Rachel Kilpatrick (née Samson)

Rachael Samson, "free child of colour", batised 02/08/1818 in Vere. Her parents were Thomas Samson, a planter and attorney, and Margaret Williams, an enslaved woman belonging to the Goulburn family on Amity Hall estate in Vere. Thomas Samson was attorney for Amity Hall between 1802 and 1818.

Rachel's siblings Jane (born 1796), Charles (1798), John (1801), Thomas (1804), Margaret (c. 1809) and Georgiana (c. 1812) and her mother were valued at the request of Thomas Samson in 1816. As the youngest, Rachel was valued at the least amount, £40, her mother and siblings valued at between £140 and £60 each.

In 1818, Thomas Samson signed a bond agreeing to take responsibility for the payment of an annuity of £5 per annum to Rachel, her mother and her siblings, often undertaken as a precondition of manumission.

The slave register of 1820 recorded the manumission of Charles Samson, age 20; John Samson, age 17; Thomas Samson, age 14; Jane Samson, age 21; Margaret Samson age 9; Georgiana Samson age 6; Rachel Samson age 4 (all the children listed as "mulatto") and their mother Margaret Williams, "Negro", age 40, creole.

Ratchel[sic] Samson, age 20, born out of county, was living in Ochiltree in 1841 in the household of her uncle John Samson (Thomas's brother). She married Samuel Kilpatrick in Colyton, Ayrshire, in July 1841. In 1851 she was living at Barnhill, Ayrshire, age 35, with her husband and young family, birthplace given as Vere, Jamaica. She died in Montgomerieston, Ayrshire, in 1882; on her death certificate, her parents' names were given as Thomas Samson, coffee planter, and Margaret Samson nee Williams.

Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; see separate entry for Thomas Samson.

Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online]; 'Henry Goulburn' Exploring Surrey's Past, https://www.exploringsurreyspast.org.uk/themes/subjects/black_history/surrey/henry-goulburn/ [accessed 25/09/2018].

'Henry Goulburn'.

T71/52 pp. 80-82.

Censuses online; GROS OPR Marriages 583 030 219 Colyton; GROS Deaths 1882 600 9 Kirkpatrick.