Langford Selly Cranstoun Sugar Plantations
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Cassada Gardens Plantation Cassada Gardens Plantation was owned by the Lovell family and Langford Selly Cranstoun was the Plantation Manager and this is where my grandfather Langford Duer Cranstoun was raised. In my quest to find my family history I went to Antigua and discovered many things about my family, Cassada Gardens was one of them. I had met a man named Phillip Abbott, who I was later to discover was a family member through marriage, who was as interested in family histories as I was. He told me Cassada Gardens was now know as "The Stables" (a whorehouse). I rented a cab and went to find where my grandfather was raised, I found it! As I was walking around the property a young woman came by and I said, "Hello", the cabby started to laugh and asked me if I knew her, I replied, "No, just being friendly". He asked me if I knew what this place was called, I did, but as we just stumbled upon the plantation I said, "No". He then laughed and told me it was called "The Stables" and what the place was and I knew I had found where my grandfather was raised. I can't explain how it feels to discover your family roots and walk on land where your forefathers lived, it was amazing.
Langford's Plantation Langford's Plantation is now a police college and Langford Selly Cranstoun was the Plantation Manager. I was able to visit this plantation and take some pictures as the main house and the sugar silo are still standing. Cochranes And Thomas's Plantations
Note: This note is to demonstrate just how family history can become very confusing. Record keeping is at it’s best was not very good back then. Let’s face it, during the times we are looking at, when they ask on your marriage license if you can read or not, there’s the clue! Record keeping was very biased and as an example the surname Browne was often recorded as Brown, Cranstoun was sometimes recorded as Cranston, Fulcher was recorded as Fletcher or a family name was changed to that of the master, this is especially true if you’re looking at British to American records. Firstnames, surnames, dates, and places were often misspelled and sometimes on purpose if the clerk had a bad day or just didn’t like the way someone looked and god help you if you were coloured. Below is an example I found in Antigua of how history can be misconstrued. The example shows land titles for property owned by the Cranstoun family in Antigua, note the spelling of the surname, Cranston and Cranstoun, although I pointed out they are the same people, to the National Archive office, nothing was done, so if anyone continues this tree you really have to check the names and dates.
To Langford Duer Cranstoun or Arthur Herbert "Artie" Cranstoun or Back To Langford Selly Cranstoun .
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Having
gone to the Antigua Archive Office I was able to obtain copies
of the land titles for Cochranes and Thomas's plantations
after going through old record books.
