Applewhaite Frere

Owner of the Lower estate, and father of John Frere III (q.v) with Frances Payne. Applewhaite Frere had been a founding member of the Barbados Society of Arts. Applewhaite [also given as Applethwaite] Frere of Stamford Brook, son of Hon. John Frere of Barbados Lieut-General and President, died 31/10/1830 aged 78.

1. Will of Applewhaite Frere of Stamford Brook proved 18/11/1830. In the will he left his property including enslaved people in the West Indies and copyhold in Stamford Brook to his son John Frere and his heirs and then to his second son Tobias, to whom he left £25,000. He left £400 and an annuity of £150 p.a to Frances Payne spinster residing with him (as were their sons) at Stamford Brook. The will was made in 1811 when the sons were 'infants', i.e. below the age of a majority, so in a codicil also of 1811 Frere added trustees for the minorities of his sons.

2. There is a monument in the North Isle of Hammersmith Church: 'Applethwaite Frere c1752/3-1830. Near this Place are deposited the Mortal Remains of APPLETHWAITE FRERE Esqr of Stamford Brook in the Adjoining PARISH OF CHISWICK Who died October 31st 1830 Aged 78 (six lines omitted).'

3. 'Adm. Fell.-Com. (age 18) at ST JOHN'S, Mar. 19, 1771. [3rd (sic)] s. of John, Esq., [of Stamford Brook, Chiswick, Middlesex, and the Barbados, and Susanna, dau. of Lieut.-Gen. Thomas Applethwaite. B. 1752, in the Barbados]. School, Eton. Matric. Lent, 1776; M.A. (per Lit. Reg.) 1776. Adm. at Lincoln's Inn, Jan. 14, 1775, as ‘2nd s. of John.’ Member for St George's in the Assembly of Barbados, 1783. Lived latterly at Chiswick, where he died Oct. 31, 1830. M.I. in Hammersmith church. Father of Tobias (1813); apparently brother of Henry (1752). With the exception of these three, who belonged to the Barbados branch of the family, all the Freres in this volume are descended from Sheppard (1732), and thus from John (1662). (Eton Coll. Reg.; G. Mag., 1830, II. 476; St John's Coll. Adm., IV. 263; Frere Pedigree; Caribbeana, III. 41.)'

4. A number of Barbados estates (Thicket, Pot House and Fortescue) owned by earlier members of the Frere family were acquired by foreclosure by the Lascelles family in 1787.

David Lambert, White Creole Culture, Politics and Identity during the Age of Abolition (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 59; Caribbeana Vol. III p. 41. . Applewhaite Frere was the son of Hon. John Frere II and Susannah Applethwhaite, suggesting that he was likely to be the first man to bear this name. However, in 1758 when Applewhaite Frere was a minor, a person of the same name was associated with Frere Pilgrim estate, implying the possibility of an earlier Applewhaite Frere.

1. PROB 11/1777/478.

2. Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana Vol. III, p. 41, (copied 4 Nov 1911); ibid., '1830, Oct.31. At Chiswick, aged 78, Applethwaite Frere, Esq. (“G.M.” 476). He was the youngest son of John Frere of Barbados, Lieut.General and President, by Susannah his wife dau. of Tho. Applethwaite.'

3. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online].

4. Simon D. Smith, Slavery, family and gentry capitalism in the British Atlantic pp. 213-216.

We are grateful to Audrey Dewjee for her help with this entry.