John Gage

Awarded the compensation for Gage's estate on Montserrat.

There are in principle two possibilities: (1) John Gage 1767-1846, the son of General the Hon. Thomas Gage and Margaret Kemble or Kemball, and grandson of 1st Viscount Gage (the family of Gage of Firle, Sussex) (2) John Gage of Lincoln's Inn (1786-1842), barrister-at-law, the son of Sir Thomas Gage (d. 1798) and grandson of Sir Thomas Rockwood or Rokewode Gage (Gages of Hengrave). The two families were related distantly related and both had links to Montserrat.

1. John Gage 1767-1846. The will of this John Gage's father, the Hon. Thomas Gage alludes to estates in Montserrat 'and elsewhere in the West Indies', as well as land in the American colonies, and identifies John among his sons Henry (who succeeded his uncle William Hall Gage and became the 3rd Viscount) and William Hall Gage [the younger], later an Admiral. The will of Henry Gage the 3rd Viscount in turn left his property in Montserrat to his two brothers, John Gage and William Hall Gage [the younger]. The probability that this is the right identification of John Gage is further strengthened by the fact that the 1817, 1821 and 1824 Slave Registers show Gage's as co-owned by 'Margaret and John Gage': the widow of the Hon. Thomas Gage was Margaret Gage, whose will was proved in 1824. The path to ownership is not clear, although Sheridan shows in 1745 'Thomas Lord Gage of Ireland' mortgaging his plantation of 200 acres in Montserrat. The will of John Gage of Eaton Place Pimlico proved 08/01/1847 is uninformative, leaving his whole unspecified estate to his son and three daughters as tenants in common.

2. The Gages of Hengrave were connected with Montserrat through marriage. Francis Gage, son of Sir Edward Gage (d. 1707) had married Elizabeth, daughter of John Devereux of Montserrat; Sir Thomas Rockwood Gage, the grandfather of John Gage of Lincoln's Inn, had married secondly Lucy, daughter of Patrick Fergus of Montserrat. John Gage of Lincolns Inn (b. 13/09/1786) took the additional name Rokewode and died c. 1842. Will of John Gage Rokewode of Stanningfield Suffolk proved 30/11/1842.

3. John Gage received his brother Henry Gage's moiety of Gages plantation in trust at John's marriage in 1793. The marriage settlement includes a list of 163 named enslaved people with occupations. He was living in Wimpole Street, London, and his mother Margaret at Dover Street, London, when they appointed Sir Patrick Blake and Queely Shiell as attorneys for Gages estate in 1801.

4. John Gage Esquire married Mary Milbanke in Westminster, 20/05/1793. They had four children baptised in Marylebone: Charlotte Margaret (1799); Thomas Wentworth (1800); Louisa Henrietta (born 1809, baptised 1810); Sophia Matilda (1811). John Gage of 8 Eaton Place, Belgrave Square was buried at Brompton Cemetery, 29/12/1845 aged 79 years. In his will he names his children as Frances Elizabeth, Louisa Henrietta, Sophia Matilda and John William; his executor is his brother Sir William Hall Gage.

T71/888 Montserrat claim no. 107.

1. East Sussex Record Office, archive of the Gage family of Firle [SAS/G1/1-SAS G20/896], Probate of the will (8 Jul 1786) of Thomas Gage, general of the army and colonel of the 11th Regiment of Light Dragoons, SAS/G7/10 20/06/1787. The trustees were Samson Gideon, Col. William Sherrif and Samuel Kemble; Richard B Sheridan, Sugar and slavery: an economic history of the British West Indies, 1623-1775 Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 177. PROB 11/2048.

2. John Gage, John Gage Rokewode, The History and Antiquities of Suffolk, Thingoes Hundred (London, Samuel Bentley, 1838), pp. 209-212; PROB 11/1971.

3. Email from Neil How 06/08/2020 sourced to Montserrat Register of Deeds: 1800-1803 Deed book p.522 onwards Digital Image ROD_MNI_1800-03_272; 1800-1803 Deed book p.567 onwards Digital Image ROD_MNI_1800-03_295.

4. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]; Ancestry.com, Brompton, London, England, Cemetery Registers, 1840-2012 [database online]; PROB 11/2048/242.

We are grateful to Neil How for his assistance with compiling this entry.