Rev. Mr William May

Owner of 84 acres and 21 enslaved people in St Andrew, Jamaica. Deceased by 1753.

Memorial inscription in Kingston Cathedral Church: HERE LIES INTERR'D YE BODY OF THE REVD. MR. W1LLIAM MAY, BORN IN YE PARISH OF ASH IN KENT, YE 29th OF AUGUST, 1695. EDUCATED AT ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, IN CAMBRIDGE, COMMISSARY OF JAMAICA, AND 32 YEARS MINISTER OF THIS PARISH. HIS FIRST WIFE WAS SMART, YE DAUGHTER OF EDWARD AND ELIZTH. PENNANT, OF YE PARISH OF CLARENDON; HIS SECOND WIFE WAS BATHUSA, YE DAUGHTER OF FLORENTIUS AND ANN VASSALL, OF YE PARISH OF ST. ELIZABETH, WHO WAS BURIED IN SPANISH TOWN CHURCH BY VE GRAVE OF HER MOTHER ON YE 22 DAY OF JULY, 1746, BY WHOM HE HAD ISSUE SIX SONS AND TW'O DAUGHTERS,. FIVE OF WHICH ARE ENTERRED UNDER THIS STONE, VIZ, PETER, WILLIAM, ELIZABETH, GEORGE, AND ITHAMAR. TWO DIED AT SEA GOING TO BOSTON FOR YE RECOVERY OF THEIR HEALTH, VIZ. RICHARD, ON YE 28th OF AUGUST, 1745, IN YE 21st YEAR OF HIS AGE, AND FLORENTIUS, YE 4th OF JUNE, 1747, IN YE 16th YEAR OF HIS AGE. HIS SON, ROSE HERRING MAY, IS THE ONLY CHILD THAT SURVIVED HIM, WHO IT IS HOPED WILL INHERIT HIS FATHER'S VIRTUES, AS WELL AS HIS FORTUNE.

William May of Kingston, rector. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1753. Slave-ownership at probate: 38 of whom 21 were listed as male and 17 as female. 9 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £4919.81 Jamaican currency of which £1289 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £289.16 currency cash, £1819.73 currency debts and £120.77 currency plate.

CO137/28 pp. 169-175 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/1753Andrew.htm.

James Lawrence-Archer, Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies (1875) pp. 102-103.

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