Sugar

[West Indian Slave Trade; rum; sugar.] Eighteen manuscript documents (most from Lewis Simond & Co, New York Merchants) regarding slave trader and Jamaican plantation owner William Atherton and his Green Park Estate in Trelawny Parish.

Author: 
West Indian Slave Trade: William Atherton (Wikipedia) (1742-1803), slave trader & owner of Jamaican sugar plantations, including the Green Park Estate in Trelawny Parish [Lewis Simond, NY merchants]
Publication details: 
One item from 1777, from Bounty Hall Estate, Jamaica; three items from London, 1800 and 1801; fourteen items from New York [Lewis Simond & Co.], 1803 and 1804.
£1,500.00

All 18 items are in very good condition, with slight signs of age and wear. Items One and Eighteen are letters (Eighteen being a ‘triplicate’), the other sixteen items are accounts, with items Five to Eighteen relating to the firm of the New York merchant Lewis Simond. Items Seven, Nine and Twelve are copies (i.e. written out afresh but containing the same text) of Items Six, Eight and Eleven. ONE: Henry Hough (overseer of the Bounty Hall estate, Jamaica) to ‘William Fairclough / Green Park’: Autograph Letter Signed.

[A Lancashire slaver and his coach.] Two itemised manuscript receipts for work on a coach from the London coachmaker Thomas Thorpe to the Lancashire slave trader William Atherton of Prescot Hall, one signed by Thorpe.

Author: 
Thomas Thorpe, London coachmaker [William Atherton (1742-1803) of Prescot Hall, St Helens, Lancashire, slave trader and owner of plantations in Jamaica]
Publication details: 
1799 and 1801. [Thorpe & Co., Coachmakers, 210 Holborn, London.]
£280.00

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.

[Simond and Hankey, London bankers involved in the West Indian sugar and slave trade.] Two manuscript bills in French, ‘A Messieurs Messrs. Ante. & Dan. Bierens a Amsterdam’, each signed by ‘Pre: Simond’ and endorsed by ‘Jean Hankey’.

Author: 
Simond and Hankey, London bankers deeply involved in the West Indian sugar and slave trade; Peter Simond (1691-1785); John Hankey (1741-1792)
Publication details: 
Both dated from ‘Londres ce 15e. Decembre 1758’ [London].
£100.00

With the surge of interest in the slave trade attention has lately been directed at Simond and Hankey, a ‘past constituent’ of the NatWest Bank. These two items are nice artefacts of the firm. Both are in good condition, lightly aged, and laid out in the same way, with the bill written out on one side of a 22.5 x 9 cm slip of laid paper. One is for ‘Deux Cent Livres Sterling a trente quatre Sols neuf deniers de gros’ and the other for ‘Cent Soixante Sterling a Trente quatre Sols dix deniers de gros’. Both drawn on ‘Messrs. Vernede & Co’.

[ Pamphlet ] The Foreign Export Bounties. Deputation to Mr. Gladstone. Letter in Reply to his Questions

Author: 
[Signatories] John Monteith, L. Gillman, Samuel Peters, Thomas M. Kelly, "of the Workmen's National Executive Committee for the Abolition of the Foreign Sugar Bounties
Publication details: 
Reprinted from the "Sugar Cane" June, 1881 Manchester?]
£35.00

11 pages, 8vo, not bound, first and last leaves detached, first and last pages grubby, with the stamp on first page of "The National Anti-Bounty League, etc", "Dup" in ink right top. COPAC records only one copy (LSE) suggesting Manchester printing.

[Katharine Villiers, Countess of Clarendon.] Four letters to the London merchant bankers Thomson Hankey & Co., all relating to the Mesopotamia Estate sugar plantation in Jamaica, two signed by both the Earl and the Countess.

Author: 
Katharine Villiers, Countess of Clarendon [née Grimston and previously Foster-Barham] (1810-1874), wife of George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon (1800-1870) [Messrs. Thomson Hankey & Co., bankers]
Publication details: 
Two letters from the Vice Regal Lodge, Dublin in 1851, one of them signed by the Earl and the Countess. The other two letters from London, 1845 and 1849.
£180.00

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.

