Charles Farquharson MD

Profile & Legacies Summary

1742 - 1797

Biography

Father of William, Isabella, Matthew and Charles Farquharson and Frances Stone (each of whom q.v.). Also father of a posthumous daughter, Anna, born 31/01/1798 and baptised 29/05/1798.

Dr Charles Farquharson (1742-1797) of Dundee arrived in Jamaica as a physician and surgeon. He married Frances Tatham Smith (Jamaican-born, white, 1758-1829) and they had 10 children.

He acquired Spring Vale Estate in St Elizabeth Parish which on his death passed to his daughter Isabella (1791-1882). In 1817 she registered one enslaved person (Helen) in her own name. However the estate had been controlled by her brother Charles since 1809 at which time there were 119 enslaved people working on the land. These estates or plantations mostly grew sugar-cane for export to Britain.

The Hon. Charles Farquharson (1787-1825) was a member of the Honorable House of Assembly, a Lieutenant Colonel of Militia and an assistant judge. The House of Assembly was the legislature of the British colony of Jamaica. At that time a high property qualification ensured that the House of Assembly was dominated by the white Jamaican planter class. However, to elect these representatives, the bar was lower for "freeholders", who just had to be white men with a house, pen or plantation, and owned enslaved people.

On Charles’ death in 1825 control of the Estate passed to his brother (and executor) Matthew, at which time there were 160 enslaved people on the estate: 84 females and 76 males. Matthew Farquharson (1792-1840) was a magistrate and a Clerk of the Peace, and owned 3 estates in his own right.

Frances Eliza Farquharson (aged 2½), Matthew Smith Farquharson (aged 1½) and Anna Farquharson (1 month) were all christened in the parish of St Elizabeth on 14th March 1819, along with 57 ‘negro slaves’ owned by their father Charles. 22 of the enslaved people had the surname Farquharson.