Hon. John Scott

Slave-owner on Jamaica. Through his first marriage to Frances Mary Henderson he gained Clarendon Park.

1. Hon. John Scott contributed £50 to the University of Pennsylvania following Dr John Morgan's fundraising tour of the West Indies in 1772-1773.

2. Will of Hon. John Scott of St Thomas-in-the-East [made in 1772] proved 12/02/1776. In the will he explained that after the death of his daughter Frances Mary, he had become entitled to the property which had been settled on Frances Mary as the child of his marriage, whereby his wife's family had contributed the property and he had paid £10,000 to clear the debts on it (and had he said contributed more, that were thus claims on it). The property comprised Clarendon Park, Tenants Pen, and sundry parcels of land at Milk River, in St James, St Ann and St Elizabeth. He left these estates and the enslaved people on them, together with his own Retreat estate in St Thomas-in-the-East, to his three sons John, George and Matthew Henry as tenants-in-common. His later father, also John Scott, had settled on his [the testator's] sister Sarah on her marriage in 1767 the Town and lands of Ballingarry in Tipperary; his sister having died without issue, the lands reverted to Hon. John Scott on the death of his brother-in-law Frederick Draught [sp?] and he [the testator] willed them to his son John. The Hon. John Scott's brother had been Lt-Governor of Dominica, and had left in his will of 1767 the Boulogne estate on Grenada, which Hon. John Scott was contesting with his brother Michael. He referred to his father-in-law as Dr Matthew Gregory and his second late wife as Lucretia Favell his daughter.

3. John Scott was listed in the Jamaican Quit Rent books for 1754 as the owner of 800 acres of land in St Ann, 500 acres in St James, 300 acres in St Elizabeth and 4221 acres in Clarendon, total 5821 acres.

4. The will of John Scott Esquire of St Thomas-in-the-East was proved in Jamaica 11/12/1773.

1. C. S. Graubard, 'Documenting the University of Pennsylvania's Connection to Slavery (2018) via archives.upenn.edu [accessed 16/01/2019].

2. PROB 11/1017/20.

3. 'A List of landholders in the Island of Jamaica together with the number of acres each person possessed taken from the quit rent books in the year 1754', TNA CO 142/31 transcribed at http://www.jamaicanfamilysearch.com/Samples2/1754lead.htm.

4. LOS 41.

We are grateful to Paul Hitchings and Daniel Livesay for their assistance with compiling this entry.