John Blacket or Blackett

'John Blacket' was shown in an unknown capacity with John Mann against the Grand Ance estate in Grenada and again with John Mann as the owners of the enslaved people upon Belvedere in Grenada, both in 1817. It seems highly likely that this was John Blackett merchant of London, who was instrumental in the transportation of convicts to Australia: his first contract in 1819 was for the convict ship named Grenada, and in 1809 he is known to have sent a vessel to Grenada. The wills of both John Blackett and his son of the same name were proved in 1832.

1. John Blackett and John Mann were among ten defendants in a suit brought by Lucy Campbell in 1807, ‘Bill and Complaint of Lucy Campbell', C 13/2108/27, TNA; they were characterised by Nicholas Crawford as creditors of her husband James Campbell of Invera and Argyle estate on Tobago. John Blackett was also a party with Lucy Campbell and others to the sale of Tivoli, St John and Rose Hill plantations in Grenada to Samuel Marryat in 1821.

2. In 1812 John Blackett and John Mann were parties to a conveyance by Henry Page of slave-property in Grenada, St Vincent, Antigua and Trinidad.

Shelton's Accounts No. 85 AO3/291, via Dan Byrnes' Merchant Networks site http://www.merchantnetworks.com.au/timelines/pathways2.htm [accessed 14/05/2018]; London Gazette 20447 25 February 1845 p. 613. Will of John Blackett of Poplar proved 28/01/1832 PROB 11/1794/74; will of John Blackett ship broker of Stamford Hill proved 13/09/1832 PROB 11/1805/70.

1. Nicholas Crawford (2016) ‘In the wreck of a master's fortune’: slave provisioning and planter debt in the British Caribbean, Slavery & Abolition, 37:2, 353-374, DOI: 10.1080/0144039X.2015.1117252, fn. 43; http://beinecke.hamilton.edu/islandora/object/hamBeiMss%3A21283#page/1/mode/1up [accessed 14/05/2018].

2. '4.65 Co[n]veyance London & West Indies '1812, 29 May. Henry Page of London (1), John Blackett & John Mann Lond (2) all freehold messuages in Britain & all estates, slaves etc in the Islands of St Vincent, Antigua, Grenada & Trinidad', http://www.ihgs.ac.uk/_resources/_library/full-catalogue.html [accessed 14/05/2018].