In the recent past a postal history dealer put this letter into one of their boxes at a pencilled price of 75p. Since it had been carried “by hand” – that is to say, outside the Royal Mail system - from Kingston Jamaica to Liverpool England it has no postal markings and thus of no interest to postal history collectors.
After slavery was abolished in 1833, John Gladstone (1764-1851; from 1846 Sir John Gladstone) put in a successful claim for compensation which proved to be the largest of all pay-outs: £106,769 for the loss of 2,508 enslaved people on plantations in British Guiana and Jamaica and equivalent to about £10 million at today’s prices taking 1837 as the base year. Rather than employ people who were now free, Gladstone - who was always an absentee owner - sought to employ indentured labourers imported from India; this proved unsuccessful and in this 1841 letter it is clear that Gladstone (now aged about 77) is trying to sell or lease out his estates rather than continue to own and actively manage them. One interested party is Alexander Gladstone who is not his son (despite what AI tells me) and is almost certainly not a near relative; he is at present an estate manager as indicated by a passage in the letter. The UCL database does not list Alexander Gladstone as a claimant under the compensation act; as a manager he would not have owned slaves and if he progressed to owning or leasing estates - as the letter suggests he will - it was in the post-slavery period.
The Estate
which is called “Lacovia” in the letter appears in the UCL slavery database as
“Shaws” in quotation marks and is grouped with Holland as it is in this letter.
In
the letter Archibald Kelso, currently Gladstone’s agent in Kingston Jamaica, reports back
to him; letters between Kelso and John Gladstone and his brother Robertson Gladstone are held in archives
including the Gladstone Library, formerly known as St. Deiniol's Library.
Transcription
Addressed
to: John Gladstone Esqr Liverpool
Datelined:
John Gladstone Esqr Kingston 14th May 1841
Docketing
notes: 1841 Archd. Kelso to J.G. Kingston 14th May / Tems of
lease of Holland & Lacovia to J Gldstone. Produce on hand of Oxford, Eden
& Fair Prospect; Recd 8 July 1841
My
dear Sir
The
two last Packets have brought me yours of the 13th, 15th,
24th, 27th Mar to the several contents of which I pay due
attention.
The
mail for England will be despatched tomorrow morning. I regret that the time of
its departure had not been a few hours later, when I should have have had it in
my power to communicate the result of our [auction] Sale. At
present I am unable to say anything more of our prospects than after my first
arrival in the Colony. Intending purchasers, if such, as I hope, there be, keep
very quiet & make no enquiries as to terms or conditions. The North side
Estates will have a large portion of the present years crop left on the ground,
which will be an inducement to parties to buy, & bring the price nearer to
what you fixed for them, but otherwise Mr Wilson, & Davies as well,
consider that none would give the money required. The former says his
subsequent letters to that of 31st Jany to you would give you the
prices of several Properties sold in the Island, by which you would see that
they went low. Fair Prospect they say is generally over-valued in their
opinion. If I am unable to sell at the sum fixed & also to rent, I must
then according to present appearances give way considerably before getting
clear of them. The crops likely to remain on the ground I had estimated when
visiting the Estates.
As
to Holland & Lacovia I think it will end in our leasing them to Alexr.
Gladstone. I have given him your letter on the subject, & he begs me to
acknowledge the receipt of it & to thank you for it. When he wrote to you
about renting, he referred only to Holland but it would never do to separate
them, the Lacovia people would all go to work at Holland if he were to have the
latter only. The means he calculated on for paying for the Cattle were
principally his Comison [Commission] on the last & present crop with
some little money besides, altogether not amounting to more than £1,600 or
£1,700. He hopes to get ample security but is very much averse to commiting
himself with anyone else in the lease. If he rents the Properties I feel
confident he will do every justice to them, he is more enterprising than most
of the Planters here, & manages the people well. He does not like to go to
India, if he can do anything in this country, & he is so well known &
thought of that I have little doubt of his obtaining employment if he should
have to seek for it [presumably as a manager elsewhere, in order to
supplement his income]. Both Logan [another manager] & he are
here Mr Davies recommended their coming up to answer any enquiries Bidders for
the Estates might wish to make.
Mr
Davies fears, contrary to Messrs Freshfield’s expectation, that Parties here
will not be satisfied with the different Titles unless completed which
you are aware they were not with the view to saving the heavy stamp duties
& this also will be borne in mind on their sale, & a higher price
required.
I am glad to hear of the improvement which has again taken place in the Sugar Market the Account of which has come in good time to help us. The Rains on the North & East side are long of setting in, & the yielding of the Canes is getting worse & worse. I have letters from both F. Prospect [ Fair Prospect], Oxford & Eden [estates] today telling me that at all three places they have to lower their Estimates again. On the first the crop of this year made, amounts to abt [about] 22 Hhds [Hogsheads,large casks] & 8 Tces [Tierces, smaller casks] & there remains for the year from 25 to 30 Hhds more. On Oxford there will not remain to be cut more than enough to make 60 Hhds besides the 11 Hhds & 2 Tce[Tierces] already made, & on Eden in addition to the 21 Hhds 17 Tce[Tierces] made there will remain to make about 36 Hhds. The Crops remaining of last year are
FP 14 Hhds Sugar 4 Puns [? Puncheons, larger casks] Rum
E 15 ---- 5 -----
O 47-----23 Tces 14 ------
These will require a good many HHds to repack ....
I
hope to hear that the operation on your eye has fully succeeded & that you
have made a good recovery, In hopes of being able to inform you of the Estates
being sold in my next I remain meanwhile my dear Sir
Very
sincerely yours
Archd
Kelso
References
Wikipedia: Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/search/ [UCL Legacies of British Slavery]
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