Abraham Alexander Lindo

Abraham Alexander Lindo was born into a mercantile family in Jamaica. He followed his father Alexandre Lindo into commerce when he became a partner in Lindo and Co. after his father departed Jamaica for England. Abraham's commercial interests included direct trade with England as well as trade with the Spanish empire. According to family historian Jackie Ranston, 'by 1800 he headed the firm A. A. Lindo & Brothers, was a partner in Lindo, Lake & Co and had been left heir to his father's large estate.'

The property eventually became so burdened by debt that Abraham was forced to sell and mortgage land and properties. In 1804 Abraham advertised the sale of a number of properties and land around Kingston and Spanish Town. He then sold 72 acres of land from Snow Hill Pen for £1,440. Harmony Hall in Kingston was sold for £3500 and Abraham also rented out property, including to French emigres. In 1805 Abraham broke up Lindo's Town (formerly known as Kingston Pen) into small lots which then formed a mixed working class township. The last of these lots was eventually sold in 1824.

Abraham lived at Greenwich Park, owned a house on Sutton Street and was operating a partnership - Lindo, Henriques & Lindo - that operated two transatlantic ships including an interest in the slave trade. Abraham also owned Pleasant Hill - a coffee plantation. Abraham served in the Jewish regiment of the militia as an ensign.

On 5 February 1812 Abraham married Luna Henriques, the eldest daughter of Abraham David Nunes Henriques. The two families had already been united in marriage by the union of Abraham Alexander's sister Marianne and Luna's brother Abraham. Abraham settled £21,000 on his new wife and children she might have - this fund was for her 'separate use and benefit without the control of Abraham Alexander Lindo.'

In 1815 Abraham's fortunes were affected by hurricane damage - he stated that both the provision grounds and the coffee crop at Pleasant Hill were destroyed. In 1816 Abraham's half-brothers Jacob and Francis wanted their portion of £5000 due to them in their father's will when they came of age. Short of cash funds Francis was instead conveyed 212 acres of land at Ponds Pen in St. Elizabeth by Jacob. Unlike Jacob, Esther Mendes Belisario was unwilling to wait for her portion and she sued her brother for the money. The chancery suit lasted fifteen years.

In 1818 Abraham still owned Greenwich Park, Constant Spring, Temple Hall, Tranquility, Fellowship Hall and King's Weston however he had been forced to mortgage Pleasant Hill to the Hibbert family, the ships had been sold and the partnership had been disbanded. Sugar continued to be produced at Greenwich Park (the first steam powered plantation in Jamaica). In 1821 Abraham sold Greenwich Park by auction and by 1825 he was included in a list of debtors made up under the Insolvent Debtors Act.

In 1833 Esther's portion of her father's estate was finally settled on her children following her own death. To pay for the sum (which then stood at £16,725 18s 7 d the rest of the Jamaica properties were sold. Temple Hall, Constant Spring, Fellowship Hall, Tranquility and Pleasant Hill as well as a house in King Street were auctioned. Simon Taylor purchased the whole lot for a meagre £33,000, with Constant Spring selling for only £8,500.

Abraham and the family had long since left Jamaica for England where he, his wife and nine of their children went to live with his parents at 4 Ely Place, Holborn. In England Abraham became involved in the campaign to reform the navigation laws that governed West India commerce. he corresponded with the President of the Board of Trade and eventually published his work The Injurious Tendency of the modifying of our Navigation Laws.

By 1826 Lindo was living at 39 Mecklenberg Square. A few years later in 1828 he helped to found the Hebrew Review alongside Dr M. J. Raphall. Abraham went on to establish a place of worship in Jersey on Hue Street. He and his family left Jersey in 1835 and settled back in London, this time at 4 Liverpool Street, Finsbury Circus.

In 1841 Abraham and his family returned to Jamaica and rented a house at 24 Heywood Street in Kingston. He got a job as a clerk to the City Council.

In 1845 Abraham left Jamaica for Cincinnati were he pursued further religious activities. In 1848 he published A Retrospect of the Past as Connected with and preparatory to a faithful exposition intended to be given of the Divine Will and Dispensation in the Sacred Books received as authority by the Jews. He also published a series of articles in the Occident on the need to organise Judaism in America. Abraham died in Cincinnati on 8 July 1849 at the age of seventy-three.

Jackie Ranston, The Lindo Legacy (London: Toucan Books, 2000), pp.67-84.