Johann Caspar or Casper Weise

In the will of Philippina Mais (q.v.) proved in 1836, she identified her father as Johann Casper Weise. Philippina Mais in her will also identified her son as John Caspar Mais and her deceased husband as John Mais. If the birth-date of John Caspar Mais of 1800 is correct, then her husband was presumably the John Mais who died in Bristol in 1819. In his will, John Caspar Mais refers to Hon. John Mais as his uncle, suggesting that the John Mais who died in Bristol in 1819 was an illegitimate son of John Mais senior (who died in 1798). John Caspar Mais and Hon. John Mais had both been executors of the will of John Caspar's father. (See the entry for Hon. John Mais for further details). LBS is still piecing together the family connections. Online genealogical material appears unreliable.

1. According to Michelle Craig McDonald, 'Weise, the mulatto son of John Weise and Elizabeth Hyne, had been born in Kingston. Little is known about his early life, although his sister, also named Elizabeth, married John Mais in 1800, and both appear in the city’s registers as “people of colour.” Mais also served as Weise’s executor nine years later when the latter passed away leaving a coffee estate valued in at £6,978.39 At first glance, Weise seems to have been at least as successful as Manning [Dorothy Manning, a woman of colour earlier discussed by McDonald]; indeed, his property was worth almost a £1,000 more than hers and his enslaved labor force nearly triple that of her estate--ninety-three enslaved people compared to her thirty-five. But more than a third of Weise’s slaves were worth between £10 and £20 each, suggesting more elderly people or children than was typical, often the sign of an estate in decline. The truth, however, was that Weise had begun investing elsewhere and on a much grander scale. While Manning expanded into livestock and small-scale lending, Weise—a free colored planter—was among the few coffee farmers who also invested in sugar, and that estate was worth £10,099 when he died. Weise was still firmly among Jamaica’s middling planters, but with combined properties worth £17,077 he was far from its bottom rungs.'

2. Elizabeth Hynes Weise, "a mulatto woman" age 35 years, baptised in Kingston, 03/02/1798; her children by Johan Caspar Weise (Johan Casper, age five, Justina age four, Eleanor age two) were baptised on the same day. Elizabeth Philippina, daughter of Elizabeth Hynes, was baptised at Kingston 10/06/1798 aged 13 years.

3. John Caspar Weise was father by Ann Hindes, a mulatto, of a daughter, Mary Ann, born 21/06/1799 and baptised in Kingston 31/08/1799, and “J. C. Weise” had daughters, Rebecca (aged three) and Mary (born 04/03/1799), baptised there on 29/08/1799, their mother Cicely Needham, a black woman, aged 24, being baptised at the same time.

http://records.ancestry.com/elizabeth_hynes_records.ashx?pid=95512006

1. Michelle Craig McDonald, 'Sea Change: Coffee and "Plantations for the Poorer Sort"', available online: http://www.librarycompany.org/economics/2014Conference/papers/PEAES%20--%202014%20Conf%20--%20McDonald%20ppr.pdf. It appears that the 'sister' referred to here might have been Elizabeth Philippina; it is possible that this passage conflates two Johann or John Casper Weises, presumably father and son.

2. Familysearch.org, Jamaican Parish Registers, Kingston Baptisms 1793-1825, pp. 12, 64.

3. Ibid. p. 81.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings for his assistance with compiling this entry.