The Enduring Simond Legacy part 5: The Trevelyans’ Grenadian property, 1785-1834

Sir John Trevelyan, 4^th Baronet (1735-1828), privileged, old-school, and very into politics, had six children still living in 1785. The eldest, John, received £400 in the will of his grandfather Peter Simond and the younger five each received £1,000, along with an additional £50 each for mourning attire. Sir John himself inherited a one-third share of Simond’s personal estate and Grenadian property, with another third going to Simond’s daughter Susanna Louisa St John and the final third to Simond’s adopted son, John Hankey. The Hankeys acted as agents for the estates and Trevelyan rarely featured in the Grenadian deed books, except for the purchase of Bonair estate in St George for £4,000 in 1813.[1] The Grenadian property included La Sagesse, Soubise, Crochu, Requin, Tempe, Beausejour, Simon, La Force, St. L’Omer, Balthazar and Crochu estates as well as hundreds, possibly over a thousand, enslaved people. By this point the estates were clearly owned outright rather than held through mortgages, and all appear in Simond deeds from the 1760s and 1770s.

Sir John Trevelyan, 4th Bart. (1734-1828), by George Romney

As senior partner in the firm of Simond and Hankey, Peter Simond held a three-quarters share in its assets. Although the partnership should have been dissolved upon Simond’s death in 1785, it appears to have continued operations until 1793, a year after the death of John Hankey, when the executors of both partners signed an indenture determining how the assets would be divided.[2] All the Grenadian plantations, enslaved people and outstanding debts were assigned solely to Peter Simond’s estate. However, the profits generated from these holdings were, in the first instance, to be directed to John Hankey’s estate to settle an outstanding debt. The Trevelyans and St Johns assumed ownership of the real estate and associated assets, while the heirs of John Hankey were guaranteed the initial profits until the agreed debt had been repaid. Hankey’s estate was also entitled to a one-third share in the property independently, as Hankey was one of the three heirs of Peter Simond.

In retrospect, Sir John Trevelyan and the other heirs’ decision to retain full ownership of the Grenadian property proved to be a costly misstep. The decision is particularly puzzling given Trevelyan’s lack of both commercial experience and financial acumen. John Hankey’s sons successfully founded their own merchant house, continuing to thrive within the same commercial milieu that had once proved so lucrative for Simond and Hankey. In contrast, the Grenadian properties failed to prosper—ironically mirroring the very financial distress from which Simond and Hankey had previously profited in earlier decades, when they capitalised on the vulnerabilities of indebted planters. The indenture of 1793 also changed Sir John Trevelyan’s slave-holding from an dubious inheritance to a deliberate choice.

On 29 January 1819 Sir John Trevelyan transferred the Grenadian property he inherited from Peter Simond to his sons Walter Trevelyan and George Trevelyan, “as a Testimony of his affection and regard… and for their advancement in the World.” [3] The transfer consisted of a one-third share of Beausejour, Tempe, La Sagesse, Requin, Crochu, Soubize and Simond estates and a one-twenty-fourth share of Grand Bras, St Cloud and Chantilly.

It's not clear to what extent the Grenadian estates were profitable. The Simond, Chantilly, Telescope, Grand Bras and Paradise estates, all close to the key battleground of Grenville Bay, likely suffered heavy losses in 1795 during Fedon’s Rebellion. Sarah Cary, wife of the manager of a nearby estate and owner of Mount Pleasant in St George, described the aftermath in a letter to her son Samuel junior:  “Although by your last letter the [sugar]works were still standing, yet it will be a long time before things come into their old channel; the loss of negroes, the still more certain loss of mules, cattle, etc., the destruction of the dwelling and negro houses, with the loss of the last crop…”[4] Samuel himself described seeing “the works of Soubise burnt down & the ground smoking from a recent fire…” in May 1795.[5] Beausejour estate was under the control of Fedon’s rebels in late December that same year.[6]

Susanna Louisa, Lady St John, the elder daughter of Peter Simond and co-heir with Trevelyan and Hankey, wrote in her will in 1805 that “my shares and interest in the several plantations negroes and other effects in the Island of Grenada … is at present incumbered and owing to the late fatal insurrection in that Island as well as other causes it may be some time before the same becomes productive”, concluding that “it may be necessary and prudent that part or the whole thereof should be sold…”[7]

