Alexander Bizzett

1. Will of Alexander Bizzett planter of Chesterfield estate, written 04/01/1840 and proved 17/07/1841. In the will he left £200 each to his four sisters in the County of Lanark and Renfrew, Marian, Agnes, Jean and Janet Bizzett. He left £500 to his eldest daughter Latitia, £300 to his youngest Elizabeth and the rest of his estate divided between his three middle children, Alexander, Agnes and William Waddel Bizzett.

2. Agnes Foster nee Bizzett was one of the founders of the Salvation Army in Jamaica c. 1885. Research by Jeffrey Green has traced her history in England, where she married in 1848. Audrey Dewjee has found two advertisements for Agnes Foster 'the Coloured Wonder of the Day', who was to preach in Sheffield at the Grand Circus, Tudor Street on Sunday 16th July 1882. Most sources, following Rebecca Tortello, say that she was born into slavery and was taken by her mistress to England. To date LBS has not been able to trace her in the Slave Registers.

3. William Waddel Bizzett became a doctor with the 16th Bengal Grenadiers in the service of the Honourable East India Company. In 1841 William and his sister Agnes were in the houshold of their aunt Agnes Craig (another of the beneficiaries of his father's will). By 1851 William was a student of medicine in Glasgow. He joined the Royal College of Surgeons in 1854 and died of cholera at the age of 24 on 24/08/1856 in Meean Meer, India (now in Pakiston). No baptism record has been found for him, but his birth is given in the Roll of the Indian Medical Services as 05/06/1832 at Port Royal, Jamaica.

1. PROB 11/1948/167.

2. http://www.jeffreygreen.co.uk/156-in-search-of-agnes-foster-jamaican-salvationist-born-ca-1823" [accessed 05/01/2018]; Sheffield Daily Telegraph - Saturday 15 July 1882, p.8. and Sheffield and Rotherham Independent - Saturday 15 July 1882, p.1; E.g. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120512/western/western2.html [accessed 05/01/2018]; http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0075.html [accessed 05/01/2018].

3. Email from Perry King, 27/04/2018 sourced to 1841 and 1851 censuses (note the surnames and places of birth for the children in 1851 are misleading); Roll of Indian Medical Services; family monument in New Monkland.

We are grateful to Perry King and Audrey Dewjee for their help with this entry.