Lowbridge Bright

Bristol West India merchant, partner with his cousin Richard Bright (q.v.). Left £100,000 within province on his death [probate granted 1818].

1. Will of Lowbridge Bright of Bristol proved 06/10/1818. In the will he carved out his interests in Jamaica, including mortgages he held there with his cousin Richard Bright, and left them in trust to Richard Bright to support legacies of £5000 each to his nephews John Lowbridge Baker (on condition John Lowbridge Baker received his Certificate of Conformity in his - Baker's - bankruptcy proceedings), Bladen Baker and Robert Baker, with remainder from these assets to Robert Bright, son of Lowbridge Bright's cousin Richard Bright. He stressed the difficulty of realising these mortgages and provided that if there was a shortfall in funding the legacies of £5000 each, it shoud be borne by the nephews not by the rest of his estate.

2. In 1775, Lowbridge Bright was party to deeds of lease and release dated 29 and 30/08/1775 whereby he, Evan Baillie and Richard Bright secured £3000 advanced by Evan Baillie on behalf of the three partners to Duncan Campbell of St Vincent on an estate of 105 acres named in the deed as Michels together with a list of named enslaved people attached to the estate.

1. PROB 11/1609/59.

2. Deed Book 1770-1776, British Library, EAP688/1/1/25, https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP688-1-1-25 pp. 282-290.

The extensive archives of the Bright family are held at the University of Melbourne Archives, see http://theconversation.com/a-fortune-built-on-slavery-the-bright-family-papers-and-their-journey-from-uk-to-melbourne-58423 [accessed 24/01/2019].

We are grateful to CJ Coventry for his assistance with compiling this entry.