Capt. Thomas Garth R.N.

Captain, Royal Navy, nephew of General Thomas Garth and son of Charles Garth (1738-1784, colonial agent and MP for Devizes 1765-1780). Inherited Haines Hill and estates and enslaved people on Barbados after the death of his brother Charles (d. 1818) who had inherited from Frances Colleton (q.v.), widow of James Edward Colleton (q.v.). John Garth, the grandfather of Charles (d. 1818) and Thomas Garth (1781-1841) had been James Edward Colleton's second cousin. Captain Thomas Garth left £300,000 in 1841.

1. John Colleton, grandson of a royalist who fled to Barbados after the civil war, bought Haines Hill in Berkshire in 1736 and his son James Edward (d. 1787) MP for Lostwithiel married the daughter of the first Earl Cowper and had considerable property in England as well as West Indian plantations. 

2. The Times on General Thomas Garth's will shows Thomas Garth as the nephew of General Thomas Garth. 

3. Correspondence with the Commissioners of Compensation identify him as Captain Thomas Garth Royal Navy.

4. Thomas Colleton Garth, son of Thomas Garth the awardee, left £214,783 3s 8d (resworn from £215,813 5s 7d) 22/10/1907.

T71/899 Barbados claim no. 4210 (Colletons); T71/879 St Kitts claim no. 351 (Parry). 

William D. Rubinstein, Who were the rich? A biographical dictionary of British wealth-holders Volume Two 1840-1859 MS 1841/8. The 1841 census shows Thomas Garth Capt RN at Hill Street in London aged '55', with wife Charlotte aged 38.  

1. John Habakkuk, Marriage, debt and the estate system (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1994), p. 458. 

2. Times, 12/12/1829 p. 3. 

3. T71/1593 p. 49 Commissioners to Capt. Thomas Garth RN Haines Hill Maidenhead 09/01/1836; see also Register of Claims, T71/879 St Kitts claim no. 351 which gives Thomas Garth Haines Hill Co. Wilts [sic] Capt. RN.

4. National Probate Calendar 1907.

We are grateful to Guy Grannum for his assistance with compiling this entry.