The Hamiltons were another Ayrshire family with slavery connections. Robert Hamilton owned three Jamaican estates: Pemberton Valley, Rozelle, and Carcluie. In Ayrshire the family had property at Bourtreehill and Sundrum. In 1754 Robert acquired Rozelle estate, Ayr, and built a mansion house there in 1760.
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Pemberton Valley account book, 1818-43 [DC17/10] |
The Hamilton of Rozelle papers, held at Ayrshire Archives, contain a number of references to the slave trade, daily life on the family's Jamaican plantations, and the advent of the abolition of slavery.
In 1735, writing from Jamaica, to his brother John in London, Robert Hamilton reports:
Captain Flesher ... lays now for want of Negroes in port ... til some ships from Africa arrives by a Bristol man … Captain Thomson ... tells us that he was then bound for Angola I wish we could see him for now slaves are in pretty good demand. [DC17/113]
In 1737, Robert adds this note to a letter on the subject of Captain Arthur Ellis's next voyage to Africa for slaves:
N.B: the condition of my brother and my standing this part [one eighth] of the ship and cargo is expressly on her cargoe of slaves being consigned to us. [DC17/113]
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1756 Slave list from Pemberton Estate showing names and occupations, and other comments. [DC17/113] Click on the image for enlarged view. |
Letters from Hamilton’s friends and employees give a vivid picture of the dangerous and unpredictable nature of life in the eighteenth-century West Indies.