Ann Newell (née Launce)

???? - 1813


Biography

Slave-owner in Jamaica, shown in her own name as owning two estates in Portland for almost 40 years.

  1. Will of Ann Newell widow of Castle Square Southampton [made in 1808] proved 19/01/1814. The will, an elaborate trust will, has not been fully analysed, but entailed her property to her daughter Ann Launce Hill and then to her grand-daughter Ann Newell Hill. The property include three sums of £7000 bank stock, £4700 4% consols and £4000 3% consols, as well as the Red Hassell estate and her house at Castle Square Southampton, not long since purchased of Capt. Fenwick. The will identified her deceased father as James Launce, her deceased husband as Joshua Newell and deceased son as Joshua Launce Newell.

  2. The will of her father formerly of St George's Bloomsbury but late of Portland Jamaica was proved 29/11/1775, a short will leaving almost everything he had to his daughter Ann Newell with an annuity of £30 to his sister Rebecca Campbell. In a codicil of 15/06/1813 she arranged for the manumission of an enslaved woman named Eliza or Eliza Clarke and her children, whom she had arranged to sell to James Wise who had died before without freeing her as agreed: she instructed her trustees to repurchase Eliza and her issue 'for any sum of money' not exceeding £300, and left her an annuity of £5 currency. James Launce was listed as owner of Hopewell in Hanover in 1762 and Red Hassell in Portland in 1763.

  3. When Anne was living as a widow in Castle Square, in the rate book her neighbours were the Austen Family, Frank Austen, his mother and sisters Cassandra and Jane Austen the novelist. Frank Austen rented 2 Castle Square 1807-1809.


Sources

More information about the ancestors of Ann Newell can be found at 'Launce of Hanover Jamaica', http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/JamaicaLaunce.htm#_ftnref14.

  1. PROB 11/1551/248.

  2. PROB 11/1013/231; Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/4 79.

  3. Email from Cheryl Butler 29/12/2020 sourced to Rate Book All Saints Parish Southampton Archives SC/AG/7.

We are grateful to Neil Saunders and Cheryl Butler for his assistance with compiling this entry.


Further Information

Absentee?
Transatlantic
Maiden Name
Launce
Spouse
Joshua
Children
Ann Launce; Joshua Launce

Associated Estates (2)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1776 [EA] - 1814 [LA] → Owner

Registration in the name of Mrs Ann Hill continued to 1820 but her will was proved in 1814.

1776 [EA] - 1820 [LA] → Owner

Registration in the name of Mrs Ann Hill continued to 1820 but her will was proved in 1814.


Relationships (3)

Daughter → Father
Mother → Daughter
Wife → Husband

Addresses (1)

Castle Square, Southampton, Hampshire, Wessex, England