Cossley Hall

Second son of James Hall of Hyde Hall, Jamaica and his wife Elizabeth nee Cossley. Inherited Hyde Hall from his elder brother William James Hall c. 1780.

1. Born 15/02/1728 baptised 16/02/1728 Kingston Jamaica. "Of Albermarle Street, London, and of Hyde Hall, Florence Hall, &c. in Trelawny, Jamaica, who inherited the large property of his brother [William James Hall], m. first, Whitehorne-Lade, daughter of George Robinson, esq. and had by her three sons and three daughters... Mr Hall wedded, secondly, Elizabeth Bromley, eldest child of the late Thomas Rose. esq. of St. Anne's, in Jamaica, and by her, who died in 1825, left issue, Thomas-James, the present representative of the family. Ann-Rose, born at Hyde Hall, Jamaica..."

2. Cossely Hall was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 788 acres of land in St Andrew. Wyllis and Hall were listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owners of 1300 acres of land in St Thomas-in-the-East; this may refer to Margaret or Benjamin Wyllis, Cossely, John, Lewis, Mark, Thomas or William Hall (all q.v.).

3. Cofley [sic] Hall contributed £20 to the University of Pennsylvania following Dr John Morgan's fundraising tour of the West Indies in 1772-1773.

4. A biographical memoir of Cossley Hall's grandson Thomas John Peshall describes Cossley Hall as "of Hyde Hall, Esq. in the island of Jamaica (but descended from a family long seated and honourably allied in Wiltshire".

5. "The Halls of Jamaica, were a reputed branch of the Halls of Greatford Hall, Lincolnshire, a family of great antiquity and high consideration, who were themselves a scion of the Fitz Williams of Clixby, of the same lineage as Earl Fitzwilliam. William Hall, Esq., born in Lincolnshire, youngest son of Edmund Hall, Esq., of Greatford Hall, by Anne his wife, daughter of John Elmers, Esq., of Swinford. He held first the appointment of British Consul at Bilboa in Spain, and subsequently, in 1687, accompanied to Jamaica, as secretary, Christopher Monk, Duke of Albemarle, Governor of the Island. He married, July 26, 1688, Elizabeth, daughter of William Wyatt, Esq. (lineally descended from the Sir Thomas Wyatt, of Allington Castle, the poet of the time of Henry VIII.), by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Councillor Edward Heylin; and left at his decease, Sept. 18, 1699, an only son, James Hall, Esq., of Hyde Hall, Jamaica .... who married Elizabeth, sister of Colonel John Cossley (Aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland at the battles of Fontenoy and Culloden). His second son, Cossley Hall, Esq., married, secondly, Elizabeth Bromley, eldest daughter of Thomas Rose, Esq., of Jamaica, and by her had Thomas James, his successor, and two daughters, the elder of whom, Anne Rose, married William Green, Esq., and secondly, J. Somerville Wood, Esq. By the former, this lady had an only daughter, Elizabeth, Countess Dowager of Harrington, and mother of the sixth Earl of Harrington."

6. Apparently Cossley Hall sold Hyde Hall to Henry Shirley of Spring Garden Estate, Portland, in 1788, the result of being "deeply in debt".

7. Cossley Hall was buried at Florence Hall, 23/02/1790.

1. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online, note his forename is mistranscribed as Costly]; Burke's History of the Commoners (1839) vol. 4 pp. 742-743.

2. '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.

3. William Smith, Joseph Hopkinson, and Plunket Fleeson Glentworth, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Minute Books, Volume 2, 1768-1779 p. 78, entry for 13/12/1773. Note amounts are in Jamaican currency.

4. The Naval Chronicle, for 1812 vol. 17, p. 265 (Jan - June 1812).

5. James Henry Lawrence-Archer, Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies (1875) p. 104.

6. https://thelastgreatgreathouseblog.wordpress.com/?s=hyde+hall [accessed 22/042018].

7. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Parish Registers, Trelawny, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1771-1839 [page number obliterated].

We are grateful to Dawn Good and Paul Hitchings for their assistance with compiling this entry.