Charles Hamilton

Apparently a co-owner of the Whim estate on Tobago and an owner of other 'slave-property' in Demerara (including the Nootens Zuyl estate), dying in 1817 and indebted to the Ruckers of London, whose assignees were awarded the compensation for half the Whim estate in the 1830s. Almost certainly related to John Hamilton of Tobago, John Hamilton of Dover, the Rev. James Hamilton and the Rev. John Hamilton (each of whom q.v.), but not present in any family tree yet consulted. Conceivably brother of John Hamilton of Tobago (1744-1800).

1. The will of Charles Hamilton Esq. of Tobago was proved 20/05/1820, having been made in Tobago 20/06/1812 and entered there 27/06/1818. In the will he left his son William Hamilton all his property 'appertaining to sugar and cotton plantations in the Island of Tobago and colony of Demerara', subject to an annuity of £300 p.a. to his wife and £100 p.a each to his daughters Katherine Anne and Mary. In a codicil he referred to his debts and to Mr Brasnell, who acted for Messrs Ruckers; in a third codicil he said that Brasnell could have taken possession of the Whim estate as agent of the Ruckers but had not. In the second codicil, Charles Hamilton said: 'There is a mulatto boy called Henry on Whim estate which I have much indulged @ altho' I do not believe I am his father, I feel by a constant liking I have had for him a strong regard. I therefore entreat my executors to befriend him and recommend him to the Rev. James Hamilton.' [All the codicils were undated]. Two of his executors (Alexander Scott and James Crooks) were on Tobago and two (Henry Fisher Sloane and William Austin) were of Demerary. Scott had left the island of Tobago 'some time ago' by 1818. Henrietta Anne Hamilton of the town and county of Southampton, the widow of Charles Hamilton and guardian of William Hamilton a minor was granted administration 20/05/1820 after (1) she attested that Alexander Scott had died, that Sloane and Austin had renounced executorship and that James Crooks had declined to sign such a renunciation sent from England on the basis that he had already renounced it in Tobago and (2) two 'securities' had come forth for £1600 on her behalf. Further letters of administration were then granted in 1828 to George Lander a creditor.

2. Charles Hamilton of Lower Brook Street widower married Henrietta Anne Macdonnell spinster of New Hall, County of Clare Ireland at Walcot Bath in 1799.

A man of the same name was a partner with John Collins of Berners Street, George Baillie and John Wilson on St Vincent in 1785.

1. PROB 11/1629/293.

2. Ancestry.com Somerset, England, Marriage Registers, Bonds and Allegations, 1754-1914 for Charles Hamilton Marriage Registers Walcot St Swithin 1793-1802 [database onlien] where she is indexed as Harrietta, although the certificate gives her as Henrietta. No will or death-date for her has been found by LBS to date; the woman of the same name shown in the National Probate Calendar 1878 as having died of St Augustine Camden in 1869 cannot be the same woman, as the woman dying in 1869 was shown as having minor children.