James Edward Colleton

MP and absentee slave-owner on Barbados.

1. MP for Lostwithiel (1747-1768) and St Mawes (1772-1775). Born c. 1709 in Barbados, the first son of John Colleton of Barbados and Haines Hill and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Edward Ernle, MP, and widow of Thomas Drax. Colleton was half-brother of Henry Drax. Married (1) In 1731, Lady Anne Cowper in 1731, the daughter of William, 1st Earl Cowper. She died 26 March 1750; (2) 30 March 1754, Frances, daughter of Philip Jennings, MP, 30 March 1754. There were no children from either marriage. After his death, Haines Hill and the Barbados plantations 'passed to the son of his cousin Charles Garth.'

2. In a List of inhabitants of St Peter, Barbados, 1780, Colleton was listed as owning 82 enslaved. It is possible that this was the same person as listed for St John, Barbados, 1774 where the name is given as "James Edward Colletons Cliff Plantation" and where the number of enslaved owned was 205.

3. Will of James Edward Colleton of Haines Hill proved 07/09/1790. The will is simple and passed everything in England and Barbados to his widow Frances.

1. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/colleton-james-edward-1709-90 [accessed 02/08/2021]. In fact, the succession of the estates to the Garth family was established by the will of Frances Colleton, the widow of James Edward Colleton.

2. Barbados Department of Archives, RB9/3/6; for St John: Barbados Department of Archives, RB9/3/5. Return of persons in Saint John 1774. Note that the original list is partly torn: not all the numbers are visible and much of the handwriting is illegible or smudged.

3. PROB 11/1195/205.