PLANTATION

An indication of how slavers spent the fruits of their slaves’ labours. With the advent of slavery studies William Atherton has been the subject of a deal of interest, reflected on his Wikipedia page. Thorpe and Lee are listed as coachmakers at 210 Holborn in 1791; in 1803 the firm is named as Thorpe and Co at the same address. The two items are written out in a secretarial hand, each on a long strip made by cutting a folio leaf in half vertically. Both in fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Each with slight damage from the breaking open of the wafer.

The Countess of Clarendon had inherited the Mesopotamia Estate from her previous husband John Foster Barham (1799-1838), who had died a certified lunatic year before her marriage to the Earl. The Estate had been in the hands of the Barham family for more than a century. The four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. All four with notes by the recipients. ONE: Letter signed by George J. Nicholson of the London soliticitors Vizard & Leman, in secretarial hand, to Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co. Lincolns Inn Fields; 7 July 1845 ('Mesopotamia Estate'). 1p., 4to.

Full title: 'Comparative Statement of the Imports into Bristol from the West Indies of Sugar, Rum & Coffee, together with Sugar from the East Indies and Mauritius from the 1st. January to the 30th. Septr in the Years 1839 & 1840 shewing the Stocks remaining under Bond at the latter date.' 3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Addressed (with two postmarks, one of them from Bristol) on reverse of second leaf: 'P.P. | Messrs. Hankey Wilson & Co | London', and docketed by the recipients: '496 | Ariel & Beloe | 30 Sept 1840 | recd 2 Oct [1840] | no answer'.

Chester Vale, a substantial estate of 1420 acres, paid taxes on 124 slaves in 1801. McLarty (d.1844) was Physician-General for Surrey (Jamaica), and several letters written by him from the island are in the National Library of Scotland, and are quoted in Alan L Karras's 'Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake, 1740-1800' (Cornell, 1992). In 1794 he acquired Chester Vale on his marriage to Elizabeth Susanna Breon, whose father Edmund Breon had died in 1792, leaving her the ward of the solicitor Thomas Cockburn.

The story of the Johnstone family has been told in Emma Rothschild's 'Inner Life of Empires' (Princeton, 2012). According to Rothschild, Alexander Johnstone 'became a soldier in the British army and was sent to North America.

The two items are in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Accompanying the two items is the envelope in which they were contained, docketted: 'Letters. | Duckinfield [sic] Hall Estate | { | Meylersfield Estate & Friendship Estate Trust'. Both items are signed 'Cyril Gurney | H. A. Trotter | L. M. Harvey'. ONE (Duckenfield Hall Estate letter): 1p., 4to.

Harper's note is on the recto of the first leaf of a 4to bifolium, addressed by him to 'George Chalmers Esqr' on the reverse of the second leaf, which is docketted by Chalmers 'Notes of Documents from - 1760/67'.. Chalmer's memorandum is written lengthwise and upwards on the reverse of the first leaf. In good condition, on aged paper. Harper's note reads: 'Mr. Harper presents his Respects to Mr. Chalmers with many Thanks for the kind Notice with which he is pleased to honour him. | The Reading Room will be open to Mr. Chalmers whenever he finds it agreeable to avail himself of it'.

6pp., foolscap 8vo. On two bifoliums, placed loosely one inside the other. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper.