Francis Bickley

In the 1831 Slave Registers, Bon Air appears as a sugar plantation the property of the heirs of Richard Allport, of which the said Francis Bickley is in possession as manager, previously the property of Francis Bickley. The connection between Francis Bickley and his attorneys and assignees Sophia Beata Gilson (a schoolmistress in Essex) (q.v.) and Martha Craston (untraced) is not yet known.

1. Richard Allport was a Bristol merchant who died in Trinidad in July 1829. Again, his relationship with Sophia Gilson and Martha Craston is unknown.

2. A Francis Bickley had been a partner with Benjamin Bickley (q.v.) in a Bristol mercantile firm until 1818, while Benjamin Bickley was described as the partner in 1828 and surviving partner of R. Allport in 1831.

3. Francis Bickley, merchant of Port of Spain, had three children with Apple Watson, a free person of colour, baptised in Trinidad: Catherine (1817), Frances Apple (1819) and Francis Augustus (1841). He may also be the father of three more of Apple Watson's children also baptised in Trinidad: Augusta Caroline (1827), Juliana Amelia (1827) and Francis (1831). Augusta Caroline, second daughter of Francis Bickley Esquire of Trinidad, married Charles, son of Rd. Morgan Esquire of Somerset House, Swansea, in Bristol, 15/06/1843. According to the 1851 census, when she was living in Bettws, Carmarthenshire, she was born c. 1824 in Trinidad.

4. His son Francis Bickley, surgeon dentist, age 30, born Trinidad, was a lodger at 4 Paternoster Row, Cumberland, in the census of 1851. He married Harriet Bridges in Lichfield in 1851. Numerous newspaper reports attest to the bankruptcy of Francis Bickley the younger, surgeon dentist, practising in Dumfries and Carlisle, between 1852 and 1856. Francis Bickley, born in Trinidad, enlisted in the 2nd Life Guards 10/12/1857. He appears in the 1861 census as a soldier at Cavalry Barracks Hospital in Windsor, age 28 (he may have reduced his real age when joining the army or increased his age earlier when working as a surgeon dentist); note in the 1861 census he is listed as unmarried. Francis Bickley, eldest son of Francis Bickley Esquire of Penzance, formerly a dentist in Carlisle, died in London 18/06/1865.

5. Augustus Charles Bickley, youngest son of the late Francis Bickley of Carlisle and grandson of the late Francis Bickley of Trinidad married Edith Louisa, eldest daughter of A. W. Ball Esquire of Knaphill, Surrey, in 1887.

6. In his will written in 1846 and proved in 1847, Benjamin Bickley of 11 Meredian Place, Clifton, Gloucestershire, bequeathed an annuity of £200 to his son Francis Bickley. Benjamin may be the father of Francis Bickley senior of Trinidad, in which case, based on the other children named in the will, Francis Bickley of Trinidad is likely to be Francis Bickley, son of Benjamin and Anna Bickley, born 01/10/1792 and baptised 09/04/1795 in St Stephen's, Bristol.

7. Francis Bickley, widower, gentleman of St Mary le Port, Bristol, son of Benjamin Bickley, married Harriet Rowland, spinster of Tiverton, Devon, in Bristol 18/01/1849. Francis Bickley, age 67, "no profession", born Bristol, was living at Rock Cottage, Maldron, Cornwall, in 1861 with his wife Harriet, age 34, and one female servant. He was at the same address in 1871. Francis Bickley, age 80, died 11/07/1873 and was buried at Maldron Parish Church.

Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database on-line], 1831 Trinidad Plantation Slaves.

1. Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 99 1829 p. 286 26/07/1829.

2. Grahame E. Farr (ed.) Records of Bristol Ships, 1800-1838 (vessels over 150 tons) (Bristol Record Society, 1950), pp. 53, 105 and 131.

3. Transcriptions of baptism records by email 10/06/2021 from Nigel Burton; Bristol Mercury 24/06/1843; 1851 census online.

4. 1851 census online; Derbyshire Courier 23/08/1851; for bankruptcy see for example, Carlisle Patriot 04/11/1854; Ancestry.com, UK, Household Cavalry Records of Service, 1799-1920 [database online]; 1861 census online; Carlisle Patriot 24/06/1865.

5. Hampshire Chronicle 18/06/1887.

6. PROB 11/2055/297; Ancestry.com, Bristol, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online].

7. Ancestry.com, Bristol, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935 [database online]; 1861 and 1871 censuses online; Findmypast.co.uk, Cornwall Memorial Inscriptions [database online].

We are grateful to Nigel Burton for his assistance with compiling this entry.