Sir Edward Hyde East 1st Bart.

9th Sep 1764 - 8th Jan 1847

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

MP (for Great Bedwyn 1792-1796 and Winchester 1823-1831) and Chief Justice of Bengal (1813-1823) and a major slave-owner in Jamaica (where he was born). He died at Sherwood Lodge Battersea in 1847, his estate reportedly insufficient to cover his legacies and bequests. He is in the ODNB as 'judge in India and legal writer.'

  1. Of Raymond Hall, Maryland estate (see St Andrew claim no. 171) it was written: 'Raymond Hall is the great house on Maryland coffee estate. Situated in the Blue Mountains ... it has been in the possession of the East family for upwards of two hundred years.' In the 1830s it was in the possession of Edward Hyde East and referred to by Anthony Trollope, 'The West Indies and the Spanish Main'. Cundall has a chapter on Raymond Hall. 

  2. East's son, Sir James Buller East [q.v.], was on the committee of the Eyre Defence Fund in 1866.

  3. The Survey of London identifies Sir Edward Hyde East's death-place as Sherwood Lodge and gives a history of the house, 'considered one of the finest riverside residences near London', including its earlier occupation by the royal mistress Mrs Fitzherbert, commenting that 'His move to Battersea [which it places as 'by 1844'] has been attributed to reduced circumstances caused by falling sugar prices as opposition to slavery grew. Superficially this hardly accords with the character of the house, but already the district was not quite what it had been.'


Sources

Philip Simon/Howard Spencer, 'East, Sir Edward Hyde (1764-1847) of 12 Stratford Place, Mdx.' History of Parliament online, accessed 23/10/2013, which gives his death-place as 'Sherwood House'; ODNB online H. J. Spencer, 'East, Sir Edward Hyde, frst baronet (1764-1847), judge in India and legal writer.' The entry describes the 'sugar plantations on which the family fortunes were based', which it also describes as his 'West Indian estates' as 'an economic and political liability' in the 1820s or early 1830s, and gives his estate at death as less than £3000.

  1. Frank Cundall, Studies in Jamaica History (London, Sampson, Low, Marston and Company for the Institute of Jamaica, 1900), p. 73 and 70-76 ('Raymond Hall'). 

  2. The Eyre Defence and Aid Fund (London, 1866), p. 4.

  3. Survey of London: Battersea, p. 45, accessed 21 October 2016.


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Name in compensation records
Rt. Hon. Sir E. Hyde East Bart.
Spouse
Jane Isabella Hankey
Children
James Buller East
Occupation
Judge
Oxford DNB Entry

Associated Claims (8)

£4,043 16s 5d
Awardee
£2,443 19s 2d
Awardee
£3,729 2s 11d
Awardee
£3,086 17s 6d
Awardee
£2,629 19s 3d
Awardee
£750 1s 11d
Awardee (Owner-in-fee)
£4,565 0s 8d
Awardee
£336 16s 4d
Awardee

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
1796 [EA] - → Owner
1834 [EA] - → Joint owner
1809 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Owner
1810 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Owner
1809 [EA] - 1811 [LA] → Owner
1832 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Owner
1823 [EA] - 1829 [LA] → Lessee

Legacies Summary

Cultural (2)

Prints, Drawings & Paintings
Print, whole-length portrait of Sir Edward Hyde East, seated. Stipple engraving by Frederick Christian Lewis, from a drawing by Henry Corbould after a sculpture by Francis Chantrey,... 
notes →
Fellow
Royal Society...... 
notes →
For the full record of East's membership of the Royal Society see Royal Society:...

Political (1)

MP
Conservative / West India interest 
election →
Great Bedwyn Wiltshire
1792 - 1796
election →
Winchester Hampshire
1823 - 1831

Relationships (7)

Father → Son
Brother → Sister
Grandson → Grandfather
Nephew → Uncle
Son → Father
Nephew → Aunt
Brother-in-laws

Addresses (3)

12 Stratford Place, Marylebone, London, Middlesex, London, England
Minchenden House, Southgate, Middlesex, London, England
Sherwood House, Battersea, Surrey, London, England