William Dawkins

Major slave-owner in Jamaica. Deceased by 1753. Son of Henry Dawkins I and his wife Elizabeth nee Pennant.

William Dawkins of St Catherine, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1753. Slave-ownership at probate: 564 of whom 294 were listed as male and 270 as female. 64 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £29,338.06 Jamaican currency of which £19,630.25 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £86.56 currency cash, £0 currency debts and £304 currency plate.

William Dawkins, deceased was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 2789 acres of land in St Catherine, 183 acres in St Andrew, 40 acres in St Mary, 300 acres in Clarendon and 1562 acres in St Thomas-in-the-Vale, total 4874 acres.

Richard Sheridan, Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623-1775 (1974) pp. 224-227.

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

A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.