William Coles

Awarded with Thomas Coles part of the compensation for the enslaved people on Hatton Garden in Dominica, as executor of George Go[o]dwin of Girdlers Hall.

1. Probably William Coles the younger of No. 7 Mincing Lane against whom a fiat of bankruptcy was issued in late 1832.

There is room for confusion here. The original claimant appears to have been William Coles the son-in-law of George Go[o]dwin who died in London February 1835 (and who was also one of the co-awardees of the compensation for Antigua No.  117, where he is shown as dying after that award was arbitrated but before it was paid). The award for this claim in Dominica was made inter alios to a second William Coles, almost certainly the son. Under the will of George Godwin of Battersea Surrey proved 27/11/1815, Thomas Coles of Thornton Heath and William Coles the younger, the latter described as 'my grandson' were executors. The will refers to mortgages over estates in Dominica and St Vincent held by the firm of Coles, Godwin & Coles (in which the partners had been Thomas Coles and Richard Godwin, both deceased by the time the will was made, and William Coles the older, George Godwin's son-in-law).

T71/881 Dominica no. 146. T71/1609 letter from T&W Coles, executors of late George Goodwin, Girdlers hall, London, 09/10/1835 explaining that the first William Coles was the son-in-law of George Goodwin, who went to Dominica May 1834, returned and died February 1835, and registered slaves only as executor of Joseph Fleming [Warner?].

1. London Gazette, Issue 19001, 04/12/1832, p. 2674; London Gazette, Issue 19016, 25/01/1833, p. 185' PROB 11/1574/386.