William Sloane of Tobago

Tobago slave-owner. The Rev. William Sloane Wilson (q.v.) must have been a namesake.

1. In 1773, William Sloane was Present Proprietor of (1) Sandy Bay division (St Patrick parish) Lots nos. 28 and 29, originally purchased separately by William Reven and Dunn & Williams, and which became the Kilgwyn estate, of which by 1832, the owners were 'Chauncey Lang & Co.'; and (2) Northeast division (St John parish) Lot no. 13 (200 acres) bought 19/04/1768 by William Karst and Thomas Bird.

2. There is a memorial to William Sloane, Esq. of the island of Tobago, 1797 in Exeter Cathedral. William Sloane, aged 7, son of Willm. Esq., deceased, Exeter, was at Blundell's School Aug 14 1798 - Dec. 15 1806. No connection has yet been traced to the 'William Sloan of Dominica' (q.v.) whose will was proved 25/05/1809.

3. Ann-Sarah, eldest daughter of William Sloane of Tobago 'by Ann, his wife, third daughter and co-heir of Henry Fisher [of Barbados]' married 20/02/1819 William Evans of Cheltenham, Lt-Col., of the Evans family of Prior's Wood, Co. Dublin and then of Lough Park, Co. Westmeath.

4. Henry Fisher Sloane (1788-1851), who changed his name to Henry Fisher Bidgood before 1823, having married Sarah Porter spinster born Demerara at St George's Hanover Square 06/10/1821, and died 'of Rockbeare Devon' in 1851, must have been a son of William Sloane and Ann Fisher. Charles Bidgood of Rockbeare, whose will was proved 24/11/1813, was the step-father of Henry Fisher Sloane, and requested that his wife's heirs take the name of Bidgood. Thomas Porter of Rockbeare was an executor of this will, and was almost certainly the Thomas Porter of Rockbeare whose will was proved December 1815 (q.v. under Thomas Porter I), although conceivably the executor could have been his son, also Thomas (q.v. under Thomas Porter II). Sarah Bidgood nee Porter was again probably the daughter of Thomas Porter I, who in his will left £30,000 to each of his three daughters, including Sarah.

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) (the estate appears as Kelwyn in the 1832 and 1862 lists in this source); 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.

2. Daniel Lysons, Magna Britannia Vol. VI containing Devonshire Part II (1822), p. 212; Arthur Fisher, The Register of Blundell's School, Part 1 The Register 1770-1882 (1904) no. 678; PROB 11/1498/152.

3. Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry (1858) Vol. I pp. 355-356, 'Evans of Lough Park.'

4. Genealogical sites give 1875 as the date of death but his will was proved 18/08/1851, PROB 11/2137/162; 1851 census online; PROB 11/1549/449.