Robert McGhie

1752 - 1815


Biography

Slave-owner in Trelawney Jamaica, shown in his will [made in 1814] as of Upcott House, Bishops Hull, Somerset leaving his estates and enslaved people in trust for his wife and children, the will later subject to the Chancery suit of McGhie v McGhie. Possibly the Robert McGhie who was buried aged 63 at St George the Martyr in Southwark 08/06/1815. His son John Poulett McGhie was Vicar of St Thomas's, Portsmouth between 1838 and 1868.

  1. Administration of the will of Robert McGhie of [Upcott House] Bishops Hall [sic] Somerset [made 27/09/1814] was granted 20/06/1817 to Richard Brickdale Ward. Under the will McGhie confirmed his marriage settlement with Elizabeth Pomeroy Bruce and used his power to dispose of £6000 under that settlement to leave £2000 to his daughter Janet or Janetta Pomeroy McGhie at 21 and £4000 to his other children equally. He left two plantations or sugarworks called the Retreat and Hampstead, and 'those other estates commonly called or known by the name Coxheath Pen, Mount Lebanon, Belle Vue, Grays Inn and Cyder [sic] Grove commonly called Macfarlanes' containing 3500 acres, with all the negroes, slaves, live and dead stock thereto belonging, and the property belonging to him that had belonged to his brothers James and Jonathan McGhie, together with his property in Great Britain, in trust for his wife and children, and instructed that his trustees account annually in Chancery in Jamaica or Britain for their payments and receipts.

Sources

Ancestry.com, London, England Deaths and Burials, 1813-1980 [accessed 24/01/2016]; Encyclopaedia of Portsmouth p. 74, https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/ext/documents-external/lib-portsmouthencyclopaedia-2011.pdf [accessed 22/11/2016].

  1. PROB 11/1593/333.

Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish?
Spouse
Elizabeth Pomery Bruce

Associated Estates (6)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1817 [EA] - 1823 [LA] → Previous owner
1789 [EA] - 1801 [LA] → Owner
1817 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Previous owner
- 1815 [EY] → Owner

Administration of Robert McGhie's will was granted in 1817 but he appears to have died in 1815.

1817 [EA] - 1831 [LA] → Previous owner
- 1815 [EY] → Owner

Left in trust for his wife and children under the will of Robert McGhie made in 1814, for which administration was granted in 1817.


Legacies Summary

Physical (1)

Country house
Upcott House [Purchased] 
description →
Grade II farmhouse, 17thC enlarged c. 1790, now two houses (Upcott House and The Cottage). Robert McGhie is known [from the entry in the register of Blundell's School for his sons William and...

Relationships (2)

Brother-in-laws
Notes →
Robert McGhie married Elizabeth Pomeroy Bruce, the sister of James Bruce....
Deceased Husband → Widow

Addresses (1)

Upcott House, Bishops Hull, Taunton, Somerset, South-west England, England