Gilbert William Senior

Gilbert William Senior (c.1780-1841), resident slave-owner in Jamaica.

1. Gilbert William Senior, son of Gilbert Senior and his wife Mary, was baptised 02/01/1783.

2. Colonel G. W. Senior of the St Ann’s regiment wrote unsuccessfully to Governor Sligo complaining about his recently being deprived of his command. The 1834 date and the St Ann’s location suggest this might have been in consequence of the previous Governor Lord Mulgrave’s crack-down on the Colonial Church Union that had been violently intimidating the Baptist missionaries and the enslaved population after the so-called Baptist War of 1831-32.

3. G. W. Senior and his sister of Penhurst were repeatedly cited for inflicting cruelties by James Williams, former enslaved person and now ‘apprentice’ (during the 1834-1838 ‘transition’ to freedom). The Narrative of James Williams helped rouse public opinion against the apprenticeship system. James Williams complained that apprentices "get a great deal more punishment now than they did when they was slaves; the master take spite, and do all he can to hurt them before the free come."

4. Gilbert William Senior, Planter, had been residing at Tripoli, St Ann, when he died aged 61 years. He was buried there 27/06/1841.

We are grateful to Steven Carter for his assistance in compiling this entry.

1. Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, FamilySearch, St Ann; Baptisms, marriages, burials 1768-1839, Vol. 1, image 16/233, p. 31.

2. Madden, Richard Robert. A Twelvemonth's Residence in the West Indies: During the Transition from Slavery to Apprenticeship; with Incidental Notice of the State of Society, Prospects, and Natural Resources of Jamaica and Other Islands, Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 1835, p. 303.

3. Williams, James. A Narrative of Events, Since the First of August, 1834, by James Williams, an Apprenticed Labourer in Jamaica, Duke University Press, 2001, p. 3.

4. Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880, FamilySearch, St Ann Burials 1841-1849, Vol. 3, image 5/214, p. 2.