The Enduring Simond Legacy part 3: Expansion in Grenada, 1763-1785

View of St George, Grenada, from Nouvelles vues perspectives des ports de France, dessinées pour le Roi par M. Ozanne. 1776

Grenada was ceded by France to Britain in 1763 under the Treaty of Paris, marking the end of the Seven Years War. Many French estate owners on the island were resistant to the new requirement to swear an oath of allegiance to the British Crown and preferred to sell out. In addition, the British introduced new trade regulations, customs duties and property laws which sometimes worked against the interests of the French plantation class. The death of a previous plantation owner provided a particular impetus for the new generation to sell their Grenadian assets. Peter Simond was ideally placed to broaden his activities in Grenada, being a native French speaker, cash rich and having previous experience trading with French St Domingue.

In 1764, Simond and Hankey purchased La Sagesse estate in the parish of St David, Grenada, for £26,250. They paid £4,375 upfront and committed to paying 4% interest on the remaining balance. The seller was Jean Baptiste Casenave De la Barere of Saint Severe in Gruyere, France, “now residing in the parish of Saint Bartholomew near the Royal Exchange London”. La Sagesse was an established sugar estate of approximately 200 acres, with one-third planted with sugar cane. Woods, provision grounds, meadow, lime and coffee trees covered the remainder of the land.[1]

A description of the estate buildings illustrates the scale of activities at La Sagesse. A watermill was housed in a stone warehouse measuring 100 feet by 30 feet and included a cistern to hold at least 80 hogsheads of sugar syrup – this was where the sugar canes were milled to extract the sap, which was then crystallised into semi-refined sugar in a stone boiling house measuring 45 feet by 30 feet. A distillery manufacturing rum was housed in a stone warehouse of 55 feet by 23 feet. Included in the purchase were 41 enslaved men (of whom two were overseers and the rest coopers, carpenters, refiners and field hands), 38 women, 17 boys between the ages of one and twelve years, 18 girls and 8 elderly men and women. Four years later, Simond and Hankey purchased an adjoining estate called Le Petit Trou for £2,753, adding 90 acres to their property.[2]

Simond was more frequently a mortgagee of estates and enslaved people rather than a direct purchaser. A list of the sums involved reveals the extraordinary level of capital Simond and Hankey had at their disposal. In 1763 Simond extended a £14,000 mortgage to Alexander Campbell on one moiety of La Conference estate. After partnering with John Hankey, the pair issued a £12,000 mortgage to Daniel Rochard De’Elphine on Grand Bras estate in 1765. That same year, they provided two additional mortgages: £14,000 to John Aitchison, secured on the remaining half of La Conference and £5,000 to Alexander John Alexander on Riviere du Chemin in St George. [3]

In 1766, Simond and Hankey became mortgagees of Grand Mall (£1,000), La Tante, St Cloud and Grand Bras (£8,000 on a one-quarter share), and Marli (£4,000). The following year they issued mortgages on Montrose (£8,000), La Gallere, La Misere and St Enfers (£6,000), Paradis, St Jean, Telescope, Simon, St L’Omer and Soubize (£12,000) and Beausejour (£2,200). In 1768 they granted mortgages on Crochu (£6,000), St Cyr (£7000), and Samaritan (£8,733) and increased their mortgage on La Gallere, La Misere and St Enfers by an additional £1,500.[4]

Within just five years following the Treaty of Paris, Simond and Hankey had granted at least £109,433 in mortgages across Grenadian estates, with further mortgages to follow. This sum does not include unsecured lines of credit granted by Simond and Hankey to proprietors in the island, which were likely to be considerable. It is clear that some of the mortgages came about when unsecured debts had reached an unacceptable level. In many cases Simond and Hankey took possession of the estates of plantation owners caught in a cycle of spiralling debt.

The Rochard family serves as a case study.  Brothers Louis Alexander, Anthony Francis and Louis Leon Rochard inherited Le Paradis and St John estates from their uncle in 1757 and two further estates – Simon and St L’Omer – from their father in 1765. They also jointly owned Telescope estate which they had purchased independently. Shortly after their father’s death, the Rochards took out a mortgage on Le Paradis, St John and Telescope “for securing the repayment of the sum of £12,000 sterling which Peter Simond and John Hankey lent and advanced to [them] at different times.” In other words, the mortgage did not represent fresh capital but rather the consolidation of pre-existing debts.[5]

Later that same year, the mortgage was extended by a further £7,000. Included in the mortgage deed was a clause stipulating that the produce of the estates be consigned to Simond and Hankey, who would then generate additional profit through the shipping and sale of the sugar crop. In 1768 a further £1,800 was added to the mortgage, again as a result of previous unsecured advances in the form of “several bills of exchange.”[6]

By December 1772 the full amount owed by the Rochards to Simond and Hankey – through both mortgages and unsecured credit – had reached £50,780 10s, and the two younger brothers – Anthony Francis and Louis Leon –  wanted out. They sold Le Paradis, St Jean and Telescope to two London merchants, Richard Bosanquet and John David Fatio, with Simond and Hankey retaining a £29,557 mortgage on these estates. The eldest brother, Louis Alexander Rochard, retained Simon, Soubize and St L’Omer with a mortgage of £21,222 16s 2d owed to Simond and Hankey.[7]

Louis Alexander Rochard owed money to other merchants too, and had also purchased further property on credit. In 1773 he mortgaged La Force estate to Simond and Hankey for £8,465 18s 6d, a sum required to discharge an existing debt owed to French merchants. Louis Alexander Rochard himself held a mortgage of £14,600 Grenadian currency on Richmond and Digue estates. He transferred this mortgage to Simond and Hankey as part of an effort to reduce the outstanding balance on the mortgages secured against his own estates.[8]

