Hortense Watson

1. Hortense Watson was a female servant living at Windsor Crescent, Trinity Road, St Helier, Jersey, in 1841, in the household of William and Eliza Burke (both q.v.). After William's death in 1850 she moved with Eliza Burke to the household of Eliza's daughter Elizabeth Sarah Burrow at Carleton Hall in Cumbria. The 1851 census for Carleton Hall shows Hortense, age 30, as a laundry maid, born Grenada. Not identified in 1861; she is probably the Hortense Watson, age 52, born Spain [sic - perhaps a misunderstanding of Grenada/Granada?] living at Oxford Cottage, Oxford Road, St Helier. Possibly the Hortense Watson age 64 whose death was registered in Kensington, London, in 1880.

2. The slave register for 1834 gives a Hortense, age 18, "mulatress", on Providence, manumitted since the last register. Her age in 1834 suggests she was the Hortense, age 1, "mustere", on Providence in 1817.

3. Alternatively she may be the Hortense, born 24/04/1821, black, daughter of Marie Madeliene, who first appeared in the 1821 slave register in the town of St George in Grenada in the entry compiled by Eliza Burrow's mother Elizabeth Langaigne. She was age 8 in the 1829 slave register (her mother Marie Magdeleine was there too, age 37). At age 12 she was registered by William Burke in right of his wife. This second identification does not match her year of birth as accurately as that given in 2., above.

4. Charlotte Hortense Watson was bequeathed an annuity of £15 per annum for life in the will of William Burke (proved in 1850).

1. 1841, 1851, 1871 censuses online.

2. T71/267 p. 156; T71/332 p. 6.

3. T71/277 pp. 105-106; T71/310 pp. 91-93; T71/334 pp. 55-57.

4. PROB 11/2114/156.

We are grateful to Stephen Lewis for his assistance with compiling this entry.