Edward Austin

"Edward Austin, Thomas Austin’s eleventh child, was known as ‘The Black Prince’. He was the owner of plantation La Belle Alliance in Essequibo, co-owner with his half brother William Austin (1759-1819) of Lowlands in East Coast Demerara, one-time owner of Plantation Prospect, also in East Coast, Demerara and Plantation Tarsis, and he also owned the extensive property in Georgetown which later became Government House. He must have been the wealthiest of his generation of Austins and was described by a contemporary as a ‘handsome man and always well dressed.’"

Edward married (1) Anna Maria Skeete 31/07/1801 (she died less than a year later) and (2) Mary Pauline Piercy (the sister of his brother William's wife Mehetabel (both q.v., Mary Pauline died less than 4 months after her marriage). After living as a widower for 9 years he then married Maria Miller, sister of the Rev. Miller, a clerk in Holy Orders who was Rector of Holy Trinity Church, Essequibo.

Website summary of Roger B. Austin and Timothy J. Smellie, An Old Colonial Family (privately printed, 2002) available at http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/walk/rcr51/ThomasAustin/ [accessed 03/04/2013].