Joseph Robley

Early purchaser of land in Tobago, brother of John Robley senior and uncle of John Robley (both of whom q.v.).

1. 'Jos. Robley' appears as the original purchaser of Sandy Bay division (St Patrick parish) Lot no. 40 (60 acres) on 05/06/1770. By 1773 Joseph Robley owned both this Lot and Lots nos. 31 & 33 (100 acres each), originally purchased by Richard Whitewood (19/03/1767), and ostensibly with G. Campbell and W. Bruce also owned Lot no. 33 (100 acres), purchased originally by Roger Smith 19/03/1767. Lots nos. 30, 31, 33 and 40 came to form Golden Grove. Online genealogical sources contain correspondence referring to a 'Sandy Point' estate, apparently in addition to Golden Grove.

2. Under the will of Joseph Robley of the Island of Tobago but at present residing in London proved 14/06/1806, he left three separate sugar plantations in the division of Sandy Point, Tobago - Golden Grove, Friendship and the Cove, each containing about 400 acres 'with all the slaves thereon or belonging thereto, supposed to be around nine hundred' - to his nephew John Robley of Russell Square. He also manumitted 'my mulatto woman named Betty and my negro woman named Peggy' and left them 4 enslaved girls each, and left a series of monetary legacies to other enslaved people on his estates.

3. Among his other legacies to people in Britain, Joseph Robley left £3000 each to his two nephews George and Joseph Robley and £3000 each to his nine nieces, six the daughters of his deceased brother John Robley, and three the daughters of his deceased sister Mary Jackson, including £3000 to niece Elizabeth Dunglison (nee Jackson), which helped launch the career of his great-nephew Robley Dunglison, who became a physician and professor of medicine of Philadelphia.

1. 'Tables showing the Lots in each Parish, numbered as originally granted - the original Grantee - the name of the Lot, or lots, if one has been acquired, and the present Possessor where there is one' and 'A Table, showing the Estates in cultivation in 1832, and their Owners, in 1832, copied from the list appended to Byres' map of that date, with those in cultivation in 1862', Henry Iles Woodcock, A History of Tobago (Ayr: Smith and Grant, 1867; new impression London: Frank Cass and Company Limited, 1971); John Fowler, A summary account of the present flourishing state of the respectable colony of Tobago in the British West Indies illustrated with a map of the island and a plan of its settlement, agreeably to the sales by his Majesty’s Commissioners (London: A Grant, 1774) pp. 60-61, 62-63; e.g. 'Joseph Robley of Tobago' http://www.robley.org.uk/joseph-robley.htm [accessed 07/12/2013].

2. PROB 11/1445/103, indexed as 'Joseph Robley of Russell Square Middlesex'.

3. http://www.robley.org.uk/joseph-robley.html [accessed 09/12/2013].