William Fenton of St Kitts and Northaw

Slave-owner on St Kitts, dying an absentee in England c. 1754. His former estate in St John Capesterre was shown as uncultivated in the key to the 1828 William McMahon map, where it was still marked with his name.

1. Will of William Fenton [late of Saint Christopher but now of] of Northaw Hertfordshire [made in 1753] proved 10/05/1754. He left his wife one-third of his estates and enslaved people ('negroes and slaves') for life, and the rest for the support of his daughter also Jane, failing whom he left the property to Joseph Herbert judge of Nevis for life and then to Herbert's son Horatio.

2. William Fenton's daughter and heir married John Roberts, an East India Co. director, and died in 1806 aged 65.

1. PROB 11/808/293.

2. Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana Vol. 1 p. 79 records a plaque at Bath Abbey to Jane Roberts nee Fenton with details of her parents and husband.