Godfrey Shreyer

Owner of Tremolesworth in St Mary, Jamaica. Deceased by 1764.

1. "Private Acts. Anno 18 Georgii II [1745]. An act to intitle Sarah Shreyer, a free mulatto woman, the wife of Godfrey Shreyer the elder, of the parish of St Mary, in the said island, planter, a white man, and Thomas Shreyer, Samuel Shreyer, Godfrey Shreyer the younger, Anthony Shreyer, and Christiana Shreyer, the sons and daughter of the said Godfrey Shreyer the elder, by the said Sarah his wife, to the same rights and privileges with English subjects, born of white parents.' Thomas Ballard Godfrey Shreyer Esquire who died at Tremolesworth in August 1798 was presumably the Thomas Shreyer of this Act. Anne, daughter of Godfrey and Sarah Shreyer, was baptised in St Mary, Jamaica, 05/12/1753.

2. Godfrey Shreyer was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 2844 acres of land in St Mary.

3. Godfrey Shreyer of St Mary, planter. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1764. Slave-ownership at probate: 312 of whom 157 were listed as male and 155 as female. 94 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £20092.78 Jamaican currency of which £13456 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £1384.66 currency debts and £0 currency plate.

Jamaica Almanac (1811).

1. The Laws of Jamaica: 1681-1759 (2nd ed., 1802), unpaginated; 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. 4 p. 277; Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

2. '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.

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