John Wiles

John Wiles, co-owner of Bryan's Hill in Port Royal, Jamaica, with his brother Henry (q.v.). Born in Lincolnshire in 1778, his father was the head gardener at the nearby Holywell estate. Followed Henry and his eldest brother James (q.v.) to Jamaica in 1797 at the age of 19 where he worked firstly as an overseer and then purchased his own estate and became a coffee planter.

1. Will of John Wiles of [Mount Teviot plantation] St David Surrey [Jamaica] proved 28/04/1843. In the will he provided monetary legacies for his daughters and left Mount Teviot to his three sons. In the will he mentioned that Mount Teviot was governed by an agreement with his brother Henry dated 1823, suggesting it might be the estate appearing in the Slave Registers and compensation records as Bryan's Hill, which was co-owned by John and Henry Wiles from 1823.

Kenneth E. Ingram, Manuscript Sources for the History of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica, University of the West Indies Press, 2000) p. 486; Biography of James Wiles by Chris J. Wiles published by the Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria, available at http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/wiles-james-1768-1851.html [accessed 02/03/2013]; the Jamaica correspondence of the Wiles family 1809-1852 is kept at Cambridge University Library.

1. PROB 11/1978/329.

We are grateful to Peter Holttum for his assistance in compiling this entry.