The West Indian Incumbered Estates Acts were Acts of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

of 1854, 1858, 1862, 1864, 1872, and 1886 that allowed

creditor A creditor or lender is a party (e.g., person, organization, company, or government) that has a claim on the services of a second party. It is a person or institution to whom money is owed. The first party, in general, has provided some property ...

s and other interested parties to apply for the sale of estates (plantations) in the British colonies in the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

despite legal encumbrances that would normally prevent such a sale. The legislation was modelled on the acts that created the Irish Encumbered Estates' Court after the Great Famine of the 1840s that allowed indebted and moribund estates to be sold.

Background

The acts were modelled on the legislation that created the

Encumbered Estates' Court The Encumbered Estates' Court was established by an Act of the British Parliament in 1849, to facilitate the sale of Irish estates whose owners, because of the Great Famine, were unable to meet their obligations. It was given authority to sell est ...

that allowed indebted Irish estates to be sold following the great famine of the 1840s. The Irish act came into force in 1849 and by July 1853, 3.5 million acres of land had been sold, creditors repaid according to the rulings of an independent tribunal, and estates purchased with a Parliamentary title guaranteed to be free of encumbrances.Cust, Reginald John. (1865)
A Treatise on the West Indian Incumbered Estates Acts &c.
' 2nd edition. London: William Amer. p. 6.

The West Indies

The difficult financial situation in the West Indian colonies arose following the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

in the British Empire in 1833 that disrupted the labour supply to West Indian plantations. The financial situation in Ireland and the West Indies was similar in that landowners in both places had taken on excessive debt when times were good that now matched or exceeded the value of the underlying security. In addition, as estates become less profitable, there was a lack of capital investment in them causing them to become moribund. In both places complicated charges, mortgages, estates and trusts often prevented the calling-in of debts or the sale of estates to owners prepared to make the capital investment necessary to make them more productive. Often the owners of West Indian estates were resident in Great Britain meaning that increasing numbers of estates were managed by attorneys (any formally appointed legal person) in the colonies, to maximise short-term income. The Lieutenant-Governor of Saint Vincent complained in 1854, for instance, that of the 87 sugar estates on the island 64 were run by attorneys due to their owners being absent and that one attorney managed 15 estates.

The Acts

The Acts provided for a chief commissioner and up to two assistant commissioners to be appointed in England together with commissioners in the participating colonies. The first commissioners took office in February 1857.Cust, 1865, p. xiv.
/ref> Colonies could apply, with the permission of their local legislatures, to participate in the scheme, the first to do so being Saint Vincent in 1856 which also submitted the first petition under the Acts in August 1857. The next colony admitted to the scheme was Tobago in 1858. Deficiencies in the original Act soon became apparent and an amended Act was passed in 1858. Colonies were admitted as follows: * St. Vincent (1857) * Tobago (1858) * St. Christopher (1860) * Virgin Islands (1860) * Jamaica (1861) * Antigua (1864) * Montserrat (1865) * Grenada (1866) * Dominica (1867) * Nevis (1867) The first plantation sold under the Acts was Arnos Vale Estate in Saint Vincent, formerly in the ownership of William Samuel Greatheed who left it to his widow and children. It was stated to have been entirely unproductive from 1854. The case was heard in March 1858 and the estate sold by auction in London in November that year, the purchaser being the reverend F. R. Braithwaite of Saint Vincent for £10,050, a sum that

Reginald Cust Sir Reginald John Cust (1828 – 11 June 1913) was a barrister of Lincoln's Inn, judge, and Chief Commissioner of the West India Incumbered Estates Commission. He was knighted in the 1890 Birthday Honours. Origins He was a son of Rev. Hon. Henry ...

, commissioner and historian of the legislation, noted was much higher than expected.

Legacy and records

Reginald Cust's detailed history of the legislation was published in 1859 with a second edition in 1865 and a supplement in 1874. The 1883 ''Report on the Working of the West Indian Incumbered ncumberedEstates Court Acts'' was printed for Parliament in 1884 and is held by the British National Archives. Many of the auction sale particulars are available as scans in the collection of the Library of Congress.

Estates sold under the Acts

(This list may be incomplete)

1850s

* Arnos Vale, St. Vincent, 1858.2015587806.
Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2019.

1860s

* Hillside, Brazaletto, Chesterfield, all Jamaica, 1862. * Mexico, Jamaica, 1862. * Haughton Tower, Jamaica, 1864. * Mile Gully and Spitzbergen, Harmans or Harmony Run, Paradise, Piper's or Smith's Penn, Mumbies & Blackwall, Garbrand Hall and Mullet Hall, all in Jamaica, 1864. * San Souci, Mount Greenan, Lambou Vale, Peruvian Vale, Henry's Vale, all in St. Vincent, 1864. * Waterloo and Orange Hill, St. Vincent, 1864. * Pennistons, Escape, both in St. Vincent, 1865. * Pearls, Boulogne, Madeys, Bocage, all in Grenada, 1867. * Canefield, Dominica, 1869. * Longville, Jamaica, 1869. * Plaisance, Grenada, 1869.

1870s

* Cave Valley, Dover Pen, Hyde Park, Tooting, all in Jamaica, 1870. * Water Valley, Weston Favell Penn, Dry Valley Penn, Providence, all Jamaica, 1870. * Weeks or River Head, Lower Streatham, Upper Streatham, