Francis Spencer Wigley

1. Tentatively identified as the Francis Spencer Wigley born 09/07/1805 and baptised 08/10/1805 in St George's Square, Westminster, son of John and Cordelia Wigley. His elder brother Thomas William was baptised the same day.

2. Apparently a barrister, entered into a partnership with Archibald Paull Burt (q.v.). Several sources state that Burt and Wigley invested the profits of their legal work into sugar estates in St Kitts. In 1834, he married Archibald Paull Burt's sister Eliza.

3. Wigley's father-in-law George Henry Burt, in his will dated 29/07/1847, bequeathed '"all my real and personal estate of all and any nature soever unto my Son Archibald Paull Burt and my Son in Law Francis Spencer Wigley to have and to hold the same to them their heirs executors administrators and assigns respectively as Tenants in Common for ever and I hereby appoint the said Archibald Paull Burt and Francis Spencer Wigley Executors of this my will ...". It was registered in the St Christopher Registry of Deeds Calendar of Entries commencing no 10509 March 19 1841, no 20701.'

4. "His Honour Francis Spencer Wigley residing in the island of Saint Christopher in the West Indies" was an executor of James Dean Rogers (late of St Kitts, thereafter residing at Bridge of Allan in Scotland) whose will was proved in 1870.

5. Francis Spencer Wigley was president of St Kitts 1870-1872 and president of St Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla, 1885-1888. The Wigley in partnership with Burt died in March 1872 so may have been the Francis Spencer Wigley who held the first tenure, with the second (or both) perhaps being a son.

6. After Wigley's death, Burt visited St Kitts "to endeavour to salvage the affairs of a partnership into which he had entered with Francis Spencer Wigley when he was a young man. The partnership owned sugar estates and in 1873, contrary to Burt's belief, was found to be bankrupt."

1. Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online].

2. McClemans, Sheila, 'Burt, Sir Archibald Paull (1810–1879)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/burt-sir-archibald-paull-3122/text4643 [accessed 26/11/2018], Chris Birch, The Milk Jug was a Goat. Two families, two Caribbean islands, 1635-1987 (2011), chapter 6.

3. Quote from https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Burt-1791 [accessed 26/11/2018].

4. National Probate Calendar 1870.

5. 'List of colonial governors and administrators of Saint Christopher', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colonial_governors_and_administrators_of_Saint_Christopher [accessed 26/11/2018]; Chris Birch, The Milk Jug was a Goat chapter 6.

6. McClemans, Sheila, 'Burt, Sir Archibald Paull (1810–1879)'.

We are grateful to Scott Davis for his assistance with compiling this entry.