A list of the 75 enslaved men, women and children on Soubize estate in 1775 when Rochard transferred ownership of the estate to Simond and Hankey

Rochard’s debts continued to escalate and in 1775 he sold the Soubize estate to Simond and Hankey for £15,500, leaving them with a mortgage of £33,526 14s on Simon and St L’Omer estates. Included in the sale were the 75 enslaved people who lived and worked on the estate.[9]

Events came to a head in 1783 when Rochard and his wife Rose Henriette Casse, “finding the amount of the debts which they owed to the said Peter Simond and John Hankey as well as to many other persons too heavy for them ever to extricate themselves therefrom became desirous of giving up and making over all their interest in the said properties in Grenada to the said Simond and Hankey absolutely and forever…” The transfer included 40 enslaved people on La Force and 129 on Simon – the latter estate’s name having gradually evolved to become known as the Simond estate. Simond and Hankey agreed to pay £10,000 Grenadian currency to settle Rochard’s obligations to various other creditors.[10]

In the absence of surviving company accounts, the extent of Simond and Hankey’s operating capital and profits is not clear. It is evident, however, that they profited at multiple points in the supply chain. Firstly, they owned ships and could charge for transporting planters’ supplies from London to Grenada. They could also generate a profit by marking up goods they exported to the Caribbean. They charged interest on mortgages and other debts, typically five percent. The frequent existence of mortgage arrears guaranteed that the crop of the estate would be consigned to Simond and Hankey, allowing them to impose freight charges and take a commission on the final sale of the sugar. Simond and Hankey appear to have acted as agents in a number of other financial transactions, presumably earning commission for doing so.[11] Simond and Hankey owned three substantial merchant ships, The Simond, the Hankey and the Prince of Wales, sailing between London and Grenada from at least 1764 onwards.[12] The Simond also conducted three slaving voyages to the East African coast in the 1770s (see separate blog post, part 4.)

The planters themselves bore the immediate risk of crop failure but Simond and Hankey were also exposed to the wider vulnerabilities of trade disruption caused by a succession of major wars, including the War of Jenkins’ Ear (1739-1748), the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) and the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). The latter, which coincided with Simond’s emergence as a significant plantation owner, likely had a pronounced impact. The hurricane of 1780 also destroyed large parts of the island. In a brief gossipy report of the time, “Old Mr Simond… was before the late war one of the richest men in England; but through prodigious losses in his West India property, his fortune is supposed not to exceed 100,000l.”[13] While his father’s life had been marked by upheaval, conflict and geographic dislocation, Simond experienced the effects of war from the comfort of his London townhouse.

Simond was 92 or 93 years old when he acquired the last of the Rochard estates, but he was still signing deeds and conducting business. His wife Susanna cannot have been much younger and the survival of such an elderly couple is remarkable. His sister Catherine was to survive into her nineties too. Simond wrote his final will and testament in 1782, leaving Susanna an annuity of £400 per annum and testatory rights to a capital sum of £6,000. His Grenadian property was to be shared three ways: between his daughter Susanna Lady St John; his son-in-law Sir John Trevelyan (widower of his second daughter Marianne); and his business partner John Hankey, “whom with the entire approbation of my said daughter Lady St John and the said Sir John Trevelyan I hereby adopt as a child in consideration of his great fidelity and honorable conduct to me.”[14]  Hankey had been Simond’s business partner for nearly 20 years and the bond between them was evidently strong – perhaps deepened by the fact that Simond’s sons-in-law were both landed aristocrats with neither training nor inclination for commerce. Susannah died in February 1784 and Simond himself in November 1785. They were both buried in St Martin-in-the-Fields in London.[15]

The French Church in Threadneedle street, erected in 1669 and demolished in 1840, to which Simond bequeathed £50 in 1785, “for the use of the poor”.

Go to part 4: Simond as a slave trader

[1] Grenada deeds: Microfilm of manuscripts in the Registrar's Office, Supreme Court of Grenada, held by the Church of the Latter Day Saints (Familysearch.org) Register of Records, 1764-1931, vol. A1 pp. 250-260.

[2] Grenada deeds: vol. O1 pp. 160-178.

[3] Grenada deeds: La Conference vol. A1 pp. 61-72; Grand Bras C1 305-307; Riviere du Chenin B1 239-252.

[4] Grenada deeds: Grand Mall vol. E1 pp. 311-326; La Tante C1 314-333 and E1 165-182; Marli D1 428-452; Montrose E1 365-400; La Gallere G1 410-413; Paradis C1 1 (illegible due to insect damage but rehearsed in a later deed, G1 359-409; Beausejour F1 301-336; Crochu K1 132-145; St Cyr K1 82-86; Samaritan M1 365-370; La Gallere P1 43-51.

[5] Grenada deeds: Paradis vol. C1 p. 1 (illegible due to insect damage but rehearsed in a later deed, G1 359-409).

[6] Ibid.

[7] Grenada deeds: division of property vol. O2 pp. 237-304.

[8] Grenada deeds: La Force vol. O2 pp. 47-75; Richmond L2 1-23.

[9] Grenada deeds: Soubize vol. T2 pp. 397-417.

[10] Grenada deeds: vol. F3 pp. 464-491.

[11] Grenada Deeds: see for example the purchase of St Cloud (vol. C1 281-304) and Chantilly (H1 83-101) by Lauchlin Macleane in 1766.

[12] Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, 1764-1785.

[13] Saunders’s News-Letter, 8 December 1785

[14] Will of Peter Simond, PROB 11/1136/157; will of Catherine Simond, PROB 11/1148/109.

[15] Ancestry.com, Westminster, London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1558-1812 (online database, with the surname Symonds).

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