Bertie Bertie Greatheed

Profile & Legacies Summary

1759 - 1826

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Son of Samuel Greatheed MP of Guy's Cliffe (q.v.) and father of Bertie Greatheed (q.v.) who predeceased him. He has an entry as Bertie Greatheed in the ODNB as 'poet and playwright.' The award for St Kitts to the trustees of 'Bertie Bertie Greatheed' appears to refer to this man, the father (who used the name Bertie Bertie Greatheed in his will proved in 1826, of which the trustees included the awardees of the St Kitts claim), rather than the son, although the Yale papers gives the son as 'Bertie Bertie Greatheed' and the father simply as Bertie.

'Guy’s Cliffe in Warwickshire had been leased in 1743 and purchased in 1750 by Bertie Greatheed’s father, Samuel, a member of a wealthy slave-owning family, who owned the Conaree or Canaries sugar plantation in Basseterre St Peter, St Kitts (1). Samuel was elected MP for Coventry in 1747, the same year that he married Lady Mary Bertie, the daughter of the second Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven (2). Bertie inherited the estate as a minor, his father having died in 1765 and his mother in 1774, gaining his majority in 1780.'
'Although he received rents from his holdings in and around Guy’s Cliffe, Greatheed’s main source of income was the West Indian plantation. Samuel had profited directly from the sales of sugar and rum and, under the terms of his father's will, the plantation was managed by his uncle Craister. However, by 1807 it was being leased out, with Shipley, Williams and Co. of Liverpool acting as brokers for the payment of rent. The decision to give up direct management was possibly a consequence of the disruption to trade caused by the Napoleonic Wars, but this arrangement was more conducive to Bertie. He deplored slavery, supported the bill to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire and detested his own plantation. Nevertheless, he continued to own enslaved people.'
Will of Bertie Bertie Greatheed of Guy's Cliff Warwickshire proved 01/01/1826.

Sources

Corinna Russell, ‘Greatheed, Bertie (1759–1826)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/11364, accessed 21 Sept 2015]

Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919) vol. V pp. 49-52; Eveline Cruickshanks, entry in History of Parliament online [accessed 24/06/2019].
Items 1. and 2. are written in a fully sourced email 29/05/2019 from Jane Croom sourced to: Will of Samuel Greatheed, 11/917/15; Shipley, Williams and Co. as brokers, Warwickshire County Record Office (WCRO), CR1707/117 (21/1/1807, 19/6/1807, 21/6/1807); attitude of Greatheed towards his Jamaica property, WCRO, CR1707/117 (19/6/1807, 08/02/1807, 24/02/1807, 19/06/1807), 121 (0/07/1814).
PROB 11/1710/1.

We are grateful to Jane Croom for her assistance with compiling this entry.

Further Information

Absentee?

British/Irish

Spouse

Married but no further details

Children

Bertie (d. 1804)

Will

Bertie Bertie Greathead (son of Samuel & Mary), d.1826 File 1, p.1 – of Guy’s Cliffe, Warwick - WIFE – I give and bequeath to wife Ann Bertie Greathead £20,000 for her absolute use and benefit. o All household goods, furniture, towels, plate, trinkets, [watches??], linen, articles of personal use or ornamental, books, pictures, prints, horses, carriages, wine, liquors and all my live and dead stock and all money and other effects in and about my mansion house at Guys Cliff.

Trust – I give and devise all my capital, [mortgages??] at Guys Cliff aforesaid and all my freehold estates at or near Guys Cliff and at Leamington or otherwise in the county of Warwick and also all the freehold, land, tenements and hereditaments or parts or shares of lands, tenements, hereditaments…in the county of Lincoln to which I became entitled upon the death of the Hon. Charles Brownlow Colyear under the will of my late uncle Brownlow, Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven.

St Kitts Plantations - Also all the plantations, lands, tenements, negroes, slaves, live and dead stock and other property in the island of St Christopher of or to which I am seized or entitled for an estate of freehold or inheritance or of freehold only and which are not hereinafter or otherwise disposed of with their respective rights, members and appurtenances and also all other the money, mortgages, lands, tenements, hereditaments whatever and whatsoever of or to which I am seized for an estate of freehold…

Trustees – to which I am authorized to dispose by virtue of any special power unto and to the use of my said wife Ann Bertie Greathead and my friends Samuel Peploe of Garstone in the county of Hereford, Samuel Turner late of Nottingham Place but now of Grafton Street Middlesex & Rev Henry Williams late fellow of Merton College Oxford their heirs, assigns upon trust…
Trust to be managed for wife during her natural life – after her death beneficiary will be Ann Caroline Perry [granddaughter], wife of Hon. Charles Perry to receive rents, issues and profits of the said manor…
Trust will not be liable to debts of said or any future husband – after death of Ann, Charles becomes beneficiary of trust.

p.2 – Unless Ann changes that trust it passes to eldest and then every other son in order of seniority - Daughters in order of seniority o Future sons of any marriages made by Charles Perry  Rev William Greathead of Nottingham Street, Middlesex • John Greathead son of Samuel Greathead to the use of plantations, slaves, negroes, live and dead stock on island of St Kitts – then to Samuel Greathead of Landford Lodge Southampton • All lands in Lincolnshire to Brownlow Bertie Mathews of [?? ?? ??] Southampton • Guys Cliff and estates in Warwick to Henry Williams – after death to his sons. p.3 – Conditions of trust & lease and whether Ann should be allowed to make the estate over to Charles. - Estates in St Kitts can be leased indefinitely; slaves and stock are given to wife and placed in control of trustees. Freehold of plantation cannot be transferred.

File 2, p.1 - Setting up trust and possibility of purchasing new land and yet unborn children being entitled to income of the estate. p.2 – Trustees given £300 each; written 30/3/1822 Codicil 1 – 30/3/1822 - Charles Perry [=Percy] should take on the surname Bertie Perry [Percy] and use Greathead coat of arms. If he dies and Ann remarries any new husband must also take on name and crest (providing they are not already ennobled] Codicil 2 – 20/4/1822 - Leaves several yearly annuities: Richard Wilson Greathead £200; Elizabeth Greathead £300; Mary Greathead £100; Grace Paterson £100; Elizabeth Symonds £50; William Squires of Milverton £50 o To be payable after death of wife Ann Bertie Greathead - Legacies: Rev John Henry Williams £300; Rev Henry Williams of Maldon £2500; Grace Williams £200; Elizabeth Turner £200; Ann Turner £200; Henrietta Turner £200; to other unmarried daughters of Ann Turner widow of Samuel Turner £50 each; Rev George Innes of Warwick £200; Edward Lake son of Sir James Lake £100; Charles Turner Jnr of Liverpool £100; Maria Johnson & Georgina Johnson £200 each – above named sisters of Woodly in County of Hampshire; John Parkes of Warwick £50; John [Tounds??] £50 p.4 – Codicil 3 – any new land purchased in Warwick and Lincoln is added to the trust.

Oxford DNB Entry

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Associated Claims (1)

Associated Estates (1)

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