Charles Hiern

Attorney in Jamaica in the mid-18th century, dying in London in 1767. Shown by Vincent Brown as manager of Appleton estate in 1765, when he replaced two overseers, the second (Roger Denis) at the request or insistence of the enslaved people, who sought to reinstate the original overseer John Thomason.

1. Will of Charles Hiern of St Elizabeth Jamaica [but in the parish of Saint Mary Whitechapel] proved 13/11/1767. He left monetary legacies totalling some £5000 in legacies typically of £500 each inter alios to his siblings and to three children, not identified as such but almost certainly his natural children, Roger Alden Hiern then at Brislington School near Bristol (to whom he also left £50 as an apprentice fee), Susanna Hiern then at Bristol at 21 (in 1778) and Lucy Hiern, then on James Rowe's estate in St Elizabeth at 21 (in 1786). He left Judith Rowe 'a free mulatto woman' then also on James Rowe's estate £50 and all the 'men and women slaves' Hiern owned at his death for life and then to the three Hien children. He felt his land at Higher Combe High Hampton Devon to his brother James. His residuary legatees were his two brothers John and James Hiern and his friend and relation James Rowe.

2. Burial of Charles Hiern at St Mary Whitechapel 19/09/1767.

Vincent Brown Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War (2020).

1. PROB 11/933/269.

2. Ancestry.com, London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 for Charles Hiern Tower Hamlets St Mary, Whitechapel 1767-1788 [database online].