Samuel Crawley

Samuel Crawley was either the buyer or mortgagee (or both) of two estates in Grenada from William Mackintosh c. 1772, and he was also party the same year to a tripartite conveyance of another coffee plantation, La Creek with 14 enslaved people. The History of Parliament entry for his son Samuel Crawley (1790-1852), MP for Honiton then for Bedford says of the son 'his paternal inheritance may have included a coffee plantation in Grenada.'

1. The will of Samuel Crawley of Ragnall Hall Nottinghamshire proved 30/04/1806 is an elaborate trust will and has not been fully analysed by LBS but appears to be silent on 'slave-property' and Grenada.

The Bedford & Luton Archives website reports Samuel Crawley as buyer and mortgagee of William Mackintosh's plantations on different pages of the website: http://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/ExploreYourArchive/Caribbean/GrenadaCoffeePlantation1771.aspx shows him as buyer in 1772 while http://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/Newsletters/BedfordshireandtheSlaveTrade.aspx [both accessed 27/04/2020] shows him as mortgagee in 1771 - it is possible he was both, sequentially (the underlying document descriptions do not provide greater clarity, although the continuing Crawley correspondence with Mackintosh in the 1770s suggests either Crawley was mortgagee or possibly had purchased the estates with a mortgage himself); the La Creek dedd is at C1522-3, http://bedsarchivescat.bedford.gov.uk/Details/archive/110291037 [accessed 27/04/2020]; http://www.histparl.ac.uk/volume/1820-1832/member/crawley-samuel-1790-1852 [accessed 27/04/2020].

1. PROB 11/1441/322.