Rebecca Reap

Rebecca Reap was the daughter of the free people of colour Captain Robert Reap Snr (q.v.) and Mary Canham (d.1829). She is known to have had four siblings: Sarah Reap, Eliza Crosbie Reap, Benjamin Reap and Robert Reap junior, who appears to have been a half-brother. On 13 October 1835 Rebecca Reap married first the bachelor Butler Claxton. Almost certainly he was a free man of colour, rather than a member of the planter/merchant family. The marriage was witnessed by John A Iles and William F. Reap, bride and groom both signed the parish register. John Alexander Iles later witnessed her father’s will and acted as his executor. William Fraser Reap probably was her cousin. He was variously described as a sailing master, a mariner but also as a ships carpenter. She married second ???? Dasent, with whom she had a son Henry Pemberton Dasent.

1. By 1819 she was old enough to purchase slaves; her father sold her the mulattoes Nancy and Abelena. In 1826 Nancy gave birth to a girl called Judy-Ann but died four years later. Described in the parish records as ‘Nancy Reap, slave of Captain Reap’, her funeral took place on 10 January 1830. She was 42 years old.

2. It appears that between getting married in October 1835 and her father making his will in January 1843, Rebecca Claxton was widowed, then married a man with the surname Dasent, had a son with him called Henry Pemberton Dasent and was widowed a second time. Along with her full brother, her sisters and the son of William Fraser Reap, ‘Rebecca Dasent (widow)’ inherited an equal share in her father’s land in Charlestown and his other property. Her father also left £50 currency for her son’s education. This is the last reference to Rebecca Dasent. Her sisters Sarah Reap(e) and Eliza Crosby Reap(e) were mentioned in a will of October 1861. They were still unmarried but had had children; their respective heirs were John James Huggins and Henrietta Huggins.

Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Registry, Nevis (ECSCRN), Book of Wills 1837-1864 ff.203-05; NHCS, St Paul’s Burials 1825-1837; NHCS, St Paul’s Marriages 1826-1842 No 136

1. UKNA, T 71/364 and T 71/366 Slave Registers Nevis 1817 f238 and 1822 ff.202-03.

2. ECSCRN, Book of Wills 1837-1864 ff.203-05; ECSCRN, Book of Wills 1837-1864 f.494.

We are extremely grateful to Christine Eickelmann for sharing with us her detailed archival research and on which this entry is based.