Thomas Pepper Thompson

Slave-owner in Jamaica, on the island in the later decades of the 18th but returning to Britain before his death in 1823. Baptised at Lancaster 21/12/1738, son of James Thompson.

1. Owner of 50 enslaved people and 300 stock in St Ann, Jamaica, in 1792.

2. Will of Thomas Pepper Thompson gentleman of Liverpool proved 31/12/1823. In the will he instructed his executors to invest £40,000 in landed security or in the funds for the benefit of Thomas James Thompson son of Mary Edwards of Rio Bueno in Trelawny and the reputed son of James Thompson some time since of Liverpool but lately of Maria Bueno estate in Jamaica deceased who was 'my reputed son.' If Thomas James Thompson chose to take holy orders, £10,000 of the £40,000 was permissible to spend on a living for him. He further left £10,000 in trust for each of Amelia Thompson and Dorothy Elizabeth Thompson, daughters of Mary Edwards and James Thompson, for their lives. If all three died before 21, the money was to pass to Thompson's friend John Simpson of Fair Lawn in Kent. He left his partner Adam Cliff (q.v.) £300 and Mary Edwards 'now residing with me' an annuity of £100 p.a. He left in trust his extensive real estate in the UK, including an estate in Lancashire called Humphrey Head and Roughholme, an estate called Southmire [?] near Kirkby Lonsdale and his house in St Ann Street Liverpool, for Thomas James Thompson on his majority. He mandated that the produce of his Jamaica estates be consigned for seven years to Adam Cliff notwithstanding that the latter was an executor and trustee. He left an annuity of £3000 p.a. to his wife Amelia for life, or until the amount he was owed by John Simpson of Fair Lawn increased to extinguish a previous charge on the Simpson's estates and his [Thompson's] trustees took control of those estates [this subordination is not clear]. He left the produce of his Jamaica estates subject to the annuity to Mary Edwards and the £60,000 to his grandchildren to his wife Amelia and then to John Simpson. In a codicil of 1820 he recorded his purchase of the Wyke estate in Lancashire.

3. Thomas Pepper Thompson was buried 05/01/1821 in St Anne's Liverpool age 83. His wife Amelia died in 1822 at her residence at St Ann Street, Liverpool, age 89. Thomas P. Thompson appears as a merchant in St Ann Street, Liverpool, in 1811.

Ancestry.com, England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975 [database online]

1. 'A List of slaves and stock in the parish of St Ann taken the 28th March 1792 pursuant to order of the Honourable House of Assembly... transcribed from papers presented to the British Museum by Charles E. Long ref. Add. 12435' transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/mstann1792.htm.

2. PROB 11/1679/272.

3. Familysearch.org batch no. B01554-5; The Lancaster Gazette and General Advertiser 06/04/1822; Issue 1086; Ancestry.com, UK, City and County Directories, 1766 - 1946 [database online].