Thomas Daniell

Profile & Legacies Summary

???? - 1806

Biography

Attorney-General of Dominica and slave-owner there, and reportedly owner of The Villa on Antigua. Married first Anne Lindsey and secondly Anne Drosier (1773?-1836), with whom he had a son, Edward Thomas Daniell (1804-1842), who was a clergyman and amateur artist.

Will of Thomas Daniell of Snettisham Norfolk [made in 1805] proved 16/11/1808. He began the will with a homily about the ingratitude of his son Earle in the context of his [the testator's] purchase of estates from William Lindsay or Lindsey (q.v.). He left his estate called Paradise in Dominica (which he said he had purchased from ___ Lee Esq.) to his wife for life with the recommendation that she sold it and used the money to repay a mortgage on the [Roc? Lot?] estate left to her by her uncle. He left a further unnamed estate on Dominica [probably the River] to his son Earle subject to an annuity of £300 p.a. to his [the testator's] widow and £2000 to 'my son' Edward; he also left 100 'negroes' to his wife and then to Edward Thomas [son], and £2000 to John Holmes jun. of Belfast. John Blackburn was one of the executors. The will is silent on The Villa. According to a tablet to his memory in Snettisham church, Thomas Daniell was 53 when he died, though according to the parish register he was 73.
Thomas Daniell's son Edward Thomas Daniell (1804-1842), the inheritor as remainder man of 100 'negroes' under his father's will, has an entry in the ODNB which makes no reference to Edward Thomas Daniell's slave-owning, or to that of his family, though it identifies Thomas Daniell as Attorney-General of Dominica.

Sources

Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua 'Daniel Family', Vol. I pp. 188-189.

PROB 11/1488/113; F.R. Beecheno, E. T. Daniell: A Memoir (privately printed, 1889), p. 5.
Smail, Richard. 2004 "Daniell, Edward Thomas (1804–1842), artist and traveller." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 2 Jul. 2019. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-7123.

We are grateful to Dr Giorgia Bottinelli of the Norfolk Museums Service for her help compiling this entry.

Further Information

Absentee?

Transatlantic

Spouse

(1) Anne Lindsey (2) Anne Drosier

Children

With (1) Earle Lindsey; Anne Lindsey; with (2) Edward Thomas

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

SD - Association Start Date
SY - Association Start Year
EA - Earliest Known Association
ED - Association End Date
EY - Association End Year
LA - Latest Known Association

- 1806 [EY] → Not known

Villa [ Antigua ]

Thomas Daniell was associated by Vere Langford Oliver with The Villa, which was later owned by his son Earle Lindsey Daniell, but Thomas Daniell's will is silent on the estate, identifying only Paradise and another unnamed estate, both on Dominica. The will however does say that he [Thomas Daniell] had purchased the estates of the late John Lindsay [sic] from his son.