Gibson Dalzell

Profile & Legacies Summary

1698 - 1755

Biography

Son of Robert Dalzell (1661/2-1758) and his wife Anne Mary, daughter of Sir John Gibson. Born March 1698.

Dalzell worked as a factor in Santiago De Cuba for the South Sea Company from at least 1722 to 1733, involved in the trading of enslaved people into the Spanish colonies. This was presumably a lucrative contract as he was entitled to 5% commission and may have made further profits illegally; he was accused in 1732 on his return to Jamaica of burning his account books and writing new ones to cover his corrupt practices.

Director of the Sun Fire Office from 1746 until his death in 1756 (his father had been treasurer from 1720 and was later chairman).

Owner of Lucky Hill estate in St Mary, Jamaica, and possibly other properties there too. His will made in 1755 and proved in 1756 gives him as of Clifford Street, Burlington Gardens. Bequeathed his Jamaican real and personal estate to his children Frances and Robert Dalzell equally.

The mother of his children was Susanna Caillard nee Augier, the daughter of the Jamaican planter John Augier (d. 1722) who freed his illegitimate children (including Susanna) in his will. Frances Dalzell, the daughter of Gibson Dalzell and Susanna Caillard, married the Hon. George Duff, son of the 1st Earl of Fife, in 1757.

Gibson Dalzell was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 250 acres of land in Portland and 1700 acres of land in St Mary, total 1950 acres.

Gibson Dalzell of Britain, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1758. Slave-ownership at probate: 133 of whom 80 were listed as male and 53 as female. 30 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £8116.56 Jamaican currency of which £6028.5 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £0 currency debts and £3.5 currency plate.

Sources

H. M. Chichester, ‘Dalzell, Robert (1661/2–1758)’, rev. Jonathan Spain, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://0-www.oxforddnb.com.catalogue.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/view/article/7082, accessed 29/01/2019].

Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies Volume 34, 1724-1725, 261i-261ii via British History Online, https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/colonial/america-west-indies/vol34/pp157-166 [accessed 07/05/2021]; Andrew James Rutledge, 'Enemies Bound by Trade: Jamaica, Cuba, and the Shared World of Contraband in Atlantic Empires, 1710-1760', (PhD Thesis, University of Michigan, 2018), p. 147, https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/147718/ajrutled_1.pdf?sequence=1 [accessed 07/05/2021].

PROB 11/823/345.

Anne M. Powers, 'Augier or Hosier - name transformations', http://aparcelofribbons.co.uk/2012/04/augier-or-hosier-name-transformations/ [accessed 14/03/2016].

'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.

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

We are grateful to Rupert Holman for his assistance with compiling this entry.

Further Information

Absentee?

British/Irish

Children

Robert, Frances

Will

PROB 11/823/345 - precis.

Gibson Dalzell of Clifford Street, Burlington Gardens Esquire.

To my father the Hon. Robert Dalzell Esquire, Joseph Godgrey [=Godfrey?] of London, merchant, Richard Boddicot the father and Richard Boddicot the son, both of London, merchants, and Alexander Hamilton of Lincolns Inn to be trustees of three pieces of property: 50 shares in the stock of the Sun Fire Office; 10 shares or £1,000 nominal stock in the Company for Working of Mines, Minerals and Metals in that part of Great Britain called Scotland; the lease of one of the coal meeters places in the City of London for the residue of 20 years. The trustees to pay the profits from time to time to my daughter Frances Dalzell now living with me in Clifford Street for her natural life, and separate use. In default to my son Robert Dalzell now living with me.

All the rest and residue of my personal estate in England to Robert Dalzell, Joseph Godfrey, Richard Boddicot senior and junior and Alexander Hamilton in trust to pay one moity for the use of my daughter Frances Dalzell. The other moity to my son Robert Dalzell at age 21.

I am seized of several plantations and possessed of a considerable estate in Jamaica. All my property in Jamaica to my father Robert Dalzell, Samuel Horant[?] of Lucky Hill in the parish of Bagnells Thicketts in Jamaica, Joseph Godfrey, Richard Boddicot senior and junior and Alexander Hamilton in trust to receive the rents and profits. One moity to Frances Dalzell during her life for her separate use and after her death this to be divided amongst her issue in the shares given by her last will and testament. The other moity to my son Robert Dalzell for his life and thereafter to his issue in such shares as given by his last will and testament.

Signed 03/01/1755.

Proved in London 02/07/1756.

Associated Estates (1)

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