Edward Clarke of Trelawny

Owner of Hyde and Swanswick estate in Jamaica. Father of George Hyde Clarke (q.v.) and grandfather of Edward Clarke senior and George Clarke of Hyde and Hyde Hall NY (both of whom q.v.).

1. Edward Clarke was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 3310 acres of land in St James and 666 acres of land in Westmoreland, total 3976 acres.

2. Will of Edward Clarke planter of Trelawny Jamaica [now in the City of London] proved 08/10/1776 by his brother George Clarke [there was a second probate in December 1777] . He left the Swanswick estate and 220 enslaved people, previously in St James but by then in Trelawny, to his son George Hyde Clarke, and his Hyde estate in Trelawny with 350 enslaved people to his grandson Edward Clarke (1770-1826, q.v. under Edward Clarke senior), then a minor, in trust to Edward for life and then to his eldest heirs male.

3. Edward Clarke of Britain, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1779. Slave-ownership at probate: 324 of whom 168 were listed as male and 156 as female. 123 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £24937.38 Jamaican currency of which £18995 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £951.51 currency debts and £0 currency plate.

1. 'A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

2. PROB 11/1024/53.

3. Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.