George Turner

Jamaican slave-owner, dying and buried at Hawkhurst in Kent c. 1828. He left his estates to George French (q.v.), a shopkeeper in Hurst Green.

1. Owner of 223 enslaved people and 354 stock in St Ann, Jamaica, in 1792.

2. Queenhithe and Tobolski estates were registered to George Turner from 1811 to 1831 and to George French from 1832 to 1845. George French inherited the Jamaica estates (as well as Risden House and all his other land in Kent and Sussex) under the will of George Turner of Hawkhurst, whose will was proved 03/06/1828. In the will George Turner describes George French as 'George French younger of Hurst Green in the parish of Sandhurst in the County of Sussex shopkeeper.' There is no explanation of his choice of heir or of George Turner's his own background, although it refers to property in which he lived when in London: the will is also (unusually for a man of this much property in that period) signed by mark. George Turner left £100 to Hamilton Brown of St Ann [Jamaica] if he were still acting as Turner's attorney at the time of Turner's death. There is a memorial to George Turner in St Laurence (or St Lawrence) Church, Hawkhurst which describes him as Risden House and of Rooksby Park Jamaica, dying aged 73 in 1828.

1. 'A List of slaves and stock in the parish of St Ann taken the 28th March 1792 pursuant to order of the Honourable House of Assembly... transcribed from papers presented to the British Museum by Charles E. Long ref. Add. 12435' transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Members/mstann1792.htm.

2. PROB 11/1742/40.