Col. Martin Madan

MP for Wooton Bassett 1747-1752, eldest son of Martin Madan of Nevis (d. 1703) and Penelope Russell, daughter of Col. Sir James Russell of Nevis. The details of his estate ownership are still being untangled, but his father's will left him a plantation called Russell's.

1. Under the will of Martin Madan late of Nevis and now of London, Madan senior left to his eldest son [Col.] Martin Madan, then a minor, 'over and above the plantation called Russells with the negroes thereunto belonging which myself and wife have settled on him by deed lately made in England', a further £2000. He had also settled a further two unnamed estates on Nevis on his second son James Russell Madan (q.v.).

2. Col. Martin Madan married Judith Cowper, the poet: he was the Lysander in her love poem of 1726. Judith Madan, the couple's sons Rev. Martin Madan (q.v.) and Rev. Spencer Madan and the Rev. Spencer Madan's son also named Spencer Madan are all in the ODNB, as 'gentlewoman and poet', 'Church of England clergyman and advocate of polygamy', 'bishop of Peterborough' and 'Church of England clergyman' respectively. None of the entries refers to slave-owning or the Caribbean. The entry on Rev. Martin Madan notes that 'He had been in possession of considerable private means since the death of his father in 1756.' The entry on Judith Madan nee Cowper says that after their marriage 'money was short and her husband was often abroad.'

3. The will of Martin Madan of St George Hanover Square was proved 22/03/1756. in the will he rehearsed his purchase of six annuities yielding £50 p.a. for his younger children, and having 'proffered' his daughter Maria in marriage to William Cowper he redirected her annuity to her sister Penelope. Under his marriage articles, Martin Madan had committed an annuity of £400 p.a. to his wife Judith, secured on his estates in St Christophers and Nevis. He directed that his eldest son [Rev.] Martin Madan should have his income from the estates limited to £200 p.a. until the debts on them were cleared. He left the estates themselves in entail to his son [the Rev.] Martin Madan and his heirs, then to his second son and so on.

R.S. Lea, 'Madan, Martin (1700-1756), of New Bond Street, London' History of Parliament online http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/madan-martin-1700-56 [accessed 01/09/2015]. The entry records that 'Martin Madan’s father, of an old Waterford family, emigrated from Ireland to the West Indies about 1682 and acquired plantations in Nevis and St. Kitts.'

1. Will of Martin Madan of London proved 20/03/1704 [OS; 1703 NS], PROB 11/475/293.

2. Valerie Rumbold, ‘Madan, Judith (1702–1781)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 <a [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/60780, accessed 1 Sept 2015]; Arthur Pollard, ‘Madan, Martin (1725–1790)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17748, accessed 1 Sept 2015]; Falconer Madan, ‘Madan, Spencer (1729–1813)’, rev. William Gibson, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17749, accessed 1 Sept 2015]; Robert Hole, ‘Madan, Spencer (1758–1836)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17750, accessed 2 Sept 2015].

3. PROB 11/821/251.