Temple Hall - Jamaica

Question

I am looking for information relating to a plantation called Temple Hall in Jamaica at the end of the 17th century.  The estate was owned and run by Nicholas Lawes https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Lawes-266 who introduced coffee to Jamaica in the 1720s.

Lawes married Susanna Temple https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Temple-3232 in 1696 (her second husband) and there are some reports that Temple Hall had been developed by Susanna's father Thomas Temple https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Temple-3534 and that he gave it to Lawes when he married Susanna.

This conflicts with other evidence (including statements in legal documents) that Thomas Temple had died in England around 1680.

I have searched Familysearch and jamaicanfamilysearch and not found any evidence of Thomas Temple in Jamaica.  But there are also no burial or will records for him in the UK.

Can anyone help or suggest where I could look?

Answer 1

Hi Peter,

My family in Jamaica continuously travelled between Jamaica and the UK. Children were born in Jamaica but christened in the UK, or visa versa. They put managers in charge of estates when they weren’t in residence. So it’s very plausible he may have been living in Jamaica but died on one of his trips to England.

Try the british newspapers. They sometimes say things like “from Jamaica”. Also I have found the christening records and wills sometimes give information on this. E,g on one of the christening records it says “planter” for fathers occupation. And the will lists the property and estate.

Also try the website ucl.ac.uk  - centre for the study of legacies of British slavery. They have some information though not everything.

One other thing I did was look through the family search records page by page (I knew the date mine died) and although not recorded by the familysearch transcribers, I found two records (a marriage and a death) recorded at the bottom of the page or in the margin (both left off by the misister and added as addendums)

Good luck

Comments

Hi Tracey

thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately most of the sources seem to start about a generation later than the time I am looking for.  I have not found newspaper records in the 1690s.

UCL does show the Temple Hall estate, but starts in 1731 with the death of Nicholas Lawes.  It relies on the same Caribbeana source as jamaicanfamilysearch shows.

I agree with your comments on Familysearch.  Reading through the record I found two missing burials, one which had not been transcribed and one with a very different reading of the name, but unfortunately not one for Thmas Temple.

Thank you anyway, at least I had not missed anything obvious.  I will continue searching.