The Jamaican connection

Jamaican connection (July 2016)

Alexander Sweet (1843 to 1921) made a note in the margin of “Curiosities of Glasgow Citizenship” that his “uncles John and Alexander went there [Black River, Jamaica] and one died of Yellow Fever, the other went to America”. Alexander’s great grandfather, John Robertson “owned extensive possessions in the West Indies”.

On the map below of Jamaica in 1804, there is a plantation in the Black River area noted as J. Robertson. I have no proof that this is the particular plantation, but the circumstantial evidence points to this as being the case.

John Sweet was born in 1791 and his brother, Alexander, in 1793. I imagine the earliest they would go to Jamaica would be aged 16, so they would have been there sometime between 1807 and 1843. (This latter date being when compensation was being paid to plantation owners.)

 

J Robertson’s plantation Black River, Jamaica 1804 (click to open map in a new window)

(July 2016)