Tobias Smollett

The major novelist. He married Anne Lassells or Lascelles in Jamaica c. 1743, and drew an income from her property. To date, only land in Kingston has been identified by LBS as belonging to them but in his will Tobias Smollett left his wife 'slaves' as well as debts due to him in Jamaica. His ODNB entry says of his wife's family that it had 'owned plantations there since the seventeenth century.'

1. Will of Tobias Smollett late of Chelsea Middlesex physician [sic] proved 17/02/1772. He left Mrs Ann Renner of Leghorn £200 to be paid either out of 'those sums of money due to me in Jamaica upon bonds which are held by Robert Graham Esq. attorney substitute in that island' or from the rents and profits of his estate. He left his personal and real estate comprehending 'houses, warehouses, wharfs, offices, wherries, lands, plantations, enclosures, wells, warehouses [sic], etc. in and about the town of Kingston' and elsewhere, also 'slaves, mortgages, bonds, sums of money, rents, averages, claims etc.' to his wife Anne, 'this being in fact no more than what she freely and generously gave to me without hesitation or reserve.'

2. He was buried in the English Cemetery at Livorno, Toscana, Italy, in 1771. His wife Anne was buried there in 1791 and their friends the Renners were buried in an adjacent grave.

Simpson, Kenneth. "Smollett, Tobias George (1721–1771), writer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 Sep. 2004; Accessed 9 Apr. 2020. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-25947.

1. PROB 11/975/160.

2. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46366190/tobias-smollett [accessed 06/04/2020].

We are grateful to Andrew Bennett for his assistance with compiling this entry.