[Alexander Johnstone, proprietor of Westerhall [Baccaye] slave Plantation, Grenada, West Indies.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Alexr. Johnstone') to his London bankers Messrs Simond & Hankey, regarding the 'neglect & misconduct' of 'Capn. Mackintosh'.

Author: 
Alexander Johnstone (1727-1783), proprietor of the Westerhall [Baccaye] slave Plantation, Grenada, West Indies [Messrs Simond & Hankey, London bankers]
Publication details: 
Bulstrode Street [London]. 4 October 1777.
£280.00

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.

[Thomson Hankey senior, merchant banker with extensive West Indian interests.] Autograph Letter Signed to his son Thomson Hankey junior, making him a gift of £4000 and share 'of the Ship Elizabeth Capt. Walker now on her Voyage to Grenada'.

Author: 
Thomson Hankey senior (1773-1855), City of London merchant banker with extensive West Indian interests [his son the banker, economist and Liberal politician Thomson Hankey junior (1805-1893)]
Publication details: 
Mincing Lane [City of London]. 19 June 1826.
£220.00

1p., 8vo. Bifolium, addressed on reverse of second leaf 'To Thomson Hankey Junr.' In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. The letter begins: 'Dear Thomson, | I give to you as a free Gift the Sum of Four Thousand Pounds & authorize you on 30th. of this Month to place that Sum to your Credit with our House by the Debit of my private Account. I also give you the one fourth Share of my two thirds Share of the Ship Elizabeth Capt.

[Mrs Isabella Hankey, widow of West Indian merchant banker John Peter Hankey.] Signed manuscript 'Bond of Indemnity | Mrs. Hankey to Executors and Trustees of John Peter Hankey Esqr. deceased', referring to 'Sugar Plantations' and 'Negroes Slaves'.

Author: 
Mrs Isabella Hankey, widow of John Peter Hankey (d.1807) of Grenada, West Indian merchant banker [Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co., London bankers; Sir William Alexander]
Publication details: 
[London, England.] 21 July 1814.
£220.00

3pp., folio. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Signed 'Isabella Hankey' and witnessed by 'John fforster Carey Street'.

[Jamaican sugar plantations in the slavery period.] Detailed double-entry signed manuscript accounts of 'Sales of 20 Hogsheads Sugar received by Gibbs, Son & Bright, Pr. the St. Elizabeth Geo: Lewis from Jamaica for account of Thomas Foster Esqr.'

Author: 
Gibbs, Son & Bright, Bristol merchants [Thomas Foster; Daniel Stanton; Thomson Hankey senior (1773-1855), City of London merchant banker with extensive West Indian interests]
Publication details: 
[Gibbs, Son & Bright.] Bristol. 3 December 1822.
£220.00

On one side of a 47 x 20 cm piece of paper. Docketted on reverse. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. In part a form, printed in copperplate, with the details completed in manuscript, and signed on behalf of the firm 'Bristol 3rd December 1822 | Errors Excepted | Gibbs Son & Bright'. Included on the debit side are: Duty; Entry Fees, Wharfage, Town & Dock dues; 95 day's Interest; Freight; Warehouse Rent, Porterage, Weighing & Hauling; Insurance from Fire; Brokerage; Commission, leaving 'Nett Proceeds' of £257 18s 10d on £819 5s 0d.

[Manuscripts] Partnership agreements, 1825-1929

Author: 
Thomson Hankey & Co. of 7 Mincing Lane, City of London, ('West India and General Merchants Bankers and Agents')
Publication details: 
1825-1929
£800.00

Fifteen partnership agreements (indentures, memoranda, articles of copartnership) relating to the London banking firm of Thomson Hankey & Co., dating from between 1825 and 1929.Having traded with Jamaica, Antigua and the Leeward Islands in partnership with John Houblon. Captain Samuel Hankey commenced in business as a City of London banker-goldsmith in 1685. The firm prospered to such an extent that his son Henry owned Jonathan's Coffee House in Exchange Alley, the precursor of the London Stock Exchange, and was knighted in 1732.

