Hon. John Salmon

1773 - 1857

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Returnee from Jamaica, awarded the compensation for Knockpatrick in Manchester and Grosmont Pen in St Elizabeth as Commissioner of Munro & Dickenson Charity, and almost certainly the same man as the awardee for the enslaved people on New Savannah in St Elizabeth. He was also probably the awardee for Mount Olivet, although his son John Salmon Jr. was shown as the mortgagee of this estate in 1832, while the trustee of The Cruse in Westmoreland was very probably the son, John Salmon Jr. After a period of residence in Britain, the Hon. John Salmon returned to Jamaica and died there in 1857.

  1. John Salmon was baptised 14/11/1773, Publow, Somerset. His parents were Brice Weeb (sic) Salmon and Hannah Salmon. See LBS entry for his father, Brice Webb Salmon (q.v.) He was therefore the grandson of John (mayor of Thornbury) and Anne Salmon, as well as nephew of Thomas Stokes (q.v.) and William Salmon (q.v.), who were already settled in St Elizabeth, Jamaica, and operating in partnership as slave factors. It is uncertain when he arrived in Jamaica, but more than likely that he either migrated with his father, Brice Salmon, in the 1780s or perhaps arrived shortly after. His reputed daughter, Mary Ann Salmon (q.v.), born about 1791, was baptised in St Elizabeth in 1806, at the age of about 15, father John Salmon Esq., mother Rose, ‘a Negro belonging to White Hall Penn.’ He became a Lieutenant in the St Elizabeth Regiment in 1797. He likely married Elizabeth Farquharson (Elizabeth Salmon, q.v.), daughter of Charles Farquharson MD (q.v.) and Frances Tatham Smith, in the mid- or late 1790s. Their son, John Salmon Junior (q.v.), was born 12/09/1797, St Elizabeth.

  2. John Salmon was a slave owner in St Elizabeth, but it appears that the bulk his fortune arose from his activities as an attorney, and he was probably operating as an attorney well before 1817. From about 1823 he had a partnership with his son, John Salmon Junior (q.v.) who by 1832 was running one of largest attorney operations in Jamaica: 22 properties with over 3000 enslaved people.

  3. John Salmon was in Britain from the time of compensation; he signed at the National Debt Office for the compensation for New Savannah and The Cruse, and received letters in late 1837 at Thornbury in Gloucestershire, where he was presumably connected with the family of Edward Salmon, General Practitioner, born Jamaica c.1778, who lived at Silver Street Thornbury in 1841, 1851 and 1861.

  4. In 1851 John Salmon, aged 77 born Somersetshire 'Landed proprietor', was living at Alveston Gloucestershire with his wife Elizabeth aged 72 born Jamaica. In 1841 aged 65 Ind., he was living at The Firs, or old farmhouse, Alveston with his wife Elizabeth aged 60 and with Richard Honnywill aged 70. Alveston is a mile away from Thornbury.

  5. Will of John Salmon [late of Alveston Gloucestershire but at present residing in the parish of St Elizabeth, and county of Cornwall, island] of Jamaica proved 12/12/1857. In the will he left two cottages at Alveston that he had bought of Samuel Peach Peach to Hannah Staine, spinster, as acknowledgement of her long service to Salmon and his late wife. He was possessed of No.1 Wellington Place, Clifton under a mortgage (presumably as mortgagee-in-possession), and left the rents to his grand-daughter Frances Charlotte Bush of Clifton, wife of Edward Bush. He left £1000 to which he was the contingent remainderman in trust with solicitors in Chippenham for his son John Salmon to lay out in the cultivation of his [the testator's] Union [?] estate in St Elizabeth. He left his Vauxhall estate in St Elizabeth in trust for the benefit of the female branches of the family of his grandson John Stokes Salmon. His residuary heir was his son John Salmon (q.v., under John Salmon junior).

N.B. There is a long list of estates associated with John Salmon as attorney, for which it is unclear to which John Salmon each refers, either Hon. John Salmon or his son John Salmon Jr. (see entry for John Salmon 2146639373 q.v.).

We are grateful to Rosemary King and David Barker for their assistance with compiling this entry.


Sources

T71/860 Manchester no. 95; T71/870 St Elizabeth nos. 2, 208 and 617; T71/871 Westmoreland no. 484.

  1. Somerset, England, C of E Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1531-1812; Parish Registers and Civil Registration, Families from Norward to Witter in Jamaican Family Search (Parish Registers, St Elizabeth, 1798 and 1806).

  2. Slave Registers, St Elizabeth, 1817-1832; B.W. Higman, Plantation Jamaica: 1750-1850: Capital and Control in a Colonial Economy. University of West Indies Press, 2008.

  3. NDO8; T71/1594 pp. 105 and 148 Commissioners to John Salmon P.O. Thornbury 02/08/18137; 03/11/1837 and 01/12/1837.

  4. 1841 and 1851 censuses online.

  5. PROB 11/2262.


Further Information

Absentee?
Transatlantic
Spouse
Elizabeth
Children
John, Mary Ann

Associated Claims (4)

£5,509 17s 11d
Awardee (Trustee)
£1,322 19s 0d
Awardee (Trustee)
£1,990 13s 0d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£2,201 3s 5d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)

Associated Estates (7)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1839 [EA] - → Not known
1809 [EA] - 1827 [LA] → Owner
1823 [EA] - → Attorney
1823 [EA] - → Attorney
1823 [EA] - → Attorney
1823 [EA] - → Attorney
1823 [EA] - → Attorney

Relationships (10)

Son-in-law → Father-in-law
Father → Son
Other relatives
Notes →
The two men are clearly connected given their respective links to Alveston and Thornbury in Gloucestershire, but the precise relationship has not yet been established by LBS. It appears likely that...
Other relatives
Notes →
The two men are clearly connected given their respective links to Alveston and Thornbury in Gloucestershire, but the precise relationship has not yet been established by LBS. It appears likely that...
Father → Son
Son → Father
Father → Daughter
Notes →
Reputed...
Husband → Wife
Nephew → Uncle
Nephew → Uncle

Addresses (1)

Alveston, Thornbury, Gloucestershire, South-west England, England