[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.

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. 22 The eighteen documents in this collection provide an interesting insight into the dealings of a substantial West Indian merchant: the owner of the extensive Jamaican sugar and rum plantation Green Park, slave owner and slave trader. Green Park Estate was one of the largest and oldest sugar plantations in Trelawny Parish, Jamaica, dating back to a grant of land from Oliver Cromwell to James Bradshaw, son of the regicide John Bradshaw. It was bequeathed to William Atherton, the principal party in the present documents, by William Kennion per his will of 1764. Atherton extended the estate to around over 1,300 acres, building a fortress and a second sugar mill, so that it ranked as the third largest of the 88 estates in Trelawny Parish. The first item is a letter written from the overseer of a neighbouring estate, Bounty Hall, regarding the settling of a bill. In the next three items we see Atherton, purchasing silver lace from a London tradesman, and settling other bills, through his bank Glynn’s. The last fourteen item centre on the New York firm of merchants Lewis Simond & Co, who arrange the transportation of wood for the construction of casks for the rum produced at Green Park (Item Five provides a current account between the firm and the Green Park Estate). Despite the fact that Atherton is estimated to have owned around eight hundred slaves, in the last item we see him quibbling over eighteen cents. November 1777, Bounty Hall. Docketed: ‘Bounty Hall 22d. Novr 1777 / Henry Hough / respg Horses Captain & Doctor’. Everything having come ‘safe to hand’, Hough writes: ‘I shall do myself the Honour of waiting upon you in a Sundays in order to settle the mode of payment’. 1p, small 4to. Items TWO to FOUR are attached to one another at a corner. TWO: Accounts from 1800 and 1801 addressed to ‘Wm Atherton Esqre’: ‘To Willm & Josh. Farrant’, also ‘Jas. Chalks’ and ‘Bill on Glyn & Co.’ 1p, foolscap 8vo. THREE: James Chalk. Receipt with his printed letterhead: ‘Bought of James Chalk / Gold & Silver Laceman, / (Successor to Mr. Bullard) / At His Manufactory No. 1, next door to Northumberland House, Strand.’ 3 May 1800, London. ‘1 Silr. hat Lace and band 0. 16. 0 / Silr. Lace Eps. and bands - 4: 15. 6: / [total] £5: 9: 6’. 1p, landscape 12mo. FOUR: James Chalk. ‘Rec’d 9th. Septr. [1801] of Wm. Atherton Esqre. / Five Pounds Nine Shillings & 6 by the Hand of Messrs. Wm. & J Farrant / for James Chalk’. 1p, landscape 12mo. FIVE: Thomas Dixon for LS & Co. Accounts docketed ‘Ls. Simond & Co / Accot. Current with Green Park Estate / to 31 Decr 1803’. 4pp, 4to. Bifolium, with the two central pages the reciprocal double-entry accounts to $3803.76, dated 31 December 1803, New York. Debits for shipments including ‘Ducks & Geese’ and ‘3 bbls apples’ from the Experiment, and ‘carting to three different Ships’: Ferdinand, Alknomac and Ann, and further shipment ‘per Friends’. Credits for ‘a tierce of rice per Experiment’ and rum per Ferdinand and Alknomac. SIX: LS & Co. ‘Invoice of Sundries shipped by Lewis Simond on board the Ship Experiment Richard Marner Master bound for Falmouth Jamaica for Account and risk of William Atherton Esqr & consigned to William Fairclough’. 16 December 1802, New York. 1p, foolscap 8vo. SEVEN: Second copy of SIX. EIGHT: LS & Co. ‘Invoice of Lumber shipped by Lewis Simond & Co on board the Brig Ferdinand John Lane Master bound for Falmouth Jamaica for Account & risk of Wm Atherton Esqr & consigned to Wm. Fairclough’. 5 April 1803, New York. 1p, 4to. NINE: Second copy of EIGHT. TEN: John Lane, master of the Ferdinand. Printed receipt, completed in manuscript by Lane and signed by him, 8 April 1803, New York. 1p, landscape 8vo. ‘SHIPPED, in good order and well-conditioned, by LEWIS SIMOND, [& Co] on board the [Brig] called the [Ferdinand] whereof is Master for this present voyage, [John Lane] now laying in the port of NEW-YORK, and bound for [Falmouth] To say, [Four thousand six hundred one quarter & twenty Red Oak Staves]’. ELEVEN: LS & Co. ‘Invoice of Lumber shipped by Lewis Simond & Co on board the ship Alknomac John Gore Master bound for Falmouth Jamaica for Account & risk of William Atherton Esqr & consigned to William Fairclough Esqr.’ 22 April 1803, New York. 1p, 4to. TWELVE: Second copy of ELEVEN. THIRTEEN: John Gore, master of the Alknomac. Printed receipt, completed in manuscript by Gore and signed by him, 25 April 1803, New York. 1p, landscape 8vo. ‘SHIPPED, in good order and well-conditioned, by LEWIS SIMOND, [& Co] on board the [ship] called the [Alknomac] whereof is Master for this present voyage, [John Gore] now laying in the port of NEW-YORK, and bound for [Falmouth] To say, [Two thousand six hundred Red Oak & Four thousand one hundred two quarter white Oak [?] Staves, One thousand which Oak & four hundred Ash [?] heading]’. FOURTEEN: Thomas Dixon for LS & Co. ‘Invoice of R O Staves retained by William Fairclough Esqr out of 4. 6. 1. 20 (amounting to $255.50) shipped to him for accot of Green Park Estate but which he gave up to Wm. Green Esq’. 14 March 1803, New York. 1p, lanscape 8vo. Docketed ‘Invoice of Ferdinand’. FIFTEEN: Thomas Dixon for LS & Co. ‘Invoice of sundries had by William Fairclough Esq for account of Green Park Estate from the Cargo of the Ship Friends’. 14 March 1803, New York. 1p, 4to. SIXTEEN: Thomas Dixon for LS & Co. ‘Sale of 15 Puncheons rum received pr. Brig Ferdinand from Jamca. 14 July 1803 for Account of Green Park Estate to sundry Grocers at 2, 3, 4 & 5 months 19 July’. 19 July 1803, New York. 1p, 8vo. SEVENTEEN: Thomas Dixon for LS & Co. ‘Sale of 25 Puns. rum received per Ship Alknomac, Gore from Jamaica. (4 Augt. last 1803) for Account of Green Park Estate & sold to sundry Grocers 12 Augt. @ 3. 4 & 5 month’. 12 August 1803, New York. 1p, 4to. EIGHTEEN: LS & Co. ‘Triplicate’ letter to ‘Wm. Atherton Esqr.’ 5 May 1803, New York. 1p, 8vo. Having ‘carefully looked over the invoice of $612. 40 for Shipment by Experiment 14th. Decr.’, they are ‘unable to discover the error of 18 cents you mention’. ‘Respecting the change of firm of the house we have to observe that Mr. Alexr. Campbell remains as he was before our sole partner & that no change whatever is introduced except the addition of Company to the signature of Ls. Simond of which we have already advised you.’