Samuel Barnett of Redland

Reportedly a descendant of the Drax family, and owner of Drax Hall in St Ann, Jamaica (sold to William Beckford in 1762) and of Catherine Mount and Catherine Hall. Drax Hall in 1752 was registered to the estate of William Barnett deceased, possibly the husband of Martha Barnett who died at Drax Hall in 1753. Catherine Mount and Catherine Hall appear to have belonged previously to Jonathan Barnett (q.v.).

1. Samuel Barnett was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 2580 acres of land in St James.

2. Will of Samuel Barnett [late of the parish of St James in the island of Jamaica but now] of Redland [near the City of Bristol] Gloucestershire [made 16/07/1762] was proved 24/02/1763. At the time he made the will he still owned Drax Hall along with Catherine Mount and Catherine Hall. He said he had previously committed to transfer Catherine Mount debt-free with at least 60 'able-bodied working slaves' enslaved people, 24 working mules, 24 working steers, one bull and 6 cows, to his eldest son William Barnett within 8 years [i.e. 1768], until when William would be paid an annuity of £500 p.a. He placed the estate in trust and instructed that excess enslaved people on Catherine Mount should be moved to Catherine Hall. He left Catherine Hall and Drax Hall in trust to his son Jonathan Beckford Barnett and his heirs, failing whom it was to pass to his daughter Frances Shettlewood Woollery, the wife of Edward Woollery, and his three unmarried daughters Jane, Martha and Mary Ann Barnett as tenants-in-common.

Douglas V. Armstrong, The Old Village and the Great House: An Archaeological and Historical Examination of Drax Hall Plantation, St Ann's Bay, Jamaica (Chicago, Illinois, 1990) p. 26.

1. 'A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

2. PROB 11/883/533.