Ennis Read

Slave-owner in Jamaica, apparently resident but dying in London. Trevor Burnard shows him as leaving Total Physical Wealth of £22,498 sterling (including enslaved people; excluding realty and financial assets and liabilities) in 1774, making him the fifth largest Jamaican wealth-holder with an inventory taken in that year.

1. Ennis Read contributed £15 to the University of Pennsylvania following Dr John Morgan's fundraising tour of the West Indies in 1772-1773.

2. Ennis Reid was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 300 acres of land in St Ann, 100 acres in Clarendon and 1259 acres in Vere, total 1659 acres.

3. Burial of Ennis Read 16/12/1773 at St Marylebone.

4. Mary and Dorothy, the daughters of Ennis Read of Harmony Hall, married respectively Peter Mackenzie (q.v.) and Tristram Radcliffe (q.v.).

5. Ennis Read of Vere, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1775. Slave-ownership at probate: 399 of whom 245 were listed as male and 154 as female. 51 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £33041.83 Jamaican currency of which £21420.25 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £1545.45 currency debts and £48.38 currency plate.

6. The will of Ennis Read of Vere, Esq. was proved in Jamaica 9/12/1774. In it, he provided for the manumission of a "mulatto" boy named Ned and bequeathed to Ned one enslaved person. He also manumitted his "fairful negro woman slave" Frankey and allowed her to live on his estate for life (he was soon departing for Britain). He manumitted a "negro" enslaved woman named Mirtella, who lived in his house in Spanish Town with him, and bequeathed £40 Jamaican currency to her. To a "mulatto" man named John Rad, £200 Jamaican currency and one enslaved person. His wife and his sister in Britain were the main beneficiaries of his estate.

Trevor Burnard, Planters, merchants and slaves p. 19.

1. William Smith, Joseph Hopkinson, and Plunket Fleeson Glentworth, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Minute Books, Volume 2, 1768-1779 p. 74, entry for 13/12/1773. Note amounts are in Jamaican currency.

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. Ancestry.com, London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 for Ennis Read Westminster St Marylebone 1764-1774 [database online].

4. Burke's Landed Gentry (1855) p. 750.

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

6. LOS 42 f. 56-57.

We are grateful to Daniel Livesay for his assistance with compiling this entry.