Dr. Robert Tait Antigua, British West Indies
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Dr. Robert Tait - Father-In-Law To David Cranstoun
Will of Dr. Robert Tait This is the last Will and Testament of Robert Tait of the Island of Antigua surgeon and Practioner of Physick. "First, I will and direct that all my just debts and funeral expenses be fully paid and satisfied and that my funeral be conducted with all possible economy. I give and bequeath to my reputed natural daughter Helen Tait my dwelling house located on North Street in the
And let it be observed that no amount directly or indirectly are either of the two last mentioned legacies to be under the control or liable for any debts or claims of their father, the before mentioned Jeremiah Willcox Halliday. Item: I hereby give and bequeath to my brother William Tait residing at no. 66 Cheapside in the City of London the sum of five hundred pounds sterling for the use of himself and his heirs forever. And whereas I am at this time possessed of six thousand three hundred pounds in the three percent Consolidated Annuity of the Bank of England and of five thousand two hundred and three pounds two shillings and seven pence in the thre and a half percent Consolidated Stock Annuity of the Bank of England, I hereby request and direct my executrix and Executors that as soon as possible after my death the whole of the above mentioned stocks may be sold out and appropriated to pay the above legacies, all of which may be easily paid in full after deducting the legacy duty unless in the meantime the funds should fall considerably of which at present there is no likelihood. Should it so happen that any of the parties or legatees before mentioned should depart this life before me the Testor, then in the case of each event I hereby direct and desire that the said amounts so bequeathed be considered as a lapsed legacy and shall be returned and merged in the amount of my estate. And further, I hereby give and bequeath to my sister Agnes Tait and to my reputed natural daughter Helen Tait before mentioned, in equal shares whatever monies may at the time of my death be ledged in the Bank of the Linen Company, Edinburgh, Scotland or in the hands of Sir William Forbes, T. Hunter and Company, Banker of that city, the respective amount of which may be ascertained by a reference to their annual account in my iron chest. And I hereby nominate, constitute and appoint my reputed natural daughter Helen Tait before mentioned to be Executrix, David Cranstoun, planter, Daniel Garling, merchant, all of the Island of Antigua, also my brother William Tait, aforementioned and William Allen, chemist and druggist, Plough Court, Lombard Street, London. Executors of the my last Will and Testament all in my own handwriting hereby revoking all other will heretofore made. I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty second day in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty three. Witnesses: William Nibbs, Joseph Emerson, Thomas Nibbs" Dr. Robert Tait changed his will regarding the monetary legacies to his sister Agnes and his daughter Helen from the two banks in Scotland as being unfair to the rest of the family. The monies were to be divided equally between all his children mentioned in his will. In this Will he names William Allen, chemist of Plough Court, Lombard, Street, London as one of his Executors. So who was William Allen? I would later find his name, along with other familiar names, mentioned in the story of the slave Mary Prince. (her story is too long for this web site but you can download her story) Her story verifies history and provides an almost uncanny connection to our family. Knowing who my ancestors are, I came across the story of Mary Prince, a slave of James Adams Woods, who tells her life story and her fight for Manumission (her freedom). Her story touched me. Some of the names were very familiar to me, as you will see and it brings our family into the world, with some of its players. I checked out James Adams Woods in The History Of Antigua and found him. The time frame of Mary’s story was when David Cranstoun would have been in his heyday and it quite vividly illustrates attitudes that The Committee Of Corespondence, David and George Cranstoun and Dr. Robert Tait were up against in their struggle to free the slaves of Antigua. The Woods Estate is presently owned by my friend Phillip Abbott. William Allen William Allen FRS, FLS, FGS (29 August 1770 – 30 September 1843) was an English scientist and philanthropist who opposed slavery and engaged in schemes of social and penal improvement in early nineteenth century England. William Allen was known in commerce for his pharmaceutical company Plough Court. Situated off Lombard Street in the heart of the City of London, and founded by the Quaker scientist Silvanus Bevan, it eventually grew into one of the UK’s largest pharmaceutical companies: Allen & Hanburys. The company was acquired in 1958 by Glaxo Laboratories, who retained ‘Allen and Hanburys’ as a separate marque within the GSK group. In 1841 William Allen co-founded The Pharmaceutical Society, which later became The Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Its first president was William Allen. Allen’s involvement with the Plough Court Pharmacy began in the 1790s when he began working there for Samuel Mildred. Already a thriving business in the City of London, with the arms of the Apothecaries Company emblazoned on its window, it continued to prosper and William Allen was offered a partnership; the company thereafter traded for a while under the name Mildred & Allen. Allen strengthened the company’s links with medical institutions, particularly Guy’s Hospital where he was elected to its Physical Society. Meanwhile, using Plough Court for meetings, he co-founded the Askesian Society. There new ideas for research and experimentation could be discussed with others such as Luke Howard, Joseph Fox, William Hasledine Pepys, William Babington, and the surgeon Astley Cooper. In 1797 Allen invited Luke Howard