George Whitfield

Owner of enslaved people belonging or attached to Plaisance estate in St John, Grenada and Peruvian Vale and Henry's Vale on St Vincent; died in London c.1819. The ODNB entry for his daughter Georgina Peyronnet (q.v.) describes him as 'a lawyer and West Indian sugar plantation proprietor....He had been a classical scholar and a lover of literature.'

1. Will of George Whitfield of Montague Street Russell Square proved 08/11/1819. Under the will he provided for the forgiveness of debts owed to him by his brother Rev. Francis Whitfield provided Francis gave up his reversionary interest in stocks held by George Whitfield and John Shaw in trust for him (Francis) under the will of Mrs Elizabeth Whitfield in reversion expectant. He left his wife Georgiana Paulina an annuity of £2000 p.a. His intended legatee his son George Henry Whitfield appears to have died as an infant c. 1824, and his property passed to his two daughters, Elizabeth Whitfield (q.v.) and Georgina (q.v. under Georgina Peyronnet).

2. Between 1817 and 1820, George Whitfield appears to have purchased 62 enslaved people on the Bagatelle estate in Dominica and had them shipped to his Peruvian and Henry's Vale estates on St Vincent.

T71/313 pp. 1-2. Evidence to the 1842 Committee on the West Indies: Geo. Whitfield's will of July 1819 bequeathed the Plaisance estate to his daughters Elizabeth and Frances. Henry James Ross was the executor and trustee. He bought out his nieces shortly after the award of compensation: 'It was not my estate till after the Compensation Money was received, but I was connected with the estate and therefore knew its history very well'; ODNB online, Martin Russell, 'Peyronnet, (Georgina) Frances de [nee Georgina Frances Whitfield], Viscountess Peyronnet in the French nobility (1815-1895), journalist.'

1. PROB 11/1622/110.

2. T71/355 p. 331.