for enslaved people on Mount Pleasant in St Ann, and probably the same man as the James Whitehorne receiving compensation in three smaller awards in Kingston, St David and St Mary.

1. Most probably James Risby Whitehorne, born Kingston, 1793, son of Samuel Risby Whitehorne (1769-1816) and his wife Fanny Constantia (nee Hall). Brother of Thomas and Henry Whitehorne born St Ann's, 1816. The Whitehorne family had been in Jamaica since the late 17th century. Samuel Risby Whitehorne was the son of James Risby Whitehorne and Jean (no further details known), whilst an uncle named Samuel had been a member of the Assembly. Fanny Constantia also came from a prominent plantation owning family, and was the sister of Harry Irvine Hall (q.v.). Samuel Risby Whitehorne drowned trying to ford a river in 1816, leaving his estate under the control of his wife. She filed Slave Register returns in 1817 for property in St Ann's (probably Thicketts) and 41 enslaved people.

2. Fanny Constantia was the daughter of Margaret Hall second wife of William Hall (1731-1794) sugar manufacturer and merchant of Jamaica. Her mother (then living in Bury St Edmonds) named her executrix of her will and left a significant legacy upon her death in 1843: Fanny was bequeathed a third of the value of Margaret Halls house in Northgate Street Bury St Edmunds Suffolk, her wearing apparel, gold watch & chains plus a third of her other property and £200. Margaret Hall's other executors were her sons Harry Irvine Hall and Charles Hill Hall (father of Ellen & Emily Hall of The Diaries of the Halls of Ravenswood) and grandson James Whitehorne of Bristol. Fanny died in Bath in 1845, leaving an estate of just over £3000. Her daughters continued to reside at her house Heron Lodge 17 Bathwick Hill, Bath.

3. James Whitehorne filed returns for the 1823 St Ann Slave Register as owner of the 26 enslaved persons, although it is not clear whether it was for the same property as his mother had previously done. He married married Henrietta Elizabeth George (d.1862 at Kensington, London) on 4 September 1824 in Kingston, Jamaica. Two of the couple's children were born in Jamaica: Charles George Whitehorne (1826) and Henrietta George Whitehorne (1827). Seven more children were born after the Henrietta's return to England sometime during the late 1820s: James Charles Whitehorne (1831) in Richmond, Surrey; Fanny Maria Whitehorne (1834) at Westbury Wiltshire; Caroline Julia (1837), Westbury Wilts; Edith Anna Whitehorne (1838), Clifton Bristol; Alice Laura (1840) Clifton Bristol, died St Pancras, London, 1849; Allen Anderson Whitehorne (1842) Midlothian, Scotland; Arthur Howard Whitehorne (1848), St Pancras, London. Note that the first child born in Britain, Charles George in 1826, was baptised in an Anglican Church, probably before James Whitehorne returned to be with his family. St Michael's, Westbury, the place of baptism of the two next children, was a Baptist church.

4. One of the men alluded to by the abolitionist travelers Sturge and Harvey in 1837 when they wrote of 'one of the Baptist missionaries who is a creole by birth, and one of a family who though they have all been brought up in contact with slavery, have cleared themselves from its contaminating connexion. His brother, now resident in England, has manumitted his apprentices and directed a considerable amount received as compensation to be expended for their benefit.'

5. Death notice of Alice Laura Whitehorne in 1849 gives James Whitehorne's address as 4 Gloucester Crescent, Regent's Park. Marriage notice of eldest daughter Henrietta George gives James Whitehorne 'esq. late of Jamaica' at Queen's Road, Gloucester Gate, Regent's Park.

6. The 1851 census recorded the family as being at 30 Queens Road Marylebone. James the eldest son was a student at the Bar and James Snr. an editor of Tracts. In 1861 James Whitehorne '[possibly Jt.] Editor Religious Tract Society' aged 67 born Jamaica  was living at 20 Kensington Square with daughter 'Maria Fanny' born Wiltshire aged 26 and living grandson Henery [sic] Whitehorne Moore and grand-daughter Alica Henrietta Moore, both born Bloomsbury. Fanny Maria Whitehorne was baptised at Dr Williams Library 07/09/1834 (when her mother's name was given as Henrietta Elizabeth and maternal grandfather's name as Charles George) and died at Bath in 1894, leaving just over £3000. In 1881 Fanny Maria Whitehorne was living at Ditton Kent and in 1891 Fanny Maria and Edith Anna living at 110 Adelaide Road Hampstead. By 1911 Edith and Caroline were living at Heron Lodge, Bathwick Hill Bath, where they stayed for the rest of their lives. Arthur Howard was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Artillery.

7. Allen Anderson Whitehorne became a civil engineer and returned to Jamaica at some point in the 1850s or 1860s. His daughters Edith Ambazine and Ellen Anderson were born in Jamaica in the early 1871 and 1872 and by January 1874 he was living in British Guiana. His eldest daughter with his second wife Marguertie or Maria Clara Wood was born in Marylebone, London, in 1877. The partnership of Christopher Nugent and Allen Anderson Whitehorne, leather merchants, of 197 Bermondsey Street, Surrey, was filed in 1879. Allen Anderson Whitehorne made his way to New Zealand and then Australia, before leaving on the first voyage of The Tar with 200 colonists seeking to set up a colony known as New Australia in Paraguay in 1893. He was elected trustee of the settlement in Paraguay in 1894, performed the duties as postmaster, and was still there in 1903.

8. The Evening Standard carried a notice of the death of James Whitehorne, "formerly of Jamaica aged 80" in Bagneres de Bigorre Hautes Pyrenees, 02/09/1874.

T71/857 St Ann no. 790, which identifies him as 'absentee Trustee'; Kingston no. 2281; St David no. 117; St Mary no. 299.

1. Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, Familysearch.org; Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834, T71/43, pp. 1218-19; Lady Maria Nugent, Philip Wright ed., Lady Nugent's Journal of Her Residence in Jamaica from 1801 to 1805 (London, 2002), p. 151.

2. Will of Margaret Hall, TNA Prob11/1975.

3. Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, Familysearch.org; Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1813-1834, T71/45, pp. 857-58; Ancestry.com, England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970 [database online].

4. Joseph Sturge and Thomas Harvey, The West Indies in 1837 (London, Hamilton, Adams, & Co., 1838), p. 277; p. 261 lists all the Baptist missonaries in the island, including William Whitehorne.

5. Morning Chronicle 28/11/1849 and 25/12/1852.

6. 1841-1911 censuses online; Ancestry.com, England and Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906 [database online]; National Probate Calendar 1894; Anthony Reginald Mills, Halls of Ravenswood (New York, 1967), pp. 5-6 & 121.

7. Fully sourced public family tree on Ancestry.com, 'Menes Family Tree' by 1_becky13 including New Zealand Electoral Rolls and UK Civil Engineer Lists.

8. London Evening Standard September 1874.

We are grateful to Jim Brennan for his assistance with this entry, including but not limited to drawing our attention the reference to James Whitehorne in Aileen Fyfe's work above.

Many thanks also to Dawn Good who provided a detailed account based upon detailed research of the family from their time in Jamaica in the late 18th century until the early 20th century.