Caroline Bromfield Coley (née Gautier)

1. Caroline Bromfield was born 05/01/1811, daughter of John Gautier and his wife Ruth Caroline nee Bromfield, and baptised at Southfield (Andrew Bromfield's estate) 25/11/1811.

2. John Gautier registered ownership of enslaved people in St Elizabeth as guardian of Caroline in 1817, 1820 and 1823; she was represented by her grandmother, Mary Bromfield, as guardian in 1826.

3. John Coley esq and Caroline Gautier, spinster, both of Manchester parish, were married there by licence, 24/11/1828. Emma, daughter of John and Caroline Coley of John's Hall, was born 03/09/1829 and baptised in Manchester 23/11/1830.

4. As Caroline B. Coley she registered ownership of four enslaved people in Manchester in 1829 and of five enslaved people in 1832.

5. At some point between 1832 and 1836, John Coley changed his surname to Bromfield, presumably a condition of an inheritance from his wife's mother's family. They may have been the parents of four more children baptised in Manchester with the surname Bromfield: John Coley (born 04/05/1836 and baptised 09/05/1837, father given as John Coley Bromfield of Mellington Lodge Esquire, mother Caroline his wife); Mary Ann Hay (baptised 09/06/1838, father John Bromfield of Scotia, apprentice[?]); Robert Anderson (baptised 09/08/1841, father John Bromfield of Scotia, Ranger, mother Caroline Bromfield); and Susanna Wright (born 05/06/1843, baptised 30/07/1843, father John Bromfield of Scotia, mother Caroline Bromfield).

6. Caroline Bromfield, age 42, married, annuitant, born Jamaica, was living alone at 33 Coleshill Street, St George Hanover Square, London, in 1851. In 1861, as C. B. C. Bromfield, age 53, widow, annuitant, she was living at 6 Walpole Street, Chelsea with one female servant. In 1871 she was living at 17 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh, again with one female servant. The death of Caroline B. Coley-Bromfield was registered in Steyning, Sussex, aged 78 years in 1888. The will of Caroline Bromfield Coley of Brighton was proved in 1888 by John Turnbull, one of her executors.

7. The name change is confirmed by the death of Caroline Bromfield Coley Bromfield, widow, who died 03/10/1888 at 49 Selborne Road, Hove, Sussex. Caroline's eldest son John C. Bromfield was living at the same address in 1881 with his wife and three daughters - his birth c. 1837 in Jamaica. This man gave his surname as Coley-Bromfield at the baptism of his daughter Beatrice Pringle in Kensington in 1863.

1. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

2. 1817 register: T71/164 448.

3. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

4. T71/69 [unpaginated]; T71/73 91.

5. Familysearch.org, Jamaica Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880 [database online].

6. Censuses 1851, 1861, 1871; Findmypast.co.uk, Index to Death Duty Registers [database online].

7. National Probate Calendar 1889; 1881 census online; Ancestry.com, London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database online].

We are grateful to David Barker for his assistance with compiling this entry.