William Daniell after Lieut. Col. J. Wilson, A View of the Town of St. George & Richmond Heights in the Island of Grenada, taken from the Bay (1819)

The correspondence of the St John family provides clues as to the problems encountered in the estates. In 1807, John Peter Hankey (son of John Hankey) wrote to Sir John Vaughan (the second husband of Lady St John’s son’s widow) about “the fatality which has so grievously oppressed the Island of Grenada.” Hankey stated that “while the evil Genius which has overhung our Grenada concerns, has not enabled me to make any favorable attention in the system there… both as to the Principal & Interest on those Claims”, he had still been providing advances and was now owed £1,931.[8] 

A summary document created for the heirs of Lady St John noted the difficulty of giving an accurate valuation of the estates but suggested that the sum of £200,000 could be achieved for Beausejour, Tempe, La Sagesse, Requin, Crochu, Soubize and Simond estates and a further £50,000 for Grand Bras.[9] Lady St John bequeathed a capital sum of £2,500 to her daughter Lady Halford, secured on the Grenadian estates, but in a letter written circa 1832, Lady Halford wrote, “as Mr Simond’s debts were not paid off till 1823 and his legacies then only began to be paid I have never received any thing on the bonds or legacy.”[10] Lady Halford was one of the grandchildren bequeathed £1,000 each by Peter Simond. She received £415 5s in 1823 “being part of £614 16s 3d arrears of Interest” on this bequest and a further £402 in 1825. The balance of £170 was paid in 1828.[11]

In 1825 Sir Robert Heron[12], one of Lady St John’s executors, suggested a “Confidential Person” should visit Grenada with a view to changing the system of management in place there. The decision was delayed until the arrival in London of “one or both of the Miss Trevelyans.”[13] There does appear to have been an upturn in the estates’ fortunes in the late 1820s. Thomson Hankey wrote to Lady Halford’s husband in April 1827 stating that Hankey couldn’t remit any profits to the Halfords until at least May 1829 as there was still a mortgage of over £3,000 held by the heirs of John Peter Hankey on the property of Lady St John. However, Thomson Hankey believed that “the proceeds of the Estates will in a few years be sufficient to discharge all the Bond Debts granted by the late Lady St John…”[14]

The capital sum legacies Simond bequeathed to his Trevelyan grandchildren were not paid in full until 1829, when over £190 was still owed to each of Walter, William Pitt, Edward and George, and John was owed over £80. By this time, only Walter and John were still alive.[15] 

George Trevelyan died in 1827 and bequeathed his wife Harriet a life-interest in his Grenadian property, which was thereafter to go to his two sons John Thomas and George.

Sir John died in 1829 leaving John junior as 5^th Baronet. Walter Trevelyan died in 1830, leaving his Grenadian property to his sons Walter and John. The four sons of George and Walter, as well as George’s widow Harriet, were awarded a share of £25,991 19s 1d in compensation for their ownership of 1,004 enslaved people on Emancipation in 1834.[16]

The enslaved people were not named in Sir John Trevelyan’s transfer deed of 1819 but their names and “supposed ages” were listed in the slave registers: in 1820 there was a total of 1,172 enslaved people on these estates. The oldest was Angelique, enslaved on La Sagesse, born in Africa and recorded age 99 in 1817 and age 108 in 1825.[17] She would have been an adult, likely in her 30s or 40s, when Simond purchased La Sagesse in 1764 and may have been one of the 38 women enslaved on the estate at the time of purchase. Thomas age 10, Mimi age 7, Azar age 4 and Rosie age 2 were all listed on La Sagesse in 1817. These four children, along with their mother Francoise and two others, Betty and Ben, had been purchased by Sir John Trevelyan as one-third owner from Augustine Bogle French the previous year for £310.[18] Of the five enslaved girls listed as age 10 and under on Soubize estate when Simond came into possession of the estate in 1773, only one, Charlotte, has been likely identified in the slave register of 1817, then age 47 and living on the same estate.

Baptism record from St George, Grenada: “Saint John, aged about 7 months, son of Matilda (a Slave belonging to Beausejour Estate in this Parish) was baptised in the Church on Sunday the 9^th May 1830.”

