John Reid of Falmouth and Tobago

Returned Scottish slave-owner of Tobago, owner of Cinnamon Hill, making his will [proved in 1819] in Falmouth Cornwall in 1818: his precise death-date and place have not been traced.

1. Will of John Reid planter [of the island of Tobago but now] of Falmouth, Cornwall England [made 23/03/1818] proved 20/08/1819. Under the will he left monetary legacies of £200 - £250 each to his mother and sister of Moray and to Margaret Rey of Elgin, with £30 to each of the children of the latter two. He left a triangle of 3 acres of land near the northwest corner of his estate of Cinnamon Hill on Tobago to Mary Gibb, a freewoman, together with £300 to be sued to build a house and several named enslaved people: 'Quamina a carpenter; Matty being a negro woman and her two children Henry and Catherine, Margaret a creole and he brother Ned with the future issue and increase of the said negroes.' After Mary Gibb's death this property, including the people, was to pass to her daughters Ann and Elizabeth and then to their daughters [in effect he was striving to entail the property so that it could not be sold by any of the women]. He left £100 sterling to buy the freedom of a 'mulatta girl' named Present now residing on Bacolet belonging [both the estate and the enslaved woman] to John and Alexander Gordon: if her freedom could be bought he left her a further £100 currency, but if it could not he provided £100 sterling to furnish her with an annuity. He left annuities of £40 p.a. sterling each to the five children of Mary Gibb [her daughters Ann and Elizabeth as above, and her three sons George, James and John]. These legacies and annuities were secured on his estate until it could be sold, when the proceeds were to be used to purchase [matching] annuities. He left passage money for James and John to be taken to Scotland for their education by his executors. He left the residue of his estate to his brother Alexander Reid for life and then to his heirs, failing whom to his nephew John Alexander Cooper son of his sister Ann Cooper and his heirs, failing whom to the daughters of Ann Cooper as tenants-in-common. In a codicil of 30/03/1818 he proved that his property should only be sold with the agreement of all his executors and trustees and of his brother Alexander Reid. In a second codicil of 18/04/1818 he removed Charles Ross of Copthall Buildings as executor, he having demurred, leaving Alexander Gordon of Newton and two Tobago men as his executors.

2. This will was subject to the proceeding in the Court of Chancery in Tobago of Jean Reid [presumably the mother or sister of John Reid the testator] creditor of John Reid versus Alexander Gordon et al, which led in 1821 to the announcement of the sale of Cinnamon Hill, with 197 acres '72 slaves, 22 head of cattle, 10 mules and 1 ass' on 01/03/1822. The sale was then postponed until 22/04/1822.

1. PROB 11/1619/268

2. London Gazette 17779 05/01/1822 p. 28; ibid 17797 09/03/1822 p. 411.