Asher Isaacs

Asher Isaacs, born in Jamaica and registered his own enslaved persons in St Elizabeth in 1832 but living in London from the 1850s to the 1870s.

1. Born in Jamaica, 08/01/1803, the fifth son of Soloman Isaacs. Listed as an owner of enslaved people in St Elizabeth in the Jamaica Almanacs of 1820, 1823, 1824, 1831 and 1832. Registered 11 enslaved people in St Elizabeth in 1832.

2. Married Charlotte Jame Thornthwaite in Marylebone, England, Q3 1851. In the 1861 census he was living in West Dome House, Bognor, Sussex, occupation Fundholder, born Jamaica, with his wife Charlotte Jane age 36, born Middlesex, their children Arthur Henry (8), Ernest George (7), Gertrude Edith (6), Charles Ed (4), Agnes G. (3) and Percy Albert (1), plus 4 female servants. The 5 eldest children listed as born in Middlesex and the 2 youngest born in Bognor.

3. In 1871 he was living at Edon Hill, London Road, Tonbridge, Kent, "Income from Rents and Dividends of Various Securities", age 68, Blind, with his wife Charlotte Jane age 45 (this time listed as born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, Middlesex), his 4 youngest children, a governess and 3 female servants.

4. "The Will with a Codicil of Asher Isaacs formerly of West Dome House Upper Bognor in the County of Sussex afterwards of Tunbridge inthe County of Kent but late of Iver Cottage in the Santa Cruz District of the Parish of St. Elizabeth in the Island of Jamaica Esquire who died 26 April 1875 at Yardley Chase St. Elizabeth was proved at the Principal Registry by the Reverend Augustus Albert Isaacs of Christ Church Vicarage Leicester in the County of Leicester Clerk the Nephew one of the surviving Executors. Effects under £1,500."

5. Monumental inscription in St Mary's Churchyard, St Elizabeth to Asher Isaacs, born 08/01/1801[sic?], died 26/04/1875 age 74 years.

6. In 1881 his widow Charlotte Jane Isaacs, age 56, was a visitor at 37 Upper Grosvenor Street, Westminster, in the household of Sir John Peter Grant, age 73, "OCMS and KCB retired Indian Civil Servant and ex-Governor of Jamaica".

1. 'Ashkenazi Congregation, English and German Jews, Kingston, Jamaica, 1788-1905 Register of Births' at www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com. Jamaica Almanacs 1820, 1823, 1824, 1831 and 1832. Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database online].

2. Ancestry.com, England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915 [database online]. 1861 census online.

3. 1871 census online.

4. National Probate Calendar 1875.

5. Philip Wright, Monumental Inscriptions of Jamaica (London, Society of Genealogists, 1966) p. 182.

6. 1881 census online.

We are grateful to Madeleine Mitchell for her assistance in compiling this entry.