Mrs Frances Beresford

The heirs of Mrs Frances Beresford were among the counterclaimants on Woodley Park in British Guiana, the compensation for which was paid into the colonial court. She was resident in Berbice in the early 1820s, and between 1822 and 1825 had sold 15 people to the then owners of Woodley Park: the compensation claim on behalf of her heirs presumably reflected unpaid balance of the consideration the enslaved people sold a decade earlier. To date she has not been further identified with confidence, but it appears from genealogical sources online that she was Frances Beresford nee Hunt, widow of Rev. Samuel Beresford of Barbados (d. 1806), and that she herself died c. 1830: Dr John Beresford of Berbice (d. 1844) was the son of Rev. Samuel and Frances Beresford.

1. In the 1818 registration, Frances Beresford made a return for 20 enslaved people 10/12/1817 and John Beresford for 24 people 18/12/1817. In 1825, she retained 10 enslaved people after the sale of a group of 15 people to the owners of Woodley Park.

1. T71/437 p. 34; T71/442 pp. 197-198.