UCL

James Hay of Jamaica

Profile & Legacies Summary

1696 - 7th Oct 1735

Biography

Former owner of Hayfield in St Thomas-in-the-Vale.

James Hay of St Catherine, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1736. Slave-ownership at probate: 121 of whom 76 were listed as male and 45 as female. 14 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £5180.21 Jamaican currency of which £3043.5 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £62.27 currency cash, £0 currency debts and £164.1 currency plate.

Presumably the estate of Dr[?] James Hay deceased recorded in St Thomas-in-the-Vale, sugar and sum, account received and filed by Daniel Brodbelt, is Hayfield. It's not clear where the "Dr" title comes from.

The will of James Hay was proved in Jamaica in 1735.

Memorial inscription in the Cathedral, St Catherine: "HERE LIES THE BODY OF JAMES HAY, ESQ., ONE OF THE JUDGES OF THE GRAND COURT, AGED 39 YEARS, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE THE 7th DAY OF OCTOBER, 1735."


Sources

Monumental Inscriptions 'In St. Catharine's Cathedral is a slab with the following: "Here lies the body of James Hay Esq. one of the Judges of the Grand Court Aged 39 years who departed this life the 7th day of October 1735." He was Member of Assembly for St. Thomas in the Vale in 1731. (Roby, 34.)'

Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.

Accounts Produce, Jamaica Archives 1B/11/4/2 p. 91.

Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919) vol. 2 p. 121.

James Lawrence-Archer, Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies (1875) p. 28.

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
1741 [EA] - 1743 [LA] → Previous owner
Hayfield [ Jamaica | St Thomas-in-the-Vale ]
Previous owner
Hope Estate [ Jamaica | Portland ]

The association of the 1743 Accounts Produce entry with the Hope estate is tentative only. Dr James Hay is known to have been the owner of Hayfield in St Thomas-in-the-Vale.

Inventories (1)

James Hay Esquire
Details