Captain Thomas Cowan

Claimed unsuccessfully for the compensation for Cedar Valley in St Andrew Jamaica, the money for which was paid to the London mortgagees Bond and Pearse.

1. Will of Thomas Cowan Captain in the Royal Navy of Edinburgh, Mid Lothian [made in 1835], proved 22/02/1836. In the will he left his Cedar Valley estate and the services of the apprentices on it, together with land leased from Lady Carhampton, to his sister Mrs Cecilia Bastone of Minehead in Somerset subject to £200 to his sister Jane Dyett widow of Exeter. He instructed that the coffee crop be sold and the proceeds set against the mortgage of Messrs Bond & Pearse. Despite the mortgage, he left annuities totalling £300 p.a. to female relatives.

2. Cecilia Cowan was born 17/01/1777 and baptised in St James, Westminster, 30/01/1777, daughter of Thomas and Isabella Cowan. She married Francis Bastone in Somerset in 1806. One of her daughters was also named Isabella. Presumably Thomas Cowan had the same parents, so he is probably the Thomas Cowan born 24/12/1770 and baptised 17/01/1771 In Marylebone.

T71/865 St Andrew no. 336, which identifies Thomas Cowan as 'Great Britain'; T71/1592 Commissioners of Compensation to Malcolm Cowan of Edinburgh, 8/6/1835, sending copy of the claim and return of Capt Thomas Cowan of Cedar Valley.

1. PROB 11/1857/243.

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database online]; Ancestry.com, England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database online.