[Sugar plantations in Jamaica.] Two Manuscript Banker's Letters relating to the Duckenfield Hall, Meylersfield and Friendship Estates, made out for the London firm of Hankeys, and signed by partners Cyril Gurney, H. A. Trotter and L. M. Harvey.

Author: 
[Cyril Gurney (1868-1926); H. A. Trotter; L. M. Harvey; Duckenfield Hall Estate; Meylersfield Estate; Friendship Estate; Jamaica; Jamaican sugar plantations]
Publication details: 
Duckenfield Hall Estate letter: On [Hankey's] letterhead of 7 Mincing Lane, London, EC; 29 December 1915. Meylersfield and Friendship Estates letter: no place; dated 26 June 1917.
£220.00

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.

[The Cornwall Estate, Jamaica.] Manuscript bill of loading of 'Supplies required for Cornwall Est[at]e. for the year 1838' to London bankers Messrs Hankeys, with letter from William Ridyard and estate manager Robert Locke, and copy letter from Locke.

Author: 
Lady Katherine Barham [Lady Katharine Foster-Barham (née Grimston)] (1810-1874) [Messrs. Hankeys, Plummer & Wilson, London bankers]
Publication details: 
Both letters from Westmoreland, Jamaica. Ridyard and Locke's letter dated 28 July 1837; Locke's 'Duplicate' letter dated 10 July 1837.
£950.00

The three items form a letter of 4pp., foolscap 8vo. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf: 'Bill loading | Messrs. Hankeys Plummer & Wilson | Mincing Lane | London | Lady Kathe Barham'. Docketed '97 Robert Locke | 10 | 28 July 1837 | Received 20 September [1837]'. The bill of loading covers the whole of the first page, with two columns of closely written items, ranging from '2300 yds Osnabury 8lbs do thread' to quinine, opium and '1 Box Hydrometer proof Bubbles from 15 to 30'.

[William Beckford.] Manuscript copy by Fownes & White of 'Points stipulated for & agreed to with Messrs. Thompson Hankey & Co. on their taking the Consignments of the West India Estates of Wm. Beckford Esq: in succession to Messrs. Plummer & Wilson.

Author: 
[William Beckford (1760-1844), author and 'England's wealthiest son'; his London solicitors James Fownes and Richard Samuel White; Messrs Thompson Hankey & Co. and Messrs. Plummer & Wilson, bankers]
Publication details: 
[Messrs. Thompson Hankey & Co., 'at a meeting held at their Counting House in Fenchurch St. on the 24th Decr. 1830.' 27 January 1831.
£600.00

The connection between the two firms of London bankers Thompson Hankey & Co., and Plummer & Wilson & Co. is unclear, but after the bankruptcy of John Plummer and William Wilson of Fenchurch Street 1831, a new firm named Hankey, Plummer & Wilson was formed, Plummer & Wilson bringing to it a number of clients including Beckford. The source of Beckford's vast wealth was of course the family's sugar plantations in the West Indies, and this document dates from before the abolition of slavery. 3pp., foolscap 8vo. Bifolium. Very good, on laid paper with Britannia watermark of 'E SMITH | 1828'.

Autograph Letter Signed from the West Indian merchant Justinian Casamajor, of Potterells, Hertfordshire, to 'Mrs. Curling', describing the judgement of the Court of Chancery in Antigua regarding the estates of the late Mathew Christian.

Author: 
Justinian Casamajor [Justinian Casamayor; Casamayorga] of Potterells Grove, Hertfordshire, West Indian merchant [Mathew Christian [Matthew Christian] (d.1778) of Antigua; sugar plantations; slavery]
Publication details: 
St Helens Place, London; 19 January 1809.
£130.00

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. 56 lines. Good, on aged paper. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Mrs. Curling'. Casamajor is taking 'the earliest opportunity' to inform Mrs Curling 'by the last Packet', that he has 'received an Acc[oun]t. from my agent in Antigua, that the Court of Chancery in that Island had disallowed all Charges of Interest on the Arrears of the Annuities on the late Mathew Christians Estates amounting to £2567.2.5 also the Trustees Commission of £50 a year for 16 years, to this our Counsel'.

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