Richard Donovan

Barrister and planter of Gloucestershire and of Antigua, almost certainly until his death in 1816 the owner (and son of the previous owner) of the Donovans estate on Antigua, the compensation for the enslaved people on which was paid into the colonial court. He died aged 43 or 45 of yellow fever on Antigua (11/07/1816) after 'the imperious command of parental duty urged him to visit' the island. He bought Tibberton Court in Gloucestershire in 1807 and the manor in 1815. There is a memorial to him in the chancel of Tibberton church, and a further one to his younger brother Francis Donovan, who died aged 29 in 1811 on his way to Antigua 'in the service of affection.' His daughter's title to Tibberton Court was disputed after his death.

1. Adm. pens. at ST JOHN'S, Oct. 4, 1790; Fell.-Com. Oct. 14. B. in Antigua, ‘America’ [W. Indies]. Adm. at Gray's Inn, July 26, 1790, as ‘s. and h. of James, of the Island of Antigua.’ Called to the Bar, 1795. Of Sergeant's Inn, 1797. Succeeded to the estate of Tibberton Court, Gloucs., on the death of his brother, Francis, c. 1811. Married, Sept. 12, 1797, Caroline Elizabeth, dau. of Robert [p.320] Gorges Dobyns Yate, of Bromsberrow, Gloucs. Died of yellow fever and was buried July 12, 1816, on his estate of St George's, Antigua. Monument to his memory at Tibberton, Gloucs. See V. L. Oliver's History of Antigua, 1. 207-8, for a pedigree and notes on the family of Donovan. (St John's Coll. Adm., IV. 230.)

2. The will of Richard Donovan of Tibberton Gloucestershire proved 24/12/1816 refers to the Chancery suit of Thurlow vs DeVisme over an unnamed estate in Antigua bequeathed to him by his father James Donovan. The 'will' of James Donovan of Antigua shown by TNA as proved in 09/05/1817 appears to have been a fragment or codicil to the main will of Richard's father James Donovan formerly of Antigua but now of '22 Somers Place East, New Road, Somers Town London', proved 13/01/1812.

3. November 1823: letter to Times from Walter Honywood Yate, Bath (Somerset), magistrate and deputy lieutenant of Gloucestershire, and brother-in-law of 'Mr Donovan', who was referred to in David Ricardo's will when David Ricardo indemnified the legatees up to £50,000 for costs of disputing the ownership of the Bromeberrow estate. Donovan was identified by Yate as one of his (Yate's) trustees, and as a barrister who owned estates in Gloucestershire and Antigua, and who died in Antigua from yellow fever on a visit. Mrs Scott, Donovan's daughter, was his heir and executor. In Richard Donovan's will of 1816, he refers to the sale of Bromeberrow (to Joseph Pitt) by Walter Honywood Yate when the latter's mind was disturbed.

4. 'Mrs Scott' was Caroline Ann, the only child of Richard Donovan and Caroline Elizabeth Yate, who married Captain James Scott RN. Scott, later Sir James Scott, has an entry in the ODNB as 'naval officer' which makes no mention of the slave-ownership of his wife's family.

T71/877 Antigua No. 346 (the claim in Antigua No. 346 was made by Wm Boyd, 'trustee and executor of S. [sic] Donovan', probably an error for J. Donovan: the will of Stephen Donovan, Captain of the Royal Navy of Saint Philip and Jacob Gloucestershire whose will was proved 24/04/1832 appears unrelated; http://www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk/sites/default/files/work-in-progress/Tibberton_photographs_6520.pdf [accessed 18/04/2016]; Times 30/10/1823, letter from Walter Honywood Yate; PROB 11/1798.

1. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online]

2. PROB 11/1587/333; PROB 11/1592/141; PROB 11/1529/48.

3. Times 30/10/1823, letter from Walter Honywood Yate; will of David Ricardo, PROB 11/1798.

4. British Naval Biographical Dictionary, pp. 1042-43; J. K. Laughton, ‘Scott, Sir James (1790?–1872)’, rev. Andrew Lambert, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24881, accessed 18 April 2016].