Alzire Bell (née Servantes)

1. Named as his natural daughter in the will of Pierre Servant (proved in 1787). Servant owned Bellevue estate on Carriacou which was sold to Dr John Bell in 1787 subject to an annuity for Alzire. In his will proved in 1800, Bell bequeathed to his 'Mallotto Girl Alzee and hir Child Marian' twenty enslaved people and a small plantation adjacent to Bellevue.

2. After the death of John Bell, Alzire began a relationship with William Gordon Bell, an estate manager. They had a daughter born in Carriacou before moving to Scotland where they had four more children. The moved to New Zealand in 1839 where Alzire died in 1854.

3. Three children of William Gordon Bell and Alvise/Alyize Stewart [sic] were baptised in New Abbey, Kirkcudbrightshire: James (1817), Elizabeth (1820) and William Gordon (1820).

4. William Gordon Bell, farmer of Waimea East, Nelson, appears on the New Zealand Jury Lists from 1843. William Gordon Bell, farmer, and William Gordon Bell junior, also a farmer, appear on the Electoral Rolls for Waimea from at least 1853.

5. Alziers Cervantes Bell, born Carriacou, West Indies c. 1776, wife of William Gordon Bell, died 12/12/1851. William Gordon Bell, born Dumfries, Scotland, 29/12/1784, died at Bellview, Nelson, 19/04/1861.

1. Joseph Alan Beatty, '“I bear witness”: An African's Quest for faith and community in the Atlantic World', PhD thesis, University of Florida (2014) p. 87.

2. Email from Jo Broad 16/01/2020.

3. GROS OPR Baptisms 877 10 261; 877 10 262; 877 20 6.

4. Ancestry.com, New Zealand, Jury Lists, 1842-1862 [database online]; Ancestry.com, New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-1981 [database online].

5. Findagrave.com memorial ID 105330048.

We are grateful to Jo Broad for her assistance with compiling this entry.