Edward Miller Cowell

Awarded the compensation for 8 enslaved people in Kingston Jamaica, and identified as an absentee.

1. Charlotte Bromfield and Edward Cowell had four sons baptised in Kingston: John Langland (1798), Andrew (1802), James (1804) and Edward Miller (1809). She is given as "mestee" at the baptism of Andrew 1802 and "quadroon" for the baptisms of her younger two sons.

2. Charlotte Bromfield married Edward Cowell in Kingston 17/07/1836. She died 22/09/1854 in Kingston. Her descendants emigrated to Gibraltar and India, finally ending up in England.

3. Edward Cowell registered enslaved people as natural guardian of Edward M. Cowell in Manchester in 1826 and as agent to Edward Cowell the younger, an absentee, in Kingston in 1829. This suggests the awardee is the absent Edward Miller Cowell baptised in Kingston in 1809.

4. The will with a codicil of Edward Millar Cowell formerly of the city of Calcutta in the East Indies merchant, afterwards of the city of Gibraltar and late of Great Malvern in the County of Worcester Esquire deceased who died 30/04/1859 at Great Malvern provied by the oaths of John Elliott of Calcutta, now ow 18 Queen's Road West, Regent's Park, merchant, and Alfred Mumford of 168 Upper Thames Street, London, merchant and Thomas Creswell of Lisbon, merchant, three of the executors. Effects under £3000.

5. Edward Miller Cowell was buried in Great Malvern, 03/05/1859.

6. East India merchant. An inventory of his estate in India in 1860 totals £40,461 7s 2d.

T71/861 Kingston claim no. 918. Edward Cowell absentee.

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

2. Ibid.; email from Paul Vaughan 03/05/2020.

3. T71/68 pp. 85-86; T71/106 p. 108.

4. National Probate Calendar 1859.

5. Ancestry.com, England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 [database online].

6. Findmypast.co.uk, British India Office Inventories and Accounts of Deceased Estates [database online].

We are grateful to Paul Vaughan for his assistance with compiling this entry.