Clifton Hall

Thomas Rous appears to have first acquired the estate in 1662. By 1737 Samuel Rous inherited the estate from his father, John Rous. Samuel died in c.1784. In 1787, his daughter, Elizabeth Dottin, widow of Abel Dottin of Oxford, England, entered a petition in the Court of Ordinary, Pilgrim, Barbados in which she asked that her father’s will made in 1744 was probated and that a previous decision of the Court giving administration of the estate of Samuel Rous to his son-in-law Cheeseman Moe, the husband of Lucretia Moe, neé Rous, be rescinded and that the administration of his estate be given to her because she had large financial claims on her father’s plantation, Clifton Hall. The petition was granted by Governor David Parry.
Number of enslaved not known.

Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.

Robert Haynes purchased the estate for £35,350. 'Mr James Maxwell bid on me and made me pay at least £3,000 more than I had intended. The estate was literally in want of everything for reaping a crop. Mill, boiling house, and distillery required to be rebuilt from the foundation, and most of the coppers and stills to be replaced with new ones.' (Haynes Notes, p. 18) Labour also lacked discipline. But put Mr Francis, from New Castle (q.v.) in to manage the estate, moved 60 enslaved from there to Clifton Hall and then sold the Haynes Estate (q.v.) and enslaved to the value of £18,000. This reduced the debit on Clifton to £15,000. (ibid., p. 19)
According to Hughes, the sale was in the Chancery Court. Elizabeth Dottin, neé Rous, a daughter of Hon. Samuel Rous, deceased, died in England in 1806. By her will made in 1799 (56/48) Elizabeth Dottin bequeathed Clifton Hall, 365 acres, to her son Abel Rous Dottin as life tenant provided he took the name and coat of arms of the testator’s father, Hon. Samuel Rous deceased. The land was appraised at £49 per acre, all land at £17,811, 151 enslaved, (the highest value appraised at £175, with all the enslaved valued at £10,285. The value of the whole plantation was £32,954. Purchased at Chancery Court auction against competition for £35,350 by Robert Haynes (owner of New Castle).

Notes by General Robert Haynes (1912), pp. 18-19; Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.

By a marriage settlement, Robert Haynes jnr. son of Robert Haynes snr. marrying Sarah Ann Payne, daughter of Joseph Alleyne Payne of St. Joseph acquired the estate. Robert Haynes senior gives Clifton Hall to his son subject to lien on plantation held by Miss Ann Dottin, of St. John. Number of enslaved not known.

Barbados Department of Archives. Hughes-Queree Index of Plantations.

[Number of enslaved people] 220(Tot) 123(F) 97(M)  

Return of Robert Haynes jun., his own property.

T71/521 602-7

[Number of enslaved people] 230(Tot)  
[Name] Clifton  

Return of Robert Haynes, his own property. Previously 219 enslaved.

T71/530 223-4

[Number of enslaved people] 237(Tot)  
[Name] [No name given]  

Return of Robert Haynes jun., his own property. Previously 230 enslaved. Haynes acquired 13 in right of marriage with Elizabeth Reece and 2 by partition of 'undivided property of Richard Haynes and myself'. For the latter see also Richard Haynes's return for the New Castle estate in 1826.

T71/537 16-17

[Number of enslaved people] 252(Tot)  
[Name] Clifton Hall  

Return of Robert Haynes jun., his own property.

T71/543 147-52

[Number of enslaved people] 280(Tot)  

Return of Robert Haynes jun., his own property.

T71/550 176-7