George Kearton

Co-owner of Keartons on St Vincent from c. 1765 or 1767 with William Lindow (q.v.). 'G & J Kearton' were early purchasers of land in Tobago, buying Courland Bay division (St David parish) Lot no.4 (300 acres) 16/05/1766: by 1773 it was in the hands of Thomas Fairholme. It is likely that the Keartons buying in Tobago were the same as the family involved in St Vincent from the 1760s.

1. An unsourced family history online says of George Kearton or Kirton of Swaledale Yorkshire (who died in 1764 'in his 124th year'): 'his youngest son George Kearton, in partnership with William Lindow of Lancashire, established a large sugar and coffee plantation on the Island of St Vincent, in the Caribbean in 1763. This plantation was known as “Keartons” and although now abandoned, it is still known as that today.'

2. A newspaper account in 2011 of George Kearton of Kearton's shows him as born to George Kearton of Muker, Swaledale c. 1721, buying a half-share in an estate on St Vincent c. 1764 aged 43, and then going to the Caribbean, dying at St Vincent in 1783. The estate then passed to his nephew John, who in turn went out to St Vincent with his partner Ann Doyle (q.v., under Ann Doyle otherwise Kearton), then to John and Ann's son George Kearton (1775-1

3. Family research by Jonathan Kirton indicates that (1) George Kearton was baptised at Muker on 25/09/1722, and had a younger surviving brother John, who was the 'J' in the 'G&J Kearton' shown as the original purchasers 16/06/1766 of 300 acres in Courland Bay division (Parish of St David) on Tobago. George Kearton had in the previous year by an indenture between himself and William Lindow dated 14/15 July 1765 acquired his moiety of what became the Kearton's plantation on St Vincent.'

4. The will of George Kearton (made in 1773) was entered 28/06/1785 at St Vincent. Under the will he left his real estate in Yorkshire to his mother Mary for life and then to his brother Thomas. He also bequeathed his mother Mary £20 p.a. and one barrel of 300 pounds of sugar each year; £30 p.a. to his sister Mary Dagmar; £300 to his nephew George Kearton, and £100 to his nephew Thomas Kearton (both identified as sons of his brother Anthony), and 100 guineas to Dru Drury [sic]. His residuary heir was John Kearton, a third son of his brother Anthony.

5. The children of a George Kearton of Mansell Street were named as beneficiaries in the will of Ann Kearton (q.v.) (proved in 1836 but made in 1818); he was described in the will of Diana Kearton widow of Hampstead (proved 22/08/1834 made in 1823) as 'the late George Kearton of Mansell Street Goodman Fields.' This man was the cousin of John Kearton of St Vincent and hence a nephew of George Kearton of this entry. The daughter of George Kearton of Mansell Street, Diana Harriet Kearton, emigrated to Tasmania c. 1825 and married the lawyer and politician John Ward Gleadow (1801-1881).

1. Basil Kearton, 'The New World Hamlet of Kearton in Swaledale', http://genealogy.kearton.com/?p=10

2. Northern Echo, 16/03/2011, http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/8913308.Trip_of_a_lifetime__take_two [accessed 14/09/2015]. The article was drawn from Those Who Left the Dales, by the Upper Dales Family History Group.

3. Jonathan Kirton has deposited his research on the Kearton family and the Kearton estate on St Vincent in a number of archives, including at the Library of the Society of Genealogists in London (under 'Kirton').

4. 'Last will of Geo. Kearton decd. St Vincent. A true copy from the records in the Register's office of this island examined therewith and attested [?] by me this 14th day of December 1801, Jno Gloster [?]', image of the original document supplied by Jonathan Kirton.

5. The George Kearton of Clerkenwell whose will was proved 07/07/1841, was connected only distantly to the Keartons of St Vincent. This man, of [45] Spencer Street, was buried aged 79 at St James Clerkenwell 09/06/1841. His will refers to Swaledale but not to Tobago or St Vincent. His executrix was Nancy Wells Kearton, baptised c. 1785, the daughter of George and Elizabeth Kearton, whose own will (as Nancy Wells Western, after her marriage to William Western) was proved 01/08/1850, and again makes no reference to West India property; PROB 11/1949/32; Ancestry.com, London, England, Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [database online]; PROB 11/2118/370; PROB 11/1835/229; G.H. Crawford, 'Gleadow, John Ward (1801-1881)', http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/gleadow-john-ward-2100 [accessed 05/10/2015].

We are grateful to Jonathan Kirton for his help with this entry.