John Shickle

Slave-owner in Jamaica, Custos of Clarendon and Vere having reportedly arrived in Jamaica as an apprentice to Fearon, Dawkins and Malcolm.

1. According to Vere Langford Oliver, John Shickle was owner of, inter alia, Danks or New Savoy sugar estate and Shickles Pastures (and possibly Chapmans Hall) in Clarendon, and Monnsons in Vere. The executors to his will were his sons-in-law Thomas Goldwin (q.v.) and William Coppell. He settled £500 upon his daughter Elizabeth when she married Thomas Goldwin in 1777. His will gives his two daughters and son as the children of Elizabeth Montin or Elizabeth Montin Israel [Anne M. Powers shows her as Elizabeth Martin Israel].

2. There are two separate entries for John Shickle in the 1754 Jamaican Quit Rent books, but the entries are identical except for the acreage given for Clarendon, suggesting they refer to the same person. John Shickle was shown as (1) the owner of 160 acres of land in St Mary, 1848 acres in Clarendon and 270 acres in Vere, total 2278 acres, and (2) the owner of 160 acres of land in St Mary, 2748 acres in Clarendon and 270 acres in Vere, total 3178 acres.

3. John Shickle of Clarendon, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1783. Slave-ownership at probate: 520 of whom 265 were listed as male and 255 as female. 0 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £55,672.07 Jamaican currency of which £36,340 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £379.81 currency cash, £4262.19 currency debts and £93.50 currency plate.

4. John Shickle acted as Attorney for Henry Dawkins II (1728-1814) [q.v.] between 1765 and 1779.

Anne M. Powers, A Parcel of Ribbons p. 173.

1. Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919) Vol. 2 p. 144; Anne M. Powers, A Parcel of Ribbons p. 173.

2. 'A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

3. Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.

4. James Dawkins, 'The Dawkins Family in Jamaica and England, 1664-1833' (unpub. PhD, UCL, 2017), pp. 60-61; for Shickle as manager, Caitlin Rosenthal, Accounting for Slavery. Masters and Management (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 2018), pp. 17-27.