to formally collaborate with him at the Plough Court Pharmacy, the business then becoming known as Allen & Howard. A second laboratory was opened for the development of new chemicals, a few miles away in Plaistow. In 1805, after some years of assisting the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, William Allen was elected to its committee. The society had always been strongly influenced by Quakers, and particularly by those based in or near London. All the members of its predecessor committee (1783-1787) had been Quakers, and nine of the twelve founders of the subsequent non-denominational Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade were Quakers, including two - Samuel Hoare Jr and Joseph Woods Sr (father of the botanist Joseph Woods Jr) - who lived close to William Allen in Stoke Newington, the village near London where Allen had family interests after his second marriage in 1806. Perhaps the best known committee member of the new non-denominational abolition society, founded in 1787, was William Wilberforce, who, unlike its Quaker members, was eligible as an Anglican to be elected to, and sit in, the House of Commons. Wilberforce visited William Allen at his experimental gardens on several occasions in his role as the Society’s parliamentary representative. He had long been familiar with the village, owing to family connections. His sister Sarah had married the lawyer James Stephens, whose family home was the Summerhouse, a large house adjoining Abney Park in the very grounds of the mansion that later, in the 1820s, was to become William Allen’s novel girls’ school. William Allen was also a founder member and a Director of the African Institution; the successor body to the Sierra Leone Company, sponsored by philanthropists to establish a colony in West Africa for slaves freed on a voluntary basis, through the abolitionists’ efforts, in America. The work of the successor body began in 1808, when the colony had been handed to the Crown in return for the British Parliament passing legislation for its protection at about the same time as the passing in 1807 of the Act for the abolition of the slave trade. William Allen’s active interest in the abolitionist cause continued until his death. In the mid 1830s he was passionate about abolition of the apprenticeship clause, and achieving the complete freedom of African-Caribbean people on 1 August 1838. His biographer James Sherman records, ‘the apprenticeship clause in the Bill... had been greatly abused by the planters. Mr Allen was indefatigable in his efforts, by interviews with Ministers and official persons. His account of the spirit-stirring time is graphic:’, The cruelty and oppression of the planters of Jamaica, as exercised on those poor sufferers, whose redemption from slavery we have paid twenty millions, has been exposed in the face of day. The West Indies in 1837, the result of personal investigation by our friend Joseph Sturge, has created a great sensation... The Anti Slavery Associations in all quarters are in a high degree of excitement, and petitions are loading the tables of both Houses of Parliament, begging for the abolition of the apprenticeship clause, and the complete establishment of freedom...on the 1st of Eight Month, 1838. In 1839 William Allen became a founding Committee Member of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery Society for the Abolition of Slavery and the Slave-trade Throughout the World, which is today known as Anti-Slavery International. In this role he was an organiser of, and delegate to, the world’s first anti-slavery convention, which was held in William Allen was married three times, all his wives passed away. In retirement he had a large circle of friends, and was able to afford to travel extensively. In 1840, for example, he travelled for five months across Europe with Elizabeth Fry and Samuel Gurney. Elizabeth (Betsy) Fry (21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845), née Gurney, was an English prison reformer, social reformer and, as a Quaker, a Christian philanthropist. She has sometimes been referred to as the “Angel of Prisons”. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to make the treatment of prisoners more humane, and she was supported in her efforts by the reigning monarch. Since 2001, she has been depicted on the Bank of England £5 note. Her mother, Catherine, was a part of the Barclay family, who were among the founders of Barclays Bank. She is the Elizabeth Fry of the Elizabeth Fry Societies. I put this information in to demonstrate the type of families David Cranstoun was associated with. Mary Tait married Jeremiah Wilcox Halliday and died a few months before her father. The Halliday’s stem from James Halliday who signed the Capitulation to the French in 1666. His 1400 acre plantation was reduced to 800 acres in 1668. The family had Majors, John Richard Delap Halliday Vice Admiral of the Red, who assumed the name and arms of Tollemache in 1821 and his son John was created Baron in 1876. The family owned the Weatherhill Estate (front cover of my book) from 1740-1870, Gambles, Delaps, Glanvilles and Lavicounts on Antigua and St.Kitts. Jean Tait married George Wilson. The Wilson and Halliday families intermarried begining in 1758 when Jane Wilson married William Halliday of St. Kitts and in 1771 her nephew Richard Wilson married Margaret Halliday, sister of John Delap Halliday, father of Vice Admiral of the Red, John Richard Delap Halliday, later John Tollemache, father of Baron Tollemache. Robert Tait, the son, married Sarah Jones The Halliday’s, Jones’ and Wilson families all had members who
were on the “Committee Of Correspondence”
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Dr. Robert Tait was the father of Sarah Sawcolt Tait, David Cranstoun’s second wife. He is buried at the original Ebeneezer Methodist Churchyard. David Cranstoun’s first wife Elizabeth Symes Cranstoun is also buried there. Dr. Robert Tait was the oldest practising doctor on Antigua when he died, having been in practice over 50 years.