Lot 352 , Two parchment membranes forming parts of schedules listing enslaved men, women and children, detached from a mortgage of the Green Castle Estate in the parish of St Mary, Jamaica, 8 April 1823

Two parchment membranes forming parts of schedules listing enslaved men, women and children, detached from a mortgage of the Green Castle Estate in the parish of St Mary, Jamaica, 8 April 1823 1. part of a list of 136 enslaved females listing name, colour (negro or mulatto), age (from 90 to 1), whether African or Creole, and in many cases names of mothers; the list makes clear that the total number of males was 122
2. schedule of the increase or decrease of enslaved people between the returns made on 28 June 1817 (258) and 28 June 1820 (249); lists increase by birth and ‘acquisition’ (15) and decrease by death and manumission (24); lists ages of children at the date of the return, with the names of mothers, and age at death
With an attached affidavit of William Wilson, sworn before William Heygate, lord mayor of London, under the Act for the more easy recovery of debts in his majesty’s plantations and colonies in America, 1732 (5 Geo 2 c7), on 16 April 1823, of his presence at the execution of the mortgage by John Ellis of Connaught Place, Paddington, esquire, Charles Parker Ellis of Gloucester Place, Marylebone, esquire, Charles Nicholas Pallmer of Norbiton House Kingston-upon-Thames, esquire and Charles Rose Ellis of Audley Square, esquire, to Joseph Timperon and Joseph Dobinson on 8 April 1823.

Green Castle, on the north coast of Jamaica, was inherited in 1738 by George Ellis, and in 1753 passed to his second son John Ellis, who greatly extended the estate. John Ellis and his wife were lost at sea in 1781, after which time the estate was managed on behalf of absentee owners in England and Ireland. Green Castle was inherited by his son John Ellis, who with his brother, the politician Charles Rose Ellis (MP for Seaford) assumed liability for their father’s debts. By the deed of which these two membranes were part, John Ellis mortgaged three plantations – Green Castle, Nutfield and Newry, named after a former owner’s estate in Ulster, to Joseph Timperon (1762-1846) of Egham and his brother-in-law Joseph Dobinson (1790-1866) of Brockenhurst, merchants in London. The mortgage was foreclosed in 1853, when only 63 acres remained under cultivation for sugar; in 1856 Dobinson filed an affidavit claiming that he could not sell Green Castle for £1000, although the combined debt of the three estates approached £100,000.
On 22 May 1837 Timperon and Dobinson, as mortgagees, were awarded Nutfield £4692 15s 10d in respect 271 enslaved people on the Nutfield Plantation; £3921 14s 10d for 208 enslaved people on Green Castle (Timperon and Dobinson of London counterclaimed against the owner John Ellis, as mortgagees, for £8207 13s 0d plus interest); and £3717 9s 8d for 204 enslaved people on the Newry Plantation.
The act of 1732 provided for colonial estates to be mortgaged in England, and for affidavits to be sworn before any mayor or other chief magistrate of a city, borough or town local to the residence of the parties.
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ Centre for the study of the legacies of British slavery
Green Castle History Summary by Paul Larsen
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