George Cruden of Surinam

Former merchant of Barbados, and then of Surinam, dying c. 1819.

1. Will of George Cruden formerly merchant of the island of Barbados, now planter of Surinam [made 12/10/1818, apparently translated in Surinam January 1820] proved in London 30/05/1822. He was, he said, possessed of a one-third interest in two estates (and the enslaved people on them) in Surinam, known by the names of Union and Plaisance, which he left in trust to his two natural born sons George Francis and Robert Cruden to manage and direct the cultivation thereof and to service a mortgage granted [sic] to Richard Worswick banker of Lancaster for £15,000 (being the full value of the one-third interest in the two plantations as they stand now), repayable in annual instalments of £1500. After the mortgage was repaid the one-third interest was to be inherited equally by George Francis and Robert Cruden and their brother Alexander by the same mother. He identified the mother of his natural children as Jane Rose Cruden, a free woman of colour at present residing in Barbados, to whom he left a piece of land called Good Intent adjoining his third share in Union for life and afterwards for the maintenance of his daughters Katherine and Jane Rose Cruden. He left all the book debts owed to him from his business dealings between 1796 and 1808, whether in Martinique, Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia or elsewhere to George Lancaster late of Barbados merchant, Thomas Hatton at present of Barbados merchant and Alexander Glennie of the island of Martinique, with instructions to recover the debts 'amounting to an immense sum of money' for the benefit of his creditors, 'particularly those residing in Barbados', in the 'present and unfortunate ruinous state of my affairs.' He had he said recently made over to James Stewart of New London his claims against the estates of the late John Stewart and Robert Ewing. In a codicil of 24/05/1819 he made his two sons George Francis and Robert Cruden his sole executors and his five children his heirs to all his real and personal estate.

2. The George Cruden who with his wife Mary Ferrier and children was awarded 5600 guilders for the 18 enslaved people (he claimed for 19) on Pln Belladrum in Surinam in 1863 was probably the son of George Cruden of Surinam, the man referred to in the will above as George Francis Cruden, but the George Cruden of the 1863 compensation might equally be a grandson of George Cruden of Surinam. George Cruden, presumably the same man as the man of the 1863 compensation award, was described as 'a Creole, and a Netherlands subject' in 1859 by the British Consul Munro. The daughters Jane Rose Cruden and Katherine Rose Cruden appear in the Surinam compensation records too.

1. PROB 11/1656/410.

2. Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Algemene Rekenkamer CB (Comptabel Beheer), nummer toegang 2.02.09.08, inventarisnummer 223 Claim number 13; Parliamentary Accounts and Papers – Slave Trade – Vol. 32 Session 24 January-28 August 1860, p. 90, Letter no. 96 of Consul Munro to Lord J. Russell, reproduced in the Antislavery Reporter of June 1 1861, https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z6cNAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22hugh+wright%22+surinam+demerara&pg=PA130&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22hugh%20wright%22%20surinam%20demerara&f=false [accessed 24/05/2016]. See also separate entries for Jane Rose Cruden the younger and Katherine Rose Cruden.

We are grateful to Okke ten Hove for his help with this entry.