Bryan Edwards the elder

Historian of Jamaica, son of Bryan Edwards of Westbury and Elizabeth Bayly (the sister of Zachary Bayly and Nathaniel Bayly (each of whom q.v.), and father of Zachary Hume Edwards (q.v.).

1. MP for Grampound 1796-1800. In Jamaica 1760-c. 1780 and 1787-1792. Succeeded to 6 estates in Jamaica in 1769. Partner in Simpson and Maddison banking firm in Southampton. He was also partner in a mercantile firm in Mark Lane London which traded as Edwards, Cuthbert, Simpson and Wilder.

2. Hon. Bryan Edwards contributed £70 to the University of Pennsylvania following Dr John Morgan's fundraising tour of the West Indies in 1772-1773.

3. Bryan Edwards left over 600 enslaved people and personalty of £73,328 in Jamaica, according to his probate inventory.

4. Edwards has an entry in the ODNB as 'planter and politician', which says: 'He was a man of the enlightenment who looked to plantation slavery as the basis of his livelihood. He spoke and wrote from a colonial point of view and realized that Jamaica's survival as a sugar colony depended on the successful defence of the slave trade. Yet it must be said that he possessed great independence of mind and was not the mere mouthpiece of his interest group. He moved from the colonial assembly to a position of some power in parliament and played an important role in the slavery controversy.' It also says: 'Edwards was a zealous defender of the Creole planters against Wilberforce's attacks on the slave trade and slavery' but omits the comment from Wilberforce included in the original DNB entry that Edwards was ‘a powerful opponent of slave trade abolition.’

1. History of Parliament online: R.G. Thorne, 'Edwards, Bryan (1743-1800) of The Polygon, Southampton' London Gazette 13582 15/10/1793 p. 918 shows Bryan Edwards becoming a partner with Samuel Harrison, John Simpson and Martin Maddison in a banking firm of which he was the first-named partner, although Simpson and Maddison had previously been in partnership in the Southampton Bank, which is also the heading of the entry concerning the formation of the new firm involving Bryan Edwards; London Gazette 15470 10/04/1802 p. 377.

2. C. S. Graubard, 'Documenting the University of Pennsylvania's Connection to Slavery (2018) via archives.upenn.edu [accessed 16/01/2019].

3. Christer Petley (2014) 'Plantations and Homes: The Material Culture of the Early Nineteenth-Century Jamaican Elite', Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, 35:3, 437-457 at p. 440.

4. Richard B. Sheridan, ‘Edwards, Bryan (1743–1800)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8531, accessed 27 Aug 2017].

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with compiling this entry.