Documents reveal new information on New World plantations

Kings Weston has always had some low-key historic connections with the slave trade. Edwards Southwell II was MP for Bristol between 1739 and 1754, during which time he  promoted the interests of Bristol’s Africa, Carolina and West India merchants. After the Southwells’ the Miles family had founded their immense fortune in shipping and plantations in the West Indies, but the infamous slave trade had been banned decades before their purchase of Kings Weston in 1835.

However, new information has come to light about actual plantations and slave ownership by Edward Southwell III in the colony of East Florida. Recently catalogued documents in Bristol Record Office tell the story of how Edward Southwell III entered into partnership with his father-in-law Samuel Campbell, and the latter’s brother in law Closworthy Upton, later Baron Templetown, to petition the King to be granted land in East Florida. The territory had entered into British hands in 1763 following the Seven Years’ War and land was progressively allocated by the crown for colonisation.

In 1766 the Crown granted the same amount of land to each of the three petitioners stating “In order to make a settlement thereupon” the King does “cause 20,000 acres of land to be surveyed in one continuous tract in such part of the province as the said Edward Southwell or his attorney shall choose not surveyed or granted to others” and “that the grantee do settle the land with protestant white inhabitants within three years”. The grant further demands that if any of the lands are suitable for hemp or flax production then this use should be given precedence.

With 60,000 acres between them the partnership sought suitable and experienced hands to develop them on their behalf. The services of William MakDougale [sic] were secured and he was dispatched with other eager planters and agents to set-out the claim. Land was secured on the east bank of Lake George, but MakDougale was concerned that the £2000 contributed by each partner would not be sufficient for the venture. In this respect he was entirely correct. The Southwell account books for the following years show a constant flow of large sums of money out to Florida for little return.

There was an enormous amount of fraud and corruption perpetrated by unscrupulous agents and planters in the colony, at the expense of their absentee landlords in England and Scotland. This, combined with the swampy land, poor resources, and occassional attacks by the Spanish, meant that Edward Southwell’s venture was probably doomed from the beginning. To make matters worse their planter, MakDougale, died in 1774 and the 60,00 acres were charged to another planter, James Penman to administer. Little appears to have been produced by the plantations, small quantities of timber and barrels of tar being the only exports, and after the death of Edward Southwell III in 1777 his executors were forced to come to terms with the scale of the losses he’d incurred.

In 1779 the plantation collapsed completely. Writing to Southwell’s executors Penman describes how he abandoned his own plantations, initially to find safer territory to settle following the outbreak of “the Spanish War, and then retreating to the main town St Augustine. He promised to take good care of the partnership’s 20 ‘Negro’ slaves who he took in with his own, but later sold at very poor prices, keeping the money for the expenses he’d incurred.

The venture had led to Edward Southwell becoming heavily indebted, and it is no surprise that the several English and Irish estates he owned, including Kings Weston, all had to be mortgaged for over £30,000 to help support the disastrous endeavour.