John Jacques

John Ja[c]ques (1741-1815), resident attorney and then slave-owner on Jamaica. Baptised in Bristol, Gloucestershire, 19 May 1741. His death on 19 June 1815 was announced five days later in the Royal Gazette of Jamaica. To date no will has been found for him.

1. Custos. and chief judge, Kingston, Jamaica, 1790-1805. First Mayor of Kingston and and “Commander of the People’s Militia” in 1802-1809. Great-great grandfather of Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey, the wife of Marcus Garvey. Business associate and possibly partner with Humphrey Ewing and Hon. James Laing (each of whom q.v., the former under Humphrey Ewing MacLae). From 1803 onwards, member of the colonial House of Assembly (representing Kingston).

2. After 1804, as executor, trustee, and creditor of Sir Charles Price, Jacques was involved in a legal dispute on behalf of himself and the other creditors of Price regarding the Goshen estate and bankruptcies of John Seracold and John Jackson.

We are grateful to Kelly Haggart for her assistance in compiling this entry.

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Feurtado, W. A.Official and other personages of Jamaica from 1655 to 1790. W. A. Feurtado’s Sons, 1896. Baptisms (PR) England. Bristol, St Philip and Jacob, Gloucestershire. 19 May 1741. Collection: Bristol, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812. Royal Gazette of Jamaica. (1815) Death (19 June) of John JAQUES, Custos. Royal Gazette of Jamaica. 24 June. p. 19a. Collection: British Newspapers, 1710-1965.

1. Jamaica Almanac. (1790) Jamaica lists: Kingston; Jamaica Almanac. (1805) Jamaica lists: Kingston. Taylor, Ula Yvette. The veiled Garvey. University of North Carolina Press, 2002, p. 7. Gleaner. "Pieces of the past: The capital city, a historic look at Kingston." Colin Grant, Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey and His Dream of Mother Africa (2008), p. 211. Jamaica Almanac.Jamaica lists: the honourable the Assembly: Kingston, 1808. Gleaner. "Historical background of Jacques Road." 29 September 2010.

2. National Archives PCAP 13/2/13: "Printed appeal to an Appeals Committee of the Privy Council from Jamaica, Court of Chancery [colonial, Caribbean] Appellant: Thomas Murphy esq. Respondent: John Jaques Esq, surviving acting executor and trustee, creditor of Sir Charles Price bart the younger, deceased [died 1788]; and on behalf of himself and other creditors."