Catherine Estridge Buncombe

Slave-owner in St Kitts, with a memorial in Exeter Cathedral.

1. Will of Catherine Estridge Buncombe spinster of the Island of St Christopher but now residing in the parish of St Marylebone proved 02/12/1772. Under the will she left monetary legacies of £200 to John Calfe of Rotherhithe, £250 to Catherine Hammond of St Marylebone, £50 to her god-daughter Elizabeth Caines, £50 to her friend Mrs Margaret Willson (once Halliday); £100 to her sister Mrs Ann Catherine Perreau, the interest on £100 to another sister Mrs Mary Wylly. She left mourning rings to John Estridge of Hanover Square and his four daughters, including Polly 'whom fortune has so amply sat above being benefitted by any trifle I can leave.' 'To my negro women Ffriday [?] and Benneba I give their freedom for ever. Also to poor little George son of my dear deceased Nelly I give and bequeath his freedom forever and the sum of £50'; she placed him in the guardianship of Captain Calfe. After other monetary legacies she left her residual estate 'whether negroes, molattas, mustees' to 'my all good all tender parent for she has been all that to me except the name' Anna Maria Leigh of St Christophers now residing at Queen Ann Street.

Magna Britannia (1822) erroneously shows her memorial as describing her as of the Island of Barbados: this has been followed by other secondary sources. The memorial shows her as of the island of St Christopher. 'Buncombe' appears on Samuel Baker's 1753 map of St Kitts for an estate in St John Capisterre.

1. PROB 11/983/119.

We are grateful to Peter Wingfield-Digby for drawing our attention to the Exeter Cathedral plaque.