James Choppin

Slave-owner of St Vincent and then Bath, whose will was proven in 1824. His son Thomas Choppin (q.v.) claimed the compensation for Harmony Hall estate on St Vincent as sole acting executor and trustee of James Choppin.

1. Will of James Choppin of the island of St Vincent but now residing at Bath proved 11/09/1824. He left his estate in trust (his trustees were Jonathan Morgan, Robert Lang and his son Thomas Choppin), to support annuities of £40 p.a. to his daughters Frances and Eliza: he gave £3000 to his son James Iles [?] Choppin. He made provisions for two males who were possibly natural children: £100 p.a. to Louis Pradie 'now residing on my estate' in St Vincent; and £150 p.a. to Joseph Crocome [sp?] son of Elizabeth Crocome who now lives with me (with the desire he train as a surgeon), £80 p.a. to another son of Elizabeth Crocome and £60 p.a. to Elizabeth herself, with £25 p.a. to his servant William Crocome as long as his sister Elizabeth saw fit. Finally he left £100 p.a. to James Choppin his grandson, the son of his son Thomas [this appears to have been James Clement Choppin, later Solicitor-General of St Vincent].

2. James Choppin of 6 Alfred Street, Bath, was buried at Walcot St Swithin 17/05/1824 aged 73. J. Choppin also appears at 6 Alfred Street in the Bath Directory of 1819.

3. Choppin's daughter Caroline married James Protheroe of Bristol c. 1806 at Bath, when Choppin was identified as of St Vincent. In a marginal note to his will Choppin declared null and void a bequest he had originally made to her in the body of the will.

4. James Choppin's putative natural son Joseph Crocome (1811-1874) was the first resident European doctor on South Island in New Zealand. He married in 1844 an indigenous woman named Raureka/Arabella with whom he had two children who were raised by their mother's kin.

5. James Iles Choppin was matriculated at St John's College Cambridge in 1826 and was awarded a BA in 1830. Born in Bath (no baptism record has been found for him).

T71/892 St Vincent no. 506.

1. PROB 11/1690/53. The burial of James Choppin of no. 6 Alfred Street aged 73 was recorded at Walcot St Swithin 17/05/1824, Ancestry.com, Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914[database online].

2. Ancestry.com, Somerset, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1914 [database online]; Bath Street Directory (1819).

3. Annual Register 1806 p. 486.

4. http://www.toituosm.com/collections/smith-gallery/wall-1/dr-joseph-crocombe [accessed 12/09/2016]; Angela Wanhalla, In/visible sight: the mixed-descent families of southern New Zealand (2015) p. 102.

5. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online].