John Estridge of Brislington, Somerset

Slave-owner on St Kitts, dying in England c. 1778.

1. Will of John Estridge [late of the island of St Christopher but now of Wick in the parish] of Brislington Somerset [made in 1775] proved 25/10/1778. He left £1000 to his wife Susanna (to be paid out of the estates he left his son John, and not on the property he left to his other sons Benjamin and Aretas) as well as the lease on his house at Wick. He left £10,000 to his dear daughter Mary at 21 or on marriage with the approval of his trustees, £250 each to John and Sarah Steenbergen, the two children of his sister Francis [sic], £1000 each to his nephews James Warner Thomas and Thomas Thomas, £200 each to his 'goddaughter Phipps' and Dr Thomas Patten. He left his St Kitts estates in trust subject to an annuity of £220 p.a. to Mrs Mary Griffith formerly the widow of his uncle William Estridge, to pay his wife £500 p.a., over and above the £500 p.a. already settled on her from his 'Lower or Cappesterre [sic] estate,' and an annuity of £100 p.a. to his sister Frances Steenebrgen as well as smaller annuities to family members of £20 p.a. He elaborated a schedule of portions (e.g. £18,000 for a sole son or £10,000 for a sole daughter) [which seemed redundant given that his children were already born], and left his estate 'adjoining to the church of St John's Capesterre' (on which he instructed his trustees to buy and place 'fifteen more able slaves') to his son Benjamin; he also instructed his trustees to buy 40 more enslaved people for his Bramble or Mountain Plantation, which he left to his son Aretas. He left his Saint George's Hill estate, 'already completely settled' to his son John, together with the land he had recently bought from the co-heiress of John Hutchinson then in possession of John Baker.

2. The will and the St Kitts estates of John Estridge of Brislington became subject to extended litigation. The case of Ex parte Smith in 1834, arising from the bankruptcy of Manning & Anderdon, gives the background, from the 1774 deed of John Estridge of Brislington which mortgaged the estates to secure annuities of £1300 p.a. on them [and the enslaved people on them] onwards. It is clear from the case that the debt on the estates precluded the payment of many of the legacies. The estates were assigned subject to the debts secured on them in 1795 to Dr England, the husband of Mary Estridge, who had become entitled to her legacy of £10,000 under John Estridge's will.

1. PROB 11/1046/270.

2. Deacon and Chitty (eds.), Report of Cases in Bankruptcy Argued and Determined in the Court of Review (1837) Vol. 4, pp. 579-603.