Nicholas Tuite

Slave-owner on Montserrat and then St Croix whose will, made in 1772 in London and proved 27/11/1772, indicates substantial wealth. The will opens with a recital that he held land and enslaved people on St Croix from the King of Denmark. He left his wife Ann an annuity of £2000 p.a., and recorded that he had made marriage settlements on his daughters Ellinor the wife of Thomas Selby, Ann the wife of Thomas Stapleton and Winifred wife of Justin McCarthy of £11,000, £10,000 and £10,000 respectively, also leaving them annuities of £300 p.a, £200 p.a and £200 p.a. His residuary heir was his son Robert Tuite (q.v.). He had paid £3000 as a capital contribution to place his grandson Charles Selby in the firm of Chippindale [sic], Selby in Copenhagen.

1. Nicholas Tuite was reportedly co-owner in 1766 of an estate on Montserrat named Tuite's with Richard Tuite (probably his nephew) and Robert Skerret. This estate has not yet been traced by LBS in the Slave Registers or compensation records, although a map of the estate in 1868 was generated in the context of proceedings in the Encumbered Estates Court.

2. In conjunction with his brother-in-law John Bradshaw (q.v., under John Bradshaw of the City of London), Nicholas Tuite developed Sion Hill in St Croix.

PROB 11/983/95; Caribbeana Vol. VI pp. 60-63 'Tuite of Montserrat and St Croix.'

1. John F. Cherry, Krysta Ryzewski (eds.) An Archaeological History of Montserrat, West Indies (2020) pp. 98-100.

2. Orla Power 'Irish planters, Atlantic merchants: The development of St. Croix, Danish West Indies, 1750 to 1766' [Unpublished PhD Thesis, National University Galway, 2011] pp. 62 and 164.