James Moyes or Moise

Previous owner of Hermitage in St Elizabeth, dead before 1804. Uncle of William Maule of Scotland, brother of Janet Maule nee Moyes and Christian Gray nee Moyes.

The connection with William Morrice (q.v.) and John Wemyss (q.v.) suggests this James Moyes was related to the James Moyes died in London c. 1826 and whose will was as follows:

PROB 11/1713/387 - precis.

To my good friend Mr William Morrice of St Axe a mourning ring value twenty guineas as a small token of my gratitude to him for past kindness and particularly for his taking me into his employment almost without any recommendation and when I was near friendless in this City and most of all for the disinterested friendship he has shown me during my illness for which I have only to pray that the blessing of God may descend upon him. And I leave to my friend Mr John Wemyss a mourning ring of the same value as a mark of my esteem for the fatherly conduct he has ever shown towards me since I have been under his protection and the faithfulness with which he has managed my pecuniary affairs. And to my friend Mr Alexander Stock[?] I leave a mourning ring value ten guineas for his brotherly attention to me during my illness the forgoing to be paid from an adventure I have to Buenos Aires conjointly with my friend James Mackintosh the proceeds of which adventure after paying the above bequests I request may be given over to the fund for building the new national Scots Church under the ministry of the Reverend Edward Irving for the success of which undertaking and church I always entertained the most sincere desire. Should however the said balance amount to more than my executors to this dominant deem proper to give for such purpose then I request he may appropriate it to any charitable establishment he thinks advisable not forgetting to let a portion of it go to the new Scots Church as aforesaid. And if my kind employer will see these my wishes carried into execution it will be an additional proof of the numerous instances of friendship he has shown me. I therefore appoint Mr William Morrice my executor to the foregoing document dated in London this 26th day of January 1825. Witnesses Robert Dobie, J. Mackintosh.

Proved at London 23/06/1826 by William Morrice.

T71/1608: letter, dated 28/04/1837, from William Maule Sunnybank, Falkland, Fifeshire, Scotland, stating: 'James Moyes late of (Cornwall) left my mother Janet Moyes or Maule one fifth share of his estate Hermitage and as I am her only son whatever slave money may belong to me I want it to remain where it is as the Settlement made by my mother is very doubtful'; B. W. Higman, Jamaica Surveyed: Plantation Maps and Plans of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Kingston (Jamaica), University of the West Indies Press, 2001) pp. 183-185 shows James Moyes as an absentee owner, dying c. 1802.

We are grateful to Tomas Christie for his assistance with compiling this entry.