Evan McPherson

Attorney in Jamaica, mostly in Vere and Clarendon. Died in 1840.

1. Ewan, son to James MacPherson and Janet Kennedy in Glen Banchor was baptised in the parish of Kingussie, Scotland, 12/06/1786. Death: "At his house, Clarendon, Jamaica, on the 3rd January last [1840], Evan Macpherson, Esq., who left his native place, Kingussie, when very young, nearly thirty years ago."

2. In his will, written in ill-health in late December 1839, Evan McPherson bequeathed £1,000 sterling each to his sisters Mary Falconer, Elizabeth Gilzean, Maddy Kennedy, Christian Kennedy and Isabella McPherson of Badenoch. He left £500 to Eliza Ann Barlow [q.v.] and, in a codicil, £500 sterling to Dr John McNaught [q.v.]. His residuary estate, including a half share in the Ramble coffee plantation in Manchester, he left to his five sisters.

3. Glen Banchor, birthplace of Evan McPherson, was a community of poor farmers in a glen behind the village of Newtonmore in the parish of Kingussie. Having moved to Jamaica in his early twenties, he was probably working with other Macphersons already established there, particularly John McPherson, Kenneth McPherson, Duncan McPherson, and Lachlan McPherson - "the Macphersons clan provided a strong support network for aspiring young clan members." His sisters' inheritance of £1,000 each represented an enormous sum of money - for example, Maddy Kennedy's annual rent for her small farm was £13 10s.

Guide to the microfilm edition of Papers relating to the Jamaica estates of the Goulburn family of Betchworth House from the Surrey History Centre introduced by Prof. Kenneth Morgan, Brunel University (Wakefield, Microform Academic Publishers, 2008).

1. GROS OPR Births 102 20 25 Kingussie and Insh; Inverness Courier, 01/04/1840.

2. PROB 11/1932/347.

3. Inverness Courier, 01/04/1840; email from David Taylor 28/07/2020.

Two letters from Evan McPherson are transcribed in Papers relative to the West Indies, Part IV (London, 1839), contained in unindexed section at end of book, ‘Correspondence Relative to the Negro Population, Jamaica’, pp. 74-75.

Letter 1

Evan Macpherson to the Right Hon Henry Goulburn

Clarendon, 17 Jan 1839

"Since my last letter [17 Dec 1838] little or no work has been done on any of the estates, the negroes having taken from three to four weeks for the Christmas holidays; they are now beginning to resume work upon some properties, but not generally. At Amity Hall, I am sorry to say, the people have given much trouble of late, more than they have ever done before; they have absolutely refused to work for less 3s 4d per day, and some of them are asking as high as 5s, which is quite impossible that we can give them, as no estate can afford to give such exorbitant wages; and what is still worse, they will only give us about half a day’s work for these high wages. During the apprenticeship, nine hours was fixed on as a fair day’s work; now the people seldom work more than five or six hours per day, and never more than seven, and yet expect to be paid for a full day’s work. They are the most unreasonable people in the world, and on those estates where they were most kindly treated, they have generally turned out the worst since [p. 75] they have become free. I shall, however, use every means in my power to bring your people round, and, by perseverance and conciliation, I trust I will succeed. I am just starting for the estate, for the purpose of entering into arrangements for taking off the crop, which I hope to be able to do; we have a fine show of canes on the ground, which ought to make at least from 280 to 300 hhds [hogsheads], provided the people will take them off for me. I expect to be making sugar in the course of two weeks.

"You will probably observe by the newspapers the deplorable state the island is in owing to the bad working of the free system. The parish of Vere is an exception to all others on account of the richness of the lands, and the easy manner it can be cultivated. In some parts of the interior of the country the estates are already totally ruined; the negroes will not even attend to the stock, which are, in general, running at large all over the properties. I do not think the negroes will ever give us continuous labour, to enable us to carry on sugar cultivation, as long as they are permitted to cultivate the proprietors’ lands for their own benefit; they find it more profitable to cultivate provisions for the market than work in the fields. During slavery it was the interest of the master to encourage the negroes to cultivate as much land for themselves as possible; now it is quite the reverse, and ever since the 1st of August two-thirds of the people throughout the island have done nothing else but cultivate provisions on the proprietors' lands, and carrying them to market and to the towns. An industrious family can make from £2 to £3 per week from provisions alone; therefore it is not surprising that they refuse working in the fields, when they find it so much for their own interest not to do so. In order to counteract this evil, the people ought to be deprived of the use of the land beyond a certain quantity, say, about an acre; at present they can ramble all over the properties, and select the best and richest plots of land they can find, and we have no means of preventing them.

Letter 2

Evan Macpherson to Goulburn? [recipient not specified] 1 February 1839

"I am sorry to say very little improvement has taken place in the behaviour of the negroes either in Clarendon St Dorothy's or St Thomas in the Vale We have generally commenced our crops but upon almost every estate they have struck for higher wages and I feel convinced no good will ever be done until the people are deprived of their grounds as they find it much more profitable to cultivate the proprietor's land for their own benefit than work in the field were we even to offer them 5s per day It is really astonishing to see the quantity of fine land the negroes have been cultivating since 1st of August there is at the least two thirds of the people on the estates constantly employed in this way which renders them perfectly independent of the proprietor of the estate one industrious family will realize from nine to ten dollars a week from the sale of their provisions alone At Bushy Park I am confident the people have from 3,000 to 4,000 bushels of corn ready to cut which they sell at Spanish Town at 20s per bushel If the gentlemen in London connected with this island were to apply to Government and insist upon the labourers giving up their grounds they would then be compelled to work During slavery it was the proprietors interest to encourage the negroes to cultivate as much land as possible it is now quite the reverse I tried to prevent them on some estates from planting any more provisions but I found it impossible to do so as it would drive them to desperation If it could be made a Government question we might get over it very well but not otherwise I believe it is not usual in England for labourers to have the privilege of cultivating the proprietors’ land for his own benefit?"

We are very grateful to David Taylor for his extensive assistance with compiling this entry.