John Pollard Mayers

John Pollard Mayers, Barbadian-born son of Joseph Mayers and Ann Hearn Pollard, London agent for Barbados, awarded compensation as owner of Staple Grove in Barbados, possibly as trustee on Golden Grove, and certainly as trustee with Robert Chaloner, Abel Rous Dottin and Henry Walker Yeoman as trustees of the marriage settlement of Robert Chaloner's sister Caroline for the Cleland and Farm estates on Barbados.

1. See article by Bruce M. Taylor for a description of Mayer's work as agent to Barbados 1832-34, and Schomburgk's 1848 account of the assiduous way in which he carried out his duties during this same period.

2. Baptised 27/03/1777 in St Michael's Parish, Barbados (although Alumni Cantabrigienses gives his date of birth as 20/04/1777); parents were Joseph and Ann Hearn Mayers. Married Ann Barrow in 1800 in Westerham, Kent.

3. Living in Brasted, Kent, in the 1841 census, age 60, born Foreign Parts, with Ann Mayers, 60, born Foreign Parts, and Fanny Mayers, 35, also born Foreign Parts, plus six servants. Died Q1 1854 in Sevenoaks, Kent.

4. Entry in Alumni Cantabrigienses: "Adm. pens. (age 18) at ST JOHN'S, Nov. 24, 1794. [Eldest s. of Joseph (and –, dau. of Dr Thomas Pollard, of Barbados).] B. [Apr. 20, 1777], in Barbados, America. School, Kensington. Kept 5 terms. Adm. at the Middle Temple, Nov. 19, 1793. Called to the Bar, Nov. 8, 1799; Bencher, Nov. 6, 1840; Reader, 1845; Treasurer, 1849. For some time Agent for Barbados. In the Barbados in 1820. Latterly of Brasted, near Sevenoaks, where he died Dec. 30, 1853. Brother of Henry A. (1799); perhaps father of the above. (St John's Coll. Adm., IV. 381; Boase, II. 814; Law Lists; Inns of Court; Middle Temple Bench Book; G. Mag., 1854, I. 221.)"

5. Will of John Pollard Mayers of Brasted Kent proved 12/01/1854. He left his house at Brasted to be occupied by his daughter Frances; and he left an annuity of £150 p.a. for his son John, the subject of a Commission (presumably of lunacy). He left his sugar works called Staple Grove to his daughters Frances and Sarah, the latter the wife of the Rev. Robert Clerke Burton.

T71/895-900 Barbados claim nos. 2773A & B (Golden Grove), 3277 (Staple Grove), 4612 (Cleland) and 4948 (Farm).

1. Bruce M. Taylor, 'Our Man in London: John Pollard Mayers, Agent for Barbados, and the British Abolition Act, 1832-1834', Caribbean Studies, 16 (3/4) (October-January, 1976-1977), pp. 60-84; Robert Hermann Schomburgk, The History of Barbados: Comprising a Geographical and Statistical Description of the Island; a Sketch of the Historical Events Since the Settlement; and an Account of Its Geology and Natural Productions (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2010) pp. 439-440.

2. Ancestry.com, English Settlers in Barbados, 1637-1800 [database online]; Ancestry.com, Pallot's Marriage Index for England: 1780-1837 [database online].

3. 1841 census online; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]. T71/899 Barbados No. 4612 counterclaim shows him already at Brasted in c. 1835.

4. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online].

5. PROB 11/2184/137.