Henry Haffey

Owner of Mount Alexander and Wallalibou estates in St Vincent, which he had sold before the slave compensation process of the 1830s. 'A native of Armagh', died at Bath in his 85th year 19/03/1836.

1. Will of Henry Haffey late of St Vincent but now of Bathwick proved 23/04/1836. He began the will by partially revoking a settlement of £20,000 he had made in 1831, as regards £1000 provided under it for the children of General McNair (made, he said in error) and £100 each for Miss Jane Taylor and her sister Octavia Taylor, which he had already paid. He also noted that he had lent General McNair £500, which was to be deducted from the £1000 provided for General McNair himself under the 1831 deed. He placed in trust his leaseholds in nos. 8 and 10 Old Sydney Place in Bath, to pay the rents to his wife until her death and then to sell the leases. 'And whereas I sometime since sold my plantation, land and premises at Wallilabou St Vincent to Mr Munro who afterwards sold the same to Mr McBarnett and on such sale there is now due to me a balance of £7000 exclusive of interest which Mr McBarnett considers from the subsequent reduction in West India property I ought to reduce', he gave his executors authority to reduce the amount by £1000. He gave Messrs Marryat & Co. 12 months grace to repay whatever was owed by them to him after his death. He left an annuity of £1000 p.a. to his wife, from the settlement and from the interest and dividends on the remainder of his estate. Other beneficiaries of the 1831 settlement included his nieces Elizabeth Bean and Henrietta Hawtrey, and Anne Goodwin. He left half his residuary estate plus £2000 to his niece Elizabeth Bean, and the other half less £2000 to another niece Harriet Hawtrey. In a codicil he said that he had recently invested in Dutch government securities [in search of higher yield] and he authorised his executors [who included Jonathan Morgan of Bath (q.v.)] to hold this asset, while recognising that they might prefer not to.

2. Of his two residuary heirs, Elizabeth Bean had married Willoughby Bean and reportedly died in 1850 (both Willoughby Bean and the couple's son Rev. Willoughby Bean were involved in early settlement in Australia, the former in Sydney and the latter at Gippsland. Victoria); while Harriet Hawtrey had married Rev. Charles Sleech Hawtrey (d. c. 1831) and died in 1865, leaving £600.

3. Henry Haffey of Bath was listed as a subscriber to Charles Shepherd's An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent, published in 1832.

Caribbeana Vol. I p. 230.

1. PROB 11/1860/334.

2. South West Heritage Trust, Somerset Archives, 'Records of the Bean and Harries family of Bath 1799-1895, http://somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk/records/0261 [accessed 11/09/2018]; National Probate Calendar 1865.

3. Charles Shephard, An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent (1832) pp. vii-xii.