James Crow

Although most sources for the life of the politician John Robinson (q.v.), including the ODNB and History of Parliament entries for him, show his wife as the daughter of 'Nathaniel Crowe' of Barbados, LBS has concluded that her father was in fact James Crow, who died c. 1736, as suggested first in Notes & Queries in 1920. Material on the letter-writer Charlotte Turner Smith equally identifies her father-in-law Richard Smith's step-daughter Mary Robinson nee Crow as the daughter of 'Nathaniel Crowe' and Richard Smith's deceased wife (sometimes given as Elizabeth) as the widow of Nathaniel Crowe or 'Crow'. Again, LBS believes it was James Crow's widow named Mary who remarried to Richard Smith in Barbados in 1737.

1. Administration of the will of James Crow merchant of St Michael Barbados (made in 1736) was granted 26/06/1756. He left several named enslaved people to his wife Mary for life and then to his son David; he gave an estate in Cumberland called Crowsgate to his brother Nathan until David reached 21, and left Nathan £400 currency. He left half his residuary estate to his son David and half to his wife and daughter, also named Mary. [The administration was awarded to David Crow the son, Mary the widow having died].

Notes & Queries Series 12 Vol. VII 31/07/1920 p. 93; for the continued confusion over 'Nathaniel Crow' or Crowe see e.g. The Collected Letters of Charlotte Smith edited by Judith Phillips Stanton.

1. PROB 11/823/300.