Ascanius William Senior

William Askanius Senior or W.A. Senior appears as an early purchaser of land on Dominica, being shown as the original purchaser of St Andrew Lot no. 113 (170 acres) and with Robert George Bruce of Lot no. 114 (no acreage given); by 1777 he was also 'present possessor' with Robert George Bruce of St David Lots nos. 26 & 33 (a total of 438 acres) and of a further leased tract under St David Lands on Lease Lot no. 3.

1. The will of Ascanius William Senior of St Marylebone was proved in London in 10/11/1789. Ascanius William Senior was an East India Co. man and returned nabob, and his will is silent on property in Dominica: it concerns largely the transmission of his estate at Bray in Berkshire and his provision for his three daughters. However, genealogical sites suggest that Ascanius William Senior and his brother Thomas Nassau Senior (q.v., also given as Nassau Thomas Senior) were 'estate-owners' in Barbados, Dominica and Trinidad/Tobago, although the latter is disputed online. The identification of Ascanius William Senior as the investor in Dominica is confirmed by a letter in the National Library of Wales Journal and by several items of correspondence between 1771 and 1778 in the Nassau Senior Papers.

2. The will of Ascanius William Senior's son-in-law John Anstey (q.v.), who had married the former's daughter Helen in 1792 after Ascanius William Senior's death, shows that under Anstey's marriage settlement, the income from his wife's one-third share of £19,626 10s secured on estates [and enslaved people] in Barbados and her one-third share of £6200 secured by the bond of Thomas Nassau Senior (q.v.) were to be paid to her for life after John Ansey's death, with the capital passing to the couple's children.

1. PROB 11/1185/62; http://www.peerage.org/genealogy/pylewell.htm [accessed 06//09/2016]; NASSAU SENIOR PAPERS E2. [Captain] R[obert] G. Bruce, Dominica to William Ascanius [sic] Senior; [London?] Dominica ist May 1771. 'Dear Sir I have taken a great deal of pains to examine the Island and I think that I have now fixt in the best Quarter in it, and where the lands are inferior to few in the West Indies I took a great deal of pains and made some offers to get an Estate…' National Library of Wales Journal Cyf. 20, rh. 4 1 December 1978 p. 59, https://journals.library.wales/search?decade%5B0%5D=1970&sort=date&order=asc&page=2173 [accessed 21/04/2020]; https://archives.library.wales/downloads/nassau-senior-papers.pdf [accessed 21/04/2020].

2. PROB 11/1625/205.