Joseph Royall

Slave-owner in Jamaica, from an American loyalist family: he died in London c.1814 when Thomas Palmer (q.v.) was among his executors.

1. Will of Joseph Royall of [Great Cumberland Street] St Marylebone Middlesex proved 25/06/1814. Under the will he left monetary legacies to legatees including Elizabeth Royall Hutton (wife of Rev. H. Hutton), Mary Hurst [or Hirst] Congreve and Harriet Lady Palmer, the daughters of Sir William Pepperell [and grand-daughters of Isaac Royall; the three women were also beneficiaries under the will of the Surinam slave-owner Thomas Palmer (q.v.)]. Joseph Royall left his property in Jamaica in trust for the lives of Mrs Catherine Smyth, wife of Francis George Smyth (q.v.). late of Temple Druid in Pembrokeshire and now of Upper Brook Street, the daughter of 'my late valued friend' John Vanheelen, and of Harriet Smyth, her infant daughter and then in turn to Harriet Smyth's children: in the absence of such children, the estate passed to Henry Smyth, Harriet's brother. Administration of the will was granted in 1854 to Dame Harriet Catherine Capel, the Harriet Smyth of the will [she had married Admiral Thomas Bladen Capel, q.v.].

2. Vere Langford Oliver gives a birth date of 13/05/1721 at Dorchester Mass.; he shows no direct connection to the family of Isaac Royall and the Pepperell daughters but clearly he believes (reasonably enough) that there were ties of kinship.

3. Hon. Joseph Royall contributed £40 to the University of Pennsylvania following Dr John Morgan's fundraising tour of the West Indies in 1772-1773.

4. Joseph Royall married the widow of the Hon. Robert Dellap Esquire [Catherine nee Morse] in St Elizabeth in 1768. Listed as Custos in the parish register. He remarried, at Marylebone,17/8/1782, Mary Powell Morant (q.v.); he was then described as of Portman Street.

5. His residence was probably No. 4 on the east side of Great Cumberland Street, the lease of which was advertised for sale by his executors, June 1824 (the property being said to overlook Hyde Park).

1. PROB 11/1558/111.

2. Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. III pp. 56-57 'Pedigree of Royall'.

3. William Smith, Joseph Hopkinson, and Plunket Fleeson Glentworth, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Minute Books, Volume 2, 1768-1779 p. 73, entry for 13/12/1773. Note amounts are in Jamaican currency.

4. Familysearch.org, Jamaica parish registers (unindexed), St Elizabeth, Baptisms, marriages, burials 1705-1820 p. 295; Bath Chronicle 22/08/1782. See transcription of his will by Anne M. Powers, aparcelofribbons.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/.../34-Will-of-Joseph-Royall-1814.pdf [accessed 27/11/2018] which gives the death of his first wife as January 1782 and states that his second marriage "was a disaster and the couple separated almost immediately".

5. Morning Post 27/06/1814.

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