James George Piguenit

Slave-owner on St Kitts. With James Royer Smith (q.v.) James George Piguenit was shown in the key to William McMahon's 1828 as proprietor not only of Deep Bay but of Geralds (73 acres), Mercers (uncultivated) and Gibbons (164 acres), all in St John Capesterre. These other estates are probably subsumed in the reporting for Dieppe Bay in the Slave Registers and compensation records.

1. In 1828, attorney James George Piguenit was assigned the defence of Lazaro Buysan, Captain of the schooner Las Damas Argentinas, in a trial for piracy on the high seas after the ship attacked the Carraboo, an English brig, close to the Canary Islands. The international ramifications of the trial laid the groundwork for important maritime law.

2. James George Piguenit married Mary Anne Tyson in 1829 in Boxwell With Leighterton, Gloucestershire, England. They were of 13 Upper Gloucester Place, Marylebone, when their son James George Burt Piguenit was baptised in 1839. They were living at Upper Baker Street in the census of 1841: James George, age 38, of indpendent means, Mary age 30, Sophia age 10, Frances age 4, James age 2 and Caroline age 8 months, along with another child Frederick Neale, age 8, a cook and two female servants.

3. Will of James George Piguenit barrister at law of St Chrisopher proved 14/05/1850. Wife Mary Anne Piguenit to be sole executrix. All my estate real and personal to her for life and thereafter to each of my children with her in the proportions she shall deem fit. Except for my shares in the Legal and General Assurance Company, these to be kept in my name if it can be done, and if they prove profitable then these shares to my son James George Burt Piguenit at age 21 years or marriage. Signed 18/11/1841. Codicil 1844, reiterates the same. Proved at London 14/05/1850.

4. In 1871 his two daughters Frances, age 34 (born St Kitts), and Caroline, age 30 (born Nova Scotia), were living in Islington with their aunt Elizabeth Sandiford, age 65 (born Grenada) and her son Robert, age 30 (born Nevis) and daughter Elizabeth, age 27 (born Halifax, Nova Scotia). The occupations of the daughters were "Householder W. Indies."

We are grateful to Henry C. Mulzac for his assistance in compiling this entry.

1. Hubbard, V. K. A History of St Kitts: The Sweet Trade. Macmillan, 2002, p. 72. Malzac, John. Detail of the Case of the Brig Carraboo, of Liverpool, Finlay Cook, Master [...] [1828]. Gale, Making of Modern Law, 2012.

2. Ancestry.com, Gloucestershire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1938 [database online]; 1841 census online.

3. PROB 11/2113/261.

4. 1871 census online.