Amaryllis Collymore
Amaryllis Collymore | |
---|---|
Born | Amaryllis Renn Phillips 1745 Barbados, British West Indies |
Died | 1828 (aged 82–83) |
Nationality | British |
Other names | Amarillis Collymore, Amarillis Colymore |
Occupation | plantation owner and businesswoman |
Years active | 1784–1829 |
Amaryllis Collymore (1745–1828) was an Afro-Barbadian slave who gained her freedom from her relationship with a white man. The couple had eleven children and she successfully ran a plantation allowing her to acquire numerous other properties, to become the wealthiest free black woman in the colony at the time of her death.
Life
Amaryllis Renn Phillips was born into slavery in 1745[Notes 1] on Barbados, during British colonial rule[2] where records indicate she was a mulatto.[3][4] She was purchased by Robert Collymore in 1780, from Rebecca Phillips, a free coloured hotelier,[4][5] along with her five mulatto children,[5] four of whom were Robert's children.[6] In 1784, Robert arranged their manumission by selling her and the children to a friend, James Scuffield.[4][6] Selling a slave to a trusted third-party to avoid high manumission fees was a common practice during the period in Barbados.[7]
Robert acquired Lightfoots, a 42-acre sugar plantation with its 44 slaves, to provide for her and the children.[4] Collymore expanded the estate to over a hundred acres[8] and was able to buy seven properties throughout Bridgetown, on Canary Street, High Street and James Street, which she rented out.[4][9] She also ran a successful shop.[4] By 1805, Collymore owned another property, on Roebuck Street, which she sold for £800.[6] She and her daughter, Katherine Anne Collymore, were the recipients of a bequest from Renn Phillips in his 1809 will.[10]
In 1824, when Robert died, he bequeathed she and her eleven children, full title to Lightfoots and the slaves working on the plantation.[6] Among her children, besides Katherine were Frances Lasley, Margaret Jane, and Robert (baptized 18 February 1792),[11] Thomazin Ashby (baptized 6 June 1795),[12] Elizabeth Clarke (baptized 13 June 1798),[3] Samuel Francis Collymore, Jackson Brown Collymore[13] and Renn Phillips Collymore, who would become the great-great grandfather of Frank Collymore.[2] Collymore's will, dated 1826[6] (or 1829 but which was probably the date the estate was probated),[13] left her estate, worth over £10,000 to relatives. She devised a home in Bridgetown and a plantation known as Haggat Hall, and 67 slaves, as well as silver and personal property.[6] At the time of her death she was "the richest free woman of color in pre-emancipation Barbados".[8]
Death and legacy
Collymore died on 16 December 1828 and was buried in the St. Mary's Churchyard in Bridgetown.[4][9] The house that Collymore and her children occupied is now the Morningside Building, and houses the Arts Department of the Barbados Community College.[4]
Notes
References
Citations
- ^ Watson 2014, pp. 244, 249.
- ^ a b Gafoor 2010.
- ^ a b Sanders 1984, p. 240.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Watson 2014, p. 249.
- ^ a b Paugh 2017, p. 271.
- ^ a b c d e f Welch 1999.
- ^ Candlin & Pybus 2015, p. 43.
- ^ a b Candlin & Pybus 2015, p. 39.
- ^ a b Nation News 2015.
- ^ The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 2000, p. 54-55.
- ^ Sanders 1984, p. 217.
- ^ Sanders 1984, p. 228.
- ^ a b Handler 2009, p. 121.
Bibliography
- Candlin, Kit; Pybus, Cassandra (2015). Enterprising Women: Gender, Race, and Power in the Revolutionary Atlantic. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4779-0 – via Project MUSE.
- Gafoor, Ameena (20 March 2010). "Book Review: Edward Baugh. Frank Collymore: A Biography. Kingston and Miami: Ian Randle Publishers. 302 pp. ISBN 978-976-637-391-7 (hbk)". Georgetown, Guyana: Kaieteur News. Archived from the original on 10 August 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- Handler, Jerome S. (2009). The Unappropriated People: Freedmen in the Slave Society of Barbados. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press. ISBN 978-976-640-218-1.
- Paugh, Katherine (2017). The Politics of Reproduction: Race, Medicine, and Fertility in the Age of Abolition. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-250699-3.
- Sanders, Joanne Mcree, ed. (1984). Barbados Records: Baptisms 1637-1800. Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. ISBN 0-8063-1090-1.
- Watson, Karl (2014). "Vignettes of Eight Interesting Barbadians". In Bryan, Janelle (ed.). Ins & Outs of Barbados – The People Edition. St. Thomas, Barbados: Miller Publishing Company. pp. 244–253.
- Welch, Pedro L. V. (1999). "Unhappy and Afflicted Women? Free Coloured Women in Barbados 1780–1834". Revista/Review Interamericana. Hato Rey, Puerto Rico: Interamerican University of Puerto Rico Press. 29 (1–4): 9–12. ISSN 0196-1373. Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- "Heather-Lynn's Habitat: Grave links to the past". St. Michael, Barbados: Nation News. 8 January 2015. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- "Progenitors". The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society. St. Michael, Barbados: Barbados Museum & Historical Society. 46: 53–55. 2000. ISSN 0005-5891. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- Use dmy dates from April 2022
- Articles without Wikidata item
- Articles with hCards
- AC with 0 elements
- 1745 births
- 1828 deaths
- Afro-Barbadian
- Planters of the British West Indies
- Barbadian slaves
- British slave owners
- 18th-century British businesspeople
- 19th-century British businesspeople
- 18th-century British businesswomen
- 19th-century British businesswomen
- Women slave owners