John Conyers II of Copped Hall Essex

Slave-owner on St Kitts, who sold the Conyers estate and the enslaved people upon it to David Evans (q.v.) in 1816. He had married Catherine Juliana Mathew [sometimes given as Juliana Catherine Mathew], the daughter of William Mathew of Baddow and Antigua [d. c. 1763] in 1773. The estate on St Kitts [unnamed in the source] and another on Antigua called Drewshill had passed from Ann, daughter of Col. Thomas Hill, to the Mathew family through her marriage to William Mathew [d. 1752], the grandfather of William Mathew of Baddow.

1. Will of John Conyers of Copped Hall Essex [made in 1813] proved 27/05/1818. He left his property in trust for his son Henry John Conyers subject to an annuity of £400 p.a. on the joint lives of his daughter the Hon. Julia Bennett widow and Charles [4th] Earl of Tankerville.

2. John Conyers' heir Henry John Conyers (1782-1853) reportedly spent over £100,000 on hunting. His daughter Julia married Hon. Anthony John Ashley-Cooper son of the 6th Earl of Shaftesbury and MP for Gatton 1831-32.

3. Correspondence between John Conyers Esquire of Copped Hall and others (including Charles Caines, Stedman Rawlins, Henry Rawlins and James Gordon, all q.v.) is held at the Essex Archives, mostly letters dating 1782-4 and including detailed lists of enslaved people made in 1773, 1779 and 1782.

Seax Catalogue D/DB B12 http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/Result_Details.aspx?DocID=320600 and Seax Catalogue D/DW T4 http://seax.essexcc.gov.uk/Result_Details.aspx?GDH=1&DocID=202075&Reference=D/DW/T4 [both accessed 01/02/2016]; Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. II p. 252.

1. PROB 11/1604/414.

2. West Essex Archaeological Society, The Conyers Family of Walthamstow and Copped Hall http://www.weag.org.uk/CoppedHallConyersLinkFinal3.pdf [accessed 03/10/2018].

3. Essex Archives, Reference: D/DB B8, see https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/Result_Details.aspx?DocID=320597 [accessed 29/07/2020].

We are grateful to Norah Carlin for her assistance with compiling this entry.