Henry James Ross

Awarded the compensation for the Plaisance estate on Grenada and Peruvian Vale and Henry's Vale estates in St Vincent as trustee of his nieces under the will of George Whitfield (his brother-in-law), and in his own right for three enslaved people in Trinidad. Henry James Ross took over the estates after compensation was paid and went out to the West Indies to manage them.

1. Henry James Ross b. St Vincent c. 1794, son of Andrew Ross co-proprietor of Peruvian Vale and Henry's Vale. 1813-1838 lived in Britain, called to bar 1820. Returned to West Indies July 1838 for a few months to oversee transition of Plaisance, cocoa and coffee estate in St John Parish, to free labour. Ross stayed to June 1841, went out again to West Indies 1842, returned to Britain 1866-7 for retirement, d. c 1868. Henry James Ross's pamphlet 'Thoughts on the Objectionable System of Labour for Wages in the West India colonies', January 1842.

2. George Whitfield was Henry James Ross's brother-in-law, a barrister. George Whitfield's July 1819 will bequeathed Plaisance to his daughters Elizabeth and Frances, Henry James Ross was executor and trustee. Ross bought out nieces shortly after compensation: 'It was not my estate till after the Compensation Money was received, but I was connected with the estate and therefore knew its history very well.'  Henry James Ross's Exchequer suit v. Ambrose Humphreys, consignee.  Henry James Ross was attorney-general of Grenada, and then Chief Justice of St Kitt & Nevis, d. c. Sept 1868.

3. Henry James Ross of Lincoln's Inn was listed as a subscriber to Charles Shephard's An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent, published in 1832.

4. Will of Henry James Ross late of the Plaisance estate in the island of Grenada, Chief Justice of St Kitts and Nevis who died 21/09/1868 at Plaisance proved 17/12/1869 by Hamilton Ross of 7 Westbourne Grove Terrace, effects under £20.

T71/880 Grenada nos. 473A & 474A, 474B & 473B; 602; T71/893 Trinidad no. 902.

1. Woodville Marshall, 'Henry James Ross of Grenada: a pioneer of tenant farming systems', http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/BNCCde/grenada/conference/papers/marshallwk.html [accessed 07/05/2012].

2. Evidence of Henry James Ross to 1842 Select Committee on West India Colonies, Q7504; Times 15/05/1835 p. 6; Times 24/12/1856 p. 6; Times 10/01/1870 p. 3. Wife's and daughter's names are taken from the record of the latter's baptism at Bryanston Square 06/10/1837, Ancestry.com, London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database online].

3. Charles Shephard, An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent (1832) pp. vii-xii.

4. National Probate Calendar 1869.