Colonel Edward Warner

Colonel Edward Warner, formerly of the 26th Regiment, 'The Cameronians' was reportedly the owner of the Woodford Dale estate, Savana Grande, 'and a lineal descendant of Sir Thomas Warner', the founder of St Kitts in 1626. In 1806 Warner, then a Major, moved his family from Dominica to Trinidad. His son was Charles William Warner, Attorney-General of Trinidad (educated in England), and his grandson Pelham Francis ('Plum') Warner. Edward Warner does not appear in the compensation records for Woodford Dale, but there is an allusion to him in the context of a group of 11 enslaved people in 'Woodlands' in Trinidad, of which he was the owner at the time of the 1828 Slave Registration.

1. Catherine Jane Warner (q.v.), of Sheerness Kent, wife of Edward Warner counterclaimed for the compensation for the enslaved people on Hatton Garden estate in Dominica, as annuitant of £1000. Jane Heming Warner counterclaimed on the same award as legatee of her father William Warner and with her brother Colonel Warner as legatee under the will of her deceased brother Joseph Thomas Warner.

2. Marriage of Edward Warner and 'Shipley' [C.J.M. Shipley] 22/12/1804 at St George Hanover Square.

3. An announcement in The Spectator gives the death 22/08/1849 of Colonel Edward Warner of the 26th Foot in his 74th year. Edward Warner of Pelham Terrace Brompton aged 74 was buried on 26/08/1849 at Holy Trinity, Gray's Inn Road. Another newspaper notice gives more details of his life and the circumstances of his death:

"Death of Colonel Warner in the Queen’s Prison.—Yesterday evening an inquest was taken by Mr. J. H. Payne, deputy coroner, in the Queen’s Prison, on view of the body of Colonel Edward Warner, aged 74, late of the 25th Foot (the Cameronians), who died there under the following circumstances, having been an inmate of the prison since the 22d of February, 1848, when he was received on account of a debt. Mr. Thomas Martin said that when the deceased was attended by him, he had a severe attack of bilious diarrhoea. He rallied under the treatment and his health seemed improved, till Tuesday night last, when he got considerably worse. Witness attribute death to bilious diarrhoea. Mr. James Manning, deceased’s brother-in-law, stated that he last saw the deceased on the Saturday previous. Deceased had seen a great deal of service and was a full colonel in the army, as also half-pay of the Cameronians. He was secretary to Sir Adam Williamson, when he took possession of the island of St. Domingo from the French. He afterwards entered the 10th Regiment – was aide-de-camp to the Earl of Harrington. He assisted at the capture of other West India Islands, and had several medals for distinguished services in various parts of the world. Verdict – Natural Death."

Lionel Mordaunt Fraser, History of Trinidad (Second Period), Vol. II (Port-of-Spain, 1896), p. 360; ODNB online, Gerald M. D. Howat, 'Warner, Sir Pelham Francis (1873-1963), cricketer and writer on cricket'; T71/894 Trinidad no. 1831A & B (Woodlands); T71/1593 letter dated 05/12/1835 from Thomas Wirgman, trustee for benefit of creditors, seeking to bring a counterclaim against Colonel Edward Warner. The compensation for Woodford Dale was awarded to Ann Eliza McIntosh, T71/894 Trinidad no. 1870.

1. T71/881 Dominica no. 146.

2. London England Marriages and Banns 1754-1921.

3. The Spectator Archive 01/09/1849; Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online]. The will of Edward Warner of Eltham Kent (the address in 1833 of Mildred Warner, the mother of Joseph Thomas Warner, Jane Heming Warner and Edward Warner), proved 07/05/1849, is (predictably) not the same man: the legatees are his sisters Mary (the wife of Edward Fitzherbert Grant) and Lucy, and there is no reference to West India property, PROB 11/2094/11. Newspaper extract sent by Anna Philpot, 08/01/2015.

We are grateful to Anna Philpot for her assistance with compiling this entry.