Andrew Whiteman

Owner of Upper Latante estate in Grenada.

1. Will of Andrew Whiteman [at present residing in Willow Walk] Kentish Town [but generally residing in the island of Grenada where I intend shortly to return], Gentleman, proved 23/02/1813. He instructed his debts be paid as far as possible from his personal estate in the West Indies and the rest from the moneys held by his friends Messrs Palmer, Wilson of City of London, particularly a sum of £2000 'I am due David Mogailas [sp?] of Malta', a legacy from his late brother Mitre Mogailas of Carriacou. Subject to this £2000 payment, he [the testator] owned two-thirds of an estate formerly called Ance Noir, now Friendship, left to him by Mitre Mogailas, while the other third had descended to him from Pierre Mogailas after the death of the latter's natural daughter subject to two payments of £500 each to two women in France, sisters of Mitre Mogailas who had never been heard from since his [Mitre's] death in 1795. Whiteman left £5200 in trust to the partners in Palmer, Wilson, and provided that the firm should act as consignees in London for the produce from Ance Noir & Friendship, which were to be managed by Walter McIness and Robert Starret and which he valued at £9000, the price of enslaved people having increased, he said, since the abolition of the slave-trade. He owned one half of Upper Latante under indentures of 1801 in England, registered in Grenada in 1802, and had cleared all encumbrances other than £7390 8s owned to him, and he left this moiety to his eldest son William Henry Whiteman, then to his son James Edward, then to his youngest son John Claremont, subject to 1/3rd of the annual produce going to his widow and after her death one half of the value of the one moiety being paid to his daughters, of whom he had at that point only one, Eliza. He appears to have sought to place some of the enslaved people in trust separately and have them transferred to the Upper Latante estate as the estate paid the trustees. He made a series of legacies of £300 each to four women of colour in Grenada, identified as his natural daughters: Judith and Catherine Louisa (daughters of Rose Mogailas); Clarissa (daughter of an enslaved woman Magdelonette);and Jane Anne, daughter of the enslaved woman Laurencine. He bequeathed to Clarissa and Jane Anne ownership of their own mothers 'to assist in taking care of [them] and providing for their mutual support.' In a codicil he said that his wife Martha was probably pregnant and that the provisions of his will would be extended to any child born within 8 months of the codicil.

2. John Claremont or Clarmont Whiteman, the second son of Andrew Whiteman of Grenada and brother of William Henry Whiteman of this entry, was a director of the East India Co., and left £90,000 at his death in 1866.

3. James Edward Whiteman, third son of Andrew Whiteman of Grenada, made his will in Batavia (present day Jakarta) in 1825 where he was a merchant, leaving everything to his sife Anna Elizabeth Dekker bar £5000 India guilders silver money to his adoped son James (who had been born in Batavia 24/11/1822). The will also mentioned his mother Mrs Martha Smith, now married to Mr David Gibbs of Newington Place, Lavington.

4. William Henry Whiteman, the eldest son, described himself as the sole owner of a sugar estate called Upper Latante in his will, written in 1838. He bequeathed the estate to his four children with Elizabeth Taylor deceased ("a free mustee woman") - William John, James Henry, Caroline and George Augustus). His will was proved in London in 1852.

5. Upper Latante, "a valuable sugar estate" in St David, of 508 acres, was to be sold at acution 05/05/1869 at Tokenhouse Yark, London, by order of the Court of the Commissioners for the Sale of Incumbered Estates in the West Indies. Also in the sale was a piece of mountain land called Gomier. The estate was at the time in the possession of William Sheaars as receiver.

T71/267 pp. 171-172. See http://lbsatucl.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/the-whitemans-of-grenada-illegitimacy-and-the-ownership-of-family-members/ for more details.

1. PROB 11/1542/86.

2. William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? 1860- (Volumes 3 and 4, manuscripts in preparation), reference 1866/66, Whiteman, John Clar[e]mont (1797-1866), citing Walfords County Families: 'This family were formerly landed proprietors in Grenada.' National Probate Calendar 1866.

3. PROB 11/1731/8.

4. PROB 11/2148/37.

5. Library of Congress advert, https://www.loc.gov/resource/g5131gm.gct00454/?sp=1 [accessed 26/08/2021].