Sarah Arrowsmith

1. Sarah Phipps Arrowsmith and her husband Richard Arrowsmith were the parents of Frances (1792 – deceased by 1817) and Anne (baptised 1794), St Andrew Parish.

2. In 1817, in St Andrew, Sarah Arrowsmith ‘owned’ 18 enslaved people ‘by virtue of the last will and testament of her late mother Ann Phipps deceased’, i.e. on Dick's Last Shift estate, but her husband Richard Arrowsmith was in possession.

3. In 1820, Sarah was recorded to own 18 enslaved people. The decrease of numbers by one was due to her manumission of Sykey, an 85 year old African woman.

4. In 1819 and 1820, Richard Arrowsmith was recorded to own 34 enslaved people at Dick's Last Shift estate, but the estate was owned by Sarah Arrowsmith by 1824.

5. From 1823, Sarah Arrowsmith’s husband Richard no longer appears in the records (he presumably died). Sarah Arrowsmith was now in possession of his 18 enslaved people, whose number had now increased by births and purchases to 27. Sarah was guardian to William, whose ownership of enslaved people had now increased to ten due to the death of his co-heir Richard Arrowsmith Junior.

6. In 1835, Sarah Arrowsmith was awarded £522 13s 1d compensation for 22 enslaved people, now reclassified as ‘apprentices.’

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

1. FamilySearch, ‘Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880’, St Andrew > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1664-1807, Vol. 1, images 72 and 75, pages 120 and 126.

2. T71/125 627.

3. T71/126 155.

4. Jamaican Family Search, Jamaica Almanacs, St Andrew, 1820, 1821, 1824, 1826, 1828, 1831 and 1833.

5. T71/128 43 and 47.

6. See claim q.v., LBS individual page 21259.