Thomas Griffith of New Place, Southampton

Thomas Griffith of New Place Southampton counterclaimed as executor of Thomas Griffith the elder, surviving partner of Thomas Wickham, judgement creditor, for the compensation for Friendsfield on Tobago: Thomas Griffith of New Place was also the owner of Windsor & French's on Barbados when he died in England in 1848 and was almost certainly the awardee for the compensation for these estates in the 1830s. To date, neither of Thomas Griffith the elder and Thomas Wickham of the Tobago award has been identified further: the former might be Thomas Griffith of Southampton's father Thomas Howard Griffith (q.v.) but the will of Thomas Howard Griffith makes no apparent reference to mortgage property on Tobago or to Thomas Wickham. It is possible that Thomas Griffith the elder was the Thomas Griffith from the island of Barbados whose burial at Botley Hampshire was recorded 06/08/1795, and who has or had a memorial in St Michael's Cathedral at Bridgetown showing his death 04/08/1795 with his wife Jane (d. 1796 in her 59th year).

1. Will of Thomas Griffith of New Place Southampton proved 28/10/1848. Under his will he left his two estates in Barbados - which he identified as the French's estate and the Windsor estate - to his brother William subject to an annuity of £200 p.a. to another brother, Daniel Griffith. He left his household items to his wife Margaret Ann, other than a silver cup presented to him by Abel Rous Dottin (q.v.) of Bugle Hall, which he directed to be returned to Dottin, and the rest of his estate to trustees to support an annuity of £200 p.a. to his wife, with remainder to his two brothers, after three monetary legacies of £100.

2. Thomas Griffith of Windsor and French's was the son and executor of the Hon. Thomas Howard Griffith, whose will was proved 11/03/1826. The will was the subject in 1835 of the Chancery suit Benson v Benson, between Thomas Howard Griffith's daughter Jane Abel Benson (formerly Lane, nee Griffith) and her estranged second husband, Mr [Samuel] Benson, over the interest on a £10,000 legacy from her father.

3. A second daughter of Thomas Howard Griffith, Lucy Cobham Griffith, married John Hennen of Southampton at St Marylebone 28/04/1841.

T71/891 Tobago no. 20 (which gives him as of Kew [sic] Place Southampton); Botley Hampshire parish registers Burial Records 1679-1837, surnames G-L transcribed at http://michaelcooper.org.uk/BOT/burb.htm [accessed 23/06/2020]; Cook, K. (2016) The Barbados monument collection. The Monumental Archive Project http://katherinercook.github.io/MAP/collections.html [accessed 23/06/2020].

1. PROB 11/2082/9

2. Samuel Benson counterclaimed on Windsor & French's; see Nicholas Simons et al, Reports of Cases Decided in the High Court of Chancery (1836) Vol. 6, pp. 126-135.

3. Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]