Christopher Baldwin

West India merchant and slave-owner in Antigua and Dominica, born in Antigua c. 1720, moving to England sometime before 1751 and settling at Clapham Common West Side, where he built c. 1762 the house that became The Grange.

1. Will of Christopher Baldwin [formerly of the City of London and now] of Bentley Green, near Farnham Surrey proved 29/01/1806. Under the will he left all his Plantations, estates, lands, tenements, slaves' and other real estate in Antigua and Dominica together with moneys owed to him on mortgage, to his wife Jane Baldwin on trust: she, having reserved and retained an annuity of £500 p.a. for herself, was instructed to pay from the annual income of the properties two annuities, of £200 p.a. each, to her sister Mrs Mary Watkins and to Mrs Martha Drinkwater, former wife of his son Christopher deceased and then wife of Richard Drinkwater, apothecary and surgeon of Farnham. In a codicil, he left his wife the money owed to him by John Dunbar of Antigua. It is not clear what was intended to happen to the estates in trust after the death of his wife or indeed of the other annuitants, but the Dunbar's estate at least came back into the possession of the Dunbar family.

2. The will of Jane Baldwin widow of Bentley Green near Farnham Surrey was proved 16/02/1810. In the will she left her property to her sister Mary Watkins subject to a legacy of £4000 to Martha Drinkwater on which the interest was to be paid to Mary Watkins for her life and then the principal was to pass to Martha Drinkwater, and a further legacy of £4000 to be paid to Martha Drinkwater in lieu of the annuity of £200 p.a. to her under the will of Christopher Baldwin. There is no mention of real estate in Antigua.

3. Christopher Baldwin was assigned the Cades Bay or Road and the Morris plantation in 1777 by John Brooke to secure Baldwin's loans of £881 2s 7d to John Brooke and his son-in-law Baptist Looby.

4. Christopher Baldwin appears as one of the second-wave purchasers of land on Dominica, 'present possessor' c. 1773 of Lots Nos. 54, 56-58 and 62 totalling 410 acres.

'Mr Christopher Baldwin', Clapham Antiquarian Society An Occasional sheet issued for private Circulation to members No. 232. May 1967.

1. PROB 11/1436/212.

2. PROB 11/1508/290.

3. Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. II pp. 193-194.

4. John Byres, References to a plan of the island of Dominica as surveyed from the year 1765 and 1773 (London, 1777).

We are grateful for the help of Sean Creighton with this entry.