John Tyson

John Tyson was shown as registering a group of 34 enslaved people on an unnamed estate on St Kitts for Elizabeth Frances Tyson in 1825 and as having transferred a further 6 enslaved people to her on the same estate by 1828. He was also shown as the origin of 103 enslaved people on Wingfield Manor in 1825, who were presumably among the enslaved people he had registered on an unnamed estate - possibly Wingfield Manor itself - in 1817 and 1822. A John Tyson was the Speaker of the House of Assembly in 1778.

1. A John Tyson matriculated at Eton College in 1802. This is likely the same John Tyson, listed as "son of a West Indian" in the school's records.

2. John Tyson, either this man or if not presumably a close relative, was an Assistant Judge on St Kitts dismissed by 'Governor Burt' [William Mathew Burt, d. 1781, q.v.], who accused Tyson of pro-American sentiment in the early years of the American War of Independence. O'Shaughnessy locates this conflict in local rivalries and litigation rather than in genuinely rebellious or treasonous speech or actions by John Tyson.

3. Elizabeth Tyson, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Frances Tyson, was baptised at Trinity Palmetto Point in 1814. An Elizabeth Tyson born St Kitts aged 40 appears in the 1851 census as 'cook' in a household in Newgate Street in London: if this is the same woman the decline in the family fortunes was marked.

4. A Mr J Tyson merchant at St Kitts died reportedly aged 35 in 1801. If the age at death was correct, this could not have been the John Tyson dismissed by Burt at some point between 1776 and 1781.

We are grateful to Sol Gamsu for his assistance in compiling this entry.

1. H.E.C. Staylton The Eton School Lists from 1791 to 1877 (1864).

2. Andrew O'Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided p. 182.

3. Caribbeana Vol. 6 p. 57; 1851 census online.

4. Monthly Magazine Vol. 12 (1801) p. 368.