Samuel Say

???? - 1772


Biography

Business partner of Thomas Thistlewood on Breadnut Island estate (the original estate, called Paradise, consisted of 300 acres). Overseer at Old Hope, owned by Michael Williams, from 1770, when he left his own estate in the hands of his 'housekeeper', Vine. Thistlewood was also his executor.

Samuel Say of Westmoreland, planter. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1773. Slave-ownership at probate: 34 of whom 14 were listed as male and 20 as female. 7 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £5470.05 Jamaican currency of which £2510 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £2646.66 currency debts and £7.38 currency plate.

The will of Samuel Say of Westmoreland, planter, was proved in Jamaica, 11/02/1773. In it, he manumitted his "negro" enslaved person named Nancy and bequeathed to her £50. To his natural daughter Eleanor Say, "now or some short time since at a Boarding School in the aforesaid Town of Hadleigh in the County of Seaffolk and Kingdom of Great Britain": half of his estate. The other half he bequeathed to his "kinsman" in Britain.

Eleanor Sayes, "the mulatto natural daughter of Eleanor Russell a free mulatto by Samuel Sayes" born 07/02/1752 and baptised 16/06/1754 in Westmoreland.


Sources

Trevor Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and his Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World (Chapel Hill, 2004) pp. 59-61.

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

Island Record Office, LOS 41 f.44.

Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

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


Further Information

Children
[Illeg., with Eleanor Russell] Eleanor (1754-)
Occupation
Planter and overseer

Relationships (2)

Testator → Executor
Father → Natural Daughter

Inventories (1)