James Craggs of Vere

Slave-owner of Vere Jamaica with reputed daughters in Britain. It is not clear whether the daughters were of colour: he specified only one of his natural sons as 'mulatto' in his will.

1. Will of James Craggs of Vere proved 15/12/1802. He left £2000 to his reputed daughter Elizabeth the wife of _____ Birchnell [in fact Bicknell] of Welford Northamptonshire, and if she died to her children Ann Bicknell and James Craggs Bicknell, to whom he left directly £500 each. He left £2000 in trust with the income to support his reputed daughter Susanna Craggs of Leighton Buzzard. He left £500 to a reputed son John Craggs. He identified his brother as another John Craggs, of Leighton Buzzard to whom he left £1000 (and £500 to each of his two children) and made him guardian of three daughters: Elizabeth, Ann and Susanna. He left £300 and 50 acres of land to Ann Summers, a 'free mulatto woman', and three enslaved people Fortune, Chance and Rose. He left his reputed son James Jameson a 'mulatto' £300 and 30 acres of land at Milk River. His residuary heirs were his daughters Elizabeth Bicknell and Susanna Craggs (there appears to have been no financial provision for the daughter named Ann). in a codicil he freed an enslaved man named Thomas and left him an annuity of £5 p.a. In a codicil of 1801 he intstructed his real estate be sold, and the proceeds be remitted to his trustees in Britain; and he said that he owned enslaved people ('slaves') in common with Alexander Falconer and gave Falconer preference in the purchase of the enslaved people. In a second codicil he left £500 to his godson Thomas John Parker.

1. PROB 11/1383/355. James Craggs' son-in-law appears to have been John Clement Bicknell, an Independent minister and Pastor of Welford from 1792. John Clement Bicknell and his wife Elizabeth (given as Elizabeth Cox in her marriage records) had a son named James Craggs Bicknell baptised at Welford 25/01/1797.