John Swindell

Apparently resident in the 1830s but died in Britain in 1863, awarded the compensation for the enslaved people on two estates on St Kitts that he had purchased in 1826.

1. Will of John Swindell, formerly of Clarence Lodge Clapham Rise but late of Ovington Square Brompton who died 11/12/1863 at Victoria Villa, Landsdown Road Croydon proved 30/12/1863 by Benjamin Buck Greene, Thomas Edward Paris and John Swindell of 7 Mincing Lane the son, effects under £30,000. Burial of John Swindell of Lansdowne Road at St James Croydon 18/12/1863 aged 82. In the 1851 census he aged 69 gentleman had been living with his wife Eliza aged 60 born Turnham Green at Clapham Rise. In the 1861 census John Swindell born Langley Derbyshire aged 79 widower 'fundholder' was living at 2 Victoria Villas with two servants both born in Essex.

2. John Swindell, born West Indies c. 1830 and the son of the John Swindell of the award, was at school in Islington in the 1841 census, and at Castleden Hall Farnborough Hampshire in 1871 'merchant' with members of his wife's family the Paris's living with the couple. His firm was Swindell and Matthews. He died in 1879 formerly of 34 Fenchurch Street and of 7 Mincing Lane and of 44 Cleveland Square but late of Brisgow House Copers-cope-Road Beckenham and of 60 Mark Lane, leaving £20,000.

3. 'He was the agent of Lord Combermere for a great number of years, in the island of Barbadoes, and he was also the attorney [manager] for a great many absent proprietors, in the island of St Kitts, and was a very successful one; he afterwards purchased two estates from which he retired a few years ago, and is now living in England upon his fortune. This gentleman was the first to introduce the cultivation of potatoes into St Kitts, about 25 years ago, which was attended with immense benefit to the island, first by supplying at a cheap rate food for the negroes, and next in the great improvement afforded by a rotation of crops.'

St Kitts nos. 687 (Hope and Colquhouns) and 688 (Mansion).

1. National Probate Calendar 1863; Ancestry.com, Surrey, England, Burials,1813-1987 [database online]; 1851 and 1861 censuses online.

2. 1841 and 1871 censuses online; National Probate Calendar 1879.

3. Select Committee on Sugar and Coffee Planting (1848).