Nathan Herdman

1. Nathan Herdman was a Kingston merchant and co-partner in the firm ‘Blackley, Boyle & Co,’ Kingston merchants.

2. In c. 1799, Nathan Herdman fathered ‘Elizabeth Herdman, daughter of Eleanor Barrett, a free black woman.’ Elizabeth was baptised in 1812 at Kingston, aged c. 13 years.

3. In 1808, in the case of Herdman v Gentillot, Nathan Herdman, the prior mortgagee, filed for a foreclosure of the mortgage for enslaved people, the property of Jean Desire Gentillot. Gentillot was a French Catholic refugee from Haiti who had captained a militia fighting alongside the British. Gentillot died soon after 1808, but the case dragged on into 1813.

4. In 1813, Herdman was a prisoner in Kingston Gaol for debt, on his own account and on account of the late co-partnership,under the firm ‘Blackley, Boyle & Co.’ He delivered up his book of accounts and a schedule of effects for himself and the co-partnership. In 1796 ,Blackley & Boyle were shippers of a cargo including sugar, rum, cotton, and cocoa on board the brigantine Favorite from Kingston, Jamaica, bound for Dublin.

We are grateful to Steven Carter for his assistance in compiling this entry.

1. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday 18 December 1813, p. 7.

2. FamilySearch, ‘Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880’, Kingston > Baptisms 1793-1825, Vol. 2, image 127, p. 248.

3. First Report of the Commissioners of Enquiry into the Administration of Criminal and Civil Justice: Jamaica, Appendix p, p.332, in Reports from the Commissioners. United Kingdom: Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be Printed, 1827.

4. Rev Jean Vanes Nicolas, What Happened to Haiti and What to Do About It. Dorrance Publishing, 2020, p. 65.

5. Royal Gazette of Jamaica , Saturday 18/12/1813, p. 7. Moodie v. The Brig. Favorite et al. (1796): Decided 02/29/1796.