Bryan Edwards

Claimed unsuccessfully for the compensation for Dove Hall in St Thomas-in-the-Vale in Jamaica, which was awarded to the London merchants Davidson and Barkly as mortgagees. Dove Hall had been owned by Bryan Edwards (d. 1800), the MP and historian of Jamaica (q.v., under 'Bryan Edwards the elder'). The Bryan Edwards who owned it in the 1830s is almost certainly the nephew of Bryan Edwards the elder, and son of Zachary Bayly Edwards. Although Vere Langford Oliver shows this Bryan Edwards of Westmoreland as dying 13/11/1835 aged 29, other sources indicate that Sir Bryan Edwards (1796-1876), the Chief Justice of Jamaica, was the son of Zachary Bayly Edwards and Catherine Otto Baijer, and hence the nephew of Bryan Edwards the elder.

1. The will of Sir Bryan Edwards Knight late of Eltham Pen, St Catherine Jamaica, who died 06/12/1876 was proved 24/04/1877, effects under £40,000.

2. Bryan Edwards (d. 1800) had sold Westbury Manor (including Chalcot) to his younger brother Zachary Bayly Edwards (also d. 1800), who passed it to his son, another Bryan Edwards. Chalcot House is known to have been sold by Sir Bryan Edwards to Charles Paul Phipps, a coffee merchant and a member of the Phipps family into which Bryan Edwards the historian had married.

Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua 'Pedigree of Edwards of Jamaica', Vol. 1 p. 235; for evidence otherwise, see e.g. London Gazette 23486 09/04/1869 p. 2188, which shows Sir Bryan Edwards as executor of his sister Rachel Pare Edwards, who was the daughter of Zachary Bayly Edwards and Catherine Otto Baijer.

1. National Probate Calendar 1877.

2. A History of the County of Wiltshire: Vol. 8 - Warminster, Westbury and Whorwellsdwn Hundreds (British History Online) shows the manor of Westbury passing from Bryan Edwards (d. 1800) to his younger brother Zachary Bayly Edwards; Wiltshire and Swindon Archive Catalogue Ref 540/208 shows correspondence about the purchase of Chalcot House from Sir Bryan Edwards, Chief Justice of Jamaica.