There are surprisingly few references to enslaved people on the Simond estates in the Grenadian parish registers. Lambert, “an African Adult”, was baptised in St David 3 March 1816. He was listed on Sagesse estate age 33 in the slave register of 1817. There were six people from Beausejour estate baptised in St George between 1819 and 1830. A tantalising glimpse of loving relationships on Beausejour is revealed in four marriages which took place on 19 December 1823. Cross-referencing these couples with the slave registers reveals all were of relatively advanced age: John Louis (age 47) married Rosalie (age 56); Joseph (age 41 or 47) married Alexandrine (age 54); Jacob (age 38) married Gertrude (age 41); and Swift (age 38) married Ursule (age 32). Perhaps these marriages reflect long-established families of parents and children.[19]

It's not possible to identify who of the 1,172 enslaved people on these estates in 1820 had been inherited and who had been purchased by the Trevelyans, St Johns and Hankeys since Simond’s death. A clear majority of those aged 32 years of age or younger and Creole in the first slave registers will have been born to enslaved mothers on the estates during John Trevelyan’s shared ownership. There were 84 enslaved people aged 32 years of age or younger in 1817 listed as African-born; these enslaved people must have been purchased during Sir John Trevelyan’s shared tenure. A further 117 were African-born and between the ages of 33 and 47; assuming the large majority of people were over the age of 15 when trafficked across the Atlantic, most of these people must have been purchased for the estates after Simond’s death. Rebecca, age 19, with “a scar on the cheek”, African-born and living on Requin estate in 1817, was one of a number of these enslaved people who endured the Atlantic passage as a young child.[20]

[1] Grenadian deeds: vol. Y4 pp. 111-122.

[2] Rehearsal of an earlier deed in Grenadian deeds: vol. R4 pp. 447-457.

[3] Grenada deeds: vol. A5 pp. 835-9 (quote from p. 837).

[4] Caroline Gardiner Cary, The Cary letters, edited at the request of the family (1891) p. 114.

[5] Joel Montague et al. “The Island of Grenada in 1795.” The Americas, vol. 40, no. 4, 1984, pp. 531–37. Quote from p. 535.

[6] John Hay, A Narrative of the insurrection in the island of Grenada, which took place in 1795 (1823) p. 147, 150-151.

[7] Will of The Right Honorable Susanna Louisa Baroness St John, widow of Bath, Somerset, PROB 11/1434/100.

[8] Halford Papers held at Leicestershire Archives: J.P. Hankey to Dr Vaughan, 18 March 1807, DG42/1052.

[9] Halford Papers: Details of properties of the late Messrs. Simond and Hankey, DG24/1051/2.

[10] Halford Papers: Draft letter from [Lady Halford] to [St. Andrew, 14th] Lord St. John, DG 24/1051/6.

[11] Halford Papers: Thomson Hankey to Lady Halford, 23 May 1823, DG 24/1053/7; Thomson Hankey to Lady Halford, 5 May 1825, DG 24/1053/9; Thomson Hankey to Lady Halford, 10 July 1828, DG24/1053/12.

[12] For more on Sir Robert Heron see https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/45715.

[13] Halford Papers: James Slade to Lady Halford, 19 February 1825.

[14] Halford Papers, Thomson Hankey to Sir Henry Halford, 24 November 1827, DG20/1053/10.

[15] Grenada deeds: vol. K5 pp. 873-903, L5 233-237.

[16] Will of Reverend George Trevelyan, Clerk, Archdeacon of Taunton, PROB 11/1738/119; Will of Sir John Trevelyan of Bath, Somerset, PROB 11/1750/435; will of Reverend Walter Trevelyan, Clerk of Henbury, Gloucestershire, PROB 11/1782/173; https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/45685.

[17] Slave Registers: T71/267 p. 168; T71/293 p. 22. Note that ages given in the slave registers can be subjective, in particular with a tendency to increase the recorded age of elderly people.

[18] Grenada Deeds: vol. Z4 pp. 240-245; Slave Registers: T71/267 pp. 166-167.

[19] Grenada Parish Registers, 1784-1971 held on microfilm by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Familysearch.org), image group number 8006702, item 5.

[20] Slave Registers: T71/267 p. 163.

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