I saw this challenge by Amy Johnson Crow last year and I was very tempted to do it, but by the time I thought about how to start I had missed a few weeks already. This year I’m only a week late so I am biting the bullet. The challenge is a prompt every week to get you talking about your ancestors. It’s set up to help you start writing about ancestors. Although I do already have books written about my ancestors I really enjoy telling their stories and I thought that it may also act as a prompt for any readers who have already rediscovered their ancestors, or as inspiration to start searching for those at the start of their journey.
The first week’s prompt is ‘Family Lore’.
I knew very few stories about my ancestors when I was young. I didn’t have an aunt, uncle or grandparent to tell me our history. I did have two stories though. The first was about a great grandfather from India who had jumped ship at Trinidad, changed his name and started his family there. I haven’t found anything to corroborate that story as of yet, though I am still looking. The second story is the one I want to share with you today, it’s a bit of a cheat as it covers two ancestors rather than one.
My elder sister told me a story, which she had been told by our father. The tale went that on our Gordon side a slave master fell so in love with one of his enslaved women that he freed and married her. As a child I thought it was romantic. As an adult, as I learnt about the reality of life for enslaved women, I was filled with skepticism and distaste for the story.
Imagine my surprise when I came across two ancestors that the story could have been based upon. I can still remember exactly where I was (on a holiday where I told myself I would put down the genealogy) and how I excitedly called my sister to share it with her).
My 4th great grandfather was Thomas Ricketts Hylton, born around 1785 in Jamaica, the son of William Hylton (b. 1749) and Mary Pool Johnson (b. 1760) (1). His father is associated with several plantations (2) (despite being described as pro-abolition later in life (3)) and Thomas himself either purchased or was given Retirement (a property in Westmoreland where people were enslaved), previously owned by his maternal aunt (4).
Thomas married my 4th great grandmother, Maria Tate (or Tait) (b.c. 1785). I know nothing about Maria’s family. On the baptism record for her children she is described as a ‘free mustee’ woman (5). Mustee is an old term used to describe someone who is 1/8th black. Thomas and Maria married in the Dissenter Church in 1810 and went on to have 11 children, my 3rd great grandfather being the eldest. They remarried in the Anglican Church in 1840, helpfully providing a full account of their previous marriage and the children they had together (6). From what I can tell, Thomas was the only one of his siblings to marry a non-white person.
Registrar General’s Department, Spanish Town. “Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880,” database with images. Family Search. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] Hanover > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1725-1839 > image 78 of 128;. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-VN97-3R?cc=1827268&wc=M6GL-B6D%3A161381601%2C161387201.
Now, none of the above necessarily means that Maria had been enslaved in her life, and certainly not by Thomas himself. She was simply a black woman that happened to marry a white man from a family who did enslave people. However, Maria does appear on the ‘Slave Registers’. These are documents that were produced following the abolition of the slave trade in 1807, to monitor the enslaved population. A sort of census if you will. The slave registers noted any change in the enslaved people that were owned. The increases could be by purchase or birth and the decreases by sale or death. Once purchased an enslaved person would not be noted on future registers unless they had been sold or died.
Maria appears for the first time in 1820. Her husband had sold her an 8 year old enslaved girl named Diana Tate (7). Thomas himself had purchased Diana in 1817 and registered her in Hanover (8). Could she have been one of Maria’s relatives? Thomas appears in the 1823, 1826, 1829 and 1832 slave registers, noting many increases and decreases (9) (10) (11) (12). At Emancipation Thomas was compensated £567 18s and 10d for the loss of 29 enslaved people, that’s roughly £89k (GBP) in today’s money (13). Maria though appears in the next 3 registers, purchasing William in 1820, another William in 1826 and William Ricketts, together with his mother Lucia and his sister Bunnella, in 1832 (14) (15) (16). Was she searching for a family member? She never registers a decrease in the enslaved people that she owned, but she also isn’t noted as receiving compensation. Did she free them?
Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Diana Tate. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133653-00067.
There is one final bit of evidence that suggests that Maria wasn’t a ‘well to do’ free woman. On the slave registers she never signs her name, always ‘making her mark’, whilst her husband signs each time. Thomas was certainly educated, he served as a Senior Magistrate in Westmoreland in the late 1840s (17). Given that she cannot write her name, it is quite possible that Maria was illiterate, which might lend weight to the idea that she was not born free and thus received no education. Of course, this could have simply been due to her being a woman.
Are Thomas and Maria the couple in the story my father passed down? Maybe. My 2nd great grandmother, who married into the Gordon family, was Maria’s granddaughter. This could very easily have been passed down as a ‘Gordon’ story. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to say for sure, not without uncovering some oral history that has more information.
Thomas and Maria do leave me with a lot of questions though and a lot to think about regarding the complexities of their lives at the time. Given Thomas’ family and status, was the marriage accepted? Did Thomas himself have very different views to his relatives? Was he an enslaver taking advantage of a woman he owned? Or was he a man in love who tried his best in a society where brutality reigned? I try my best to piece together the lives of my ancestors, but this couple leaves me with so many questions and unknowns.
This is a couple that I am still actively researching and I hope that wills, land registries and even manumissions might help uncover more of their story. I’m sure that I’ll be posting about them again if I make any breakthroughs!
Genie Dans
References
1. Oliver, Vere Langford. Caribbeana. London : Mitchell Hughes and Clarke, 1914. pp. 67-68. Vol. 3.
2. Legacies of British Slavery. William Hyton senior. Legacies of British Slavery Database. [Online] [Cited: January 08, 2024.] https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634086.
3. Urban, Sylvanus. The Gentleman’s Magazine. London : William Pickering, John Bower Nichols and Son, 1837. Vol. 8.
4. Legacies of British Slavery. Retirement [1] [ Jamaica | Westmoreland ]. Legacies of British Slavery Database. [Online] [Cited: January 08, 2024.] https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/8088.
5. Registrar General’s Department, Spanish Town. “Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880,” database with images. Family Search. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] Hanover > Baptisms, marriages, burials 1725-1839 > image 78 of 128;. https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-VN97-3R?cc=1827268&wc=M6GL-B6D%3A161381601%2C161387201.
6. —. “Jamaica, Church of England Parish Register Transcripts, 1664-1880,” database with images. Family Search. [Online] [Cited: January 08, 2024.] St Andrew > Marriages 1838-1855, Vol. 3 > image 178 of 228. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-8FNN-N?i=177.
7. Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Diana Tate. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133653-00067.
8. —. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Thomas Ricketts Hylton. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133659-00411.
9. —. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Thomas Ricketts Hylton. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133654-00286?pId=6269060.
10. —. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Thomas Richelle Hylton. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133654-00722.
11. —. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Thos Richette Hylton. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133655-00661.
12. —. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Thomas R Hylton. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133658-00558.
13. Legacies of British Slavery. Jamaica Westmoreland 200 (Retirement). Legacies of British Slavery Database. [Online] [Cited: January 08, 2024.] http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/24639.
14. Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Maria Tate. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133654-00468?pId=5613727.
15. —. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Maria Tate. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133654-00622.
16. —. Former British Colonial Dependencies, Slave Registers, 1813-1834 for Maria Tate. Ancestry.com. [Online] [Cited: January 09, 2024.] https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1129/images/CSUK1817_133657-00600.
17. Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons. London : s.n., 1848. Vol. 44.
Note: This was previously published by me on 9 January 2024 and copied to this blog on 14 January 2024.
