Sarah Jarrett alias Hardtime

Sarah Jarrett was born enslaved in Jamaica, and given the name Hardtime. She was the daughter of O Sally alias Sarah Allen. Her year of birth is uncertain: her age was given as 45 in 1817 and 57 in 1823. Both Sarah Jarrett and O Sally were enslaved people living on Orange Valley estate in Trelawny, Jamaica, in 1817 (when O Sally also had the baptismal name Sarah Allen and was age 70, creole). They had both very likely been living there in 1789, and probably earlier, when Sarah had her second child, a boy named Robin (baptised Robert), with Edward Earl, the white overseer. The year of birth of her eldest child, Betty (or Elizabeth), with Edward Earl is unknown. They had another six children together: Frederick (1793), Archibald (1795), Mary (year unknown), Ann (1802), Frances (1802) and Rosey (1809). Edward Earl arranged the manumission of the eight eldest children in 1808, along with three of their half-siblings, the children of Luretia. In order to do this, he will have first bought them from Herbert Newton Jarrett, owner of Orange Valley.

Edward Earl requested the manumission of Sarah in his will, written in 1821, along with that of his remaining daughter Rosey. He bequeathed his estate, Seafield Pen in Trelawny, to his eleven children in trust. His daughters were also his residuary legatees. He left Sarah Jarrett £100 Jamaican currency in his will and said he expected her to live with her sons and daughters at Seafield. By his own reckoning, Edward Earl left three-quarters of the net value of his real and personal estate to his natural children, the other quarter to his brother and sister.

Hardtime alias Sarah Jarrett appears on Orange Valley estate in the slave register of 1817, daughter of O Sally alias Sarah Allen. She is listed as age 45, 'Negro", creole (ie born in Jamaica). Her mother O Sally was age 70, also creole. Her daughter Rose, 'mulatto' was age 8.

She also appears in the slave register of 1823 on Orange Valley, age 57 and recorded as having been 'exchanged for a Negro woman named Moll Higgin and since manumised.' Her daughter Rose had been exchanged for Moll Higgin's two-year-old daughter Sarah Earl and since manumised.

Sarah Jarrett has not been traced after her manumission. She does not appear to have become a slave-owner (although her children did). Her mother O Sally was still alive in 1832, age 85, enslaved and living on Orange Valley estate. It's not known whether her mother survived until Emancipation in 1834.

Will of Edward Earl, PROB 11/1674/90. Years of birth of her children are approximate based on their ages given in later baptism records.

T71/225 601-626; T71/232 [unpaginated]; T71/241 312-320.