Samuel Brandford Cox

Former owner of Plantation Zeelught or Zeelugt in British Guiana, compensation for which was paid to mortgagees of the estate who made the original claim. Cox himself did not appear to lodge a claim.

1. Will of Samuel Brandford Cox planter of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire proved 21/08/1838. A call for creditors of Samuel Bradford [sic] Cox, 'some time of the colony of British Guiana, afterwards of Cheltenham in the County of Gloucester...now deceased, and in his lifetime proprietor of Zeelught' was made by the Provost Marshal of British Guiana on behalf of the executors, 24/12/1838. Samuel Brandford Cox was buried at All Souls Kensal Green 04/08/1838 when his age was given as 66 and his address was given as Euston Square. Zeelugt House was presumably his house and named by him after his plantation (the house has been renamed Linton House and is now owned by the Cobalt Trust).

2. In his will, Samuel Brandford Cox reitereated the commitment under an ante-nuptial settlement to pay an annuity of £500 p.a. to his wife Maria Catherine Cox (late Maria Catherine Schultz widow), secured it on Pln Zeelugt and increased it by £300 p.a. He left £24 p.a. to Richard Cox, son of 'the late coloured woman Rosetta formerly of Plantation Anna Regina'. He also made provision for the daughters and sons of his wife. His British executors were his wife and Bonamy Dobree.

3. The will was subsequently the subject of a suit in Chancery still running in 1854 between Nicholas and Henry Cox (Samuel Brandford Cox's surviving sons), their mother and her new husband Charles Hooper and Bonamy Dobree.

4. In the will of Samuel Hinkson Cox, made 02/10/1840 in Demerara and proved 19/07/1842 in London, Cox left his one-fifth share of Pln Zeelugt to his brother John Francis Cox subject to a number of family legacies of several hundred pounds.

5. Samuel Brandford Cox (and Samuel Cox) had been the beneficiaries of the estates of Charles Crouch of Antigua and his lunatic son, each being entitled to some £60,000.

6. Maria Catherine, widow of Samuel Brandford Cox, of Demerara and Zeelugt House, Cheltenham, married Charles Hooper Esquire of Cheltenham in Southampton, 28/08/1843.

1. PROB 11/1899/127; London Gazette19721 02/04/1839 p. 731; Ancestry.com London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online]; www.cheltenham.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/3170/13-college accessed 17/06/2013. Email from Eric Miller 03/07/2015 re Linton House.

2. PROB 11/1899/127.

3. London Gazette 21898 04/07/1856 p. 2362.

4. PROB 11/1965/113.

5. The Pedigree Register Vol. III No. 27 December 1913 pp. 65-69.

6. Gentleman's Magazine, October 1843 p. 430.