Bezaliel Hodge

Profile & Legacies Summary

???? - 1789

Biography

Will of Bezaleel [sic] Hodge of Tortola [made in 1787] proved 18/09/1789. In the will he recited his settlement on his 'present' wife Elizabeth nee Barry of the mansion house at a place called Huntams [sic] Gut on an estate he had then lately bought of John Downing jr., for her life, together with a legacy of £5000 and three enslaved people, Nat., Tenah [sic] and Satur [sic]. He said that the settlement deed had disappeared and he suspected his wife of intending to seek dower, and so provided that she should sign a release with his trustees within 3 months of his death, in which case he gave her three other enslaved people, Rachel, Harry and Madelaine whom he had bought at St Croix and intended as a present to her, together with a further five enslaved people Dumont [?], Desdemona, Lavinia, Clarissa and Priscilla, and the right to live in his Hog Bay house until 1804 when his grand-daughter Ruth Hodge would reach the age of 38, when he left the house and plate and furniture between Ruth Hodge, his daughter Frances Leonard (wife of George Leonard) and second grand-daughter Sarah Purcell. He gave his third grand-daughter Mary Pasea the Turnbulls estate which had for many years been cultivated as part of her own estate, and left Frances Leonard and George Leonard his sugar estate bought of John Downing jun. and a second estate on Antigua. He reiterated his commitment to advance £4000 to extricate the estate of John Dyer of Montserrat, father of his executor Mark Dyer, from its indebtedness. He instructed that the proceeds office estate be paid 1/8th to each of Frances Leonard, Ruth Hodge and Sarah Purcell (with the remaining 5/8ths accumulating) until the distribution of his estate in thirds in 1804.

Sources

PROB 11/1183/221

Further Information

Spouse

(2) Elizbaeth Barry

Children

Frances

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

- 1789 [EY] → Previous owner

Huntums Gut [Ghut] Estate [ Virgin Islands ]

Tentative association only between the mansion and estate left by Bezaliel Hodge in his will in 1789 and the Huntums Gut of the Slave Register in 1822

1787 [EA] - 1787 [LA] → Owner

Turnbull Mountain Estate [ Virgin Islands | Tortola ]