Pancefort Miller merchant of Kingston

London and Jamaica merchant, dying c. 1727 (his wife Jane was shown as 'widow' in the burial record for her son also Pancefort in 1727).

1. Will of Pancefort Miller merchant of [City of London but at present residing at] Kingston [made in 1726] proved 14/02/1729. He left his wife Jane £5000 in lieu of dower, and left to his son, also named Pancefort, the moiety in an estate 'at Morant' that had been left to his [the testator's] wife by Mrs Priscilla Stanton (q.v.) with contingent remainder to her [Jane Miller's] mother Mrs Frances Mitchell (who had conveyed her interest in the remainder in fee to Pancefort Miller in 1724). He [Pancefort Miller the testator] left the contingent remainder of the estate to Frances Mitchell for life, then to his brother-in-law Thomas Mitchell and then to his own brother Rev. George Miller of Box, Wiltshire.

Pancefort Miller's estate inventory lists the enslaved people "Now on His Estate called Stantons in the Parish of St. Thomas in the East." Miller's wife Jane seems to have come into this piece of land through Priscilla Stanton, a transaction already included in LBS (q.v.). This Stanton is likely the same piece of land that William Beckford later acquired, which is located near Morant Bay.

1. The firm of Mitchell, Bassnett and Miller was the Jamaican connection and apparently slave factor for Humphry Morice, the major London slave-trader.

We are grateful to Claire Steele for assistance in compiling this entry.

Ancestry.com, London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 for Pancefort Miller City of London St Andrew Undershaft 1692-1770 [database online].

1. PROB 11/628/92. Jamaican Archive: 1B/11/3/14, pp. 94-95.

2. M.D. Mitchell, The Prince of Slavers (2020) pp. 113, 123, 233, 235, 236, 246, which shows Mitchell, Bassnett and Miller taking delivery of 550 enslaved Africans in 1711 (p. 235) and as the 'consignees' of 511 enslaved Africans in 1720 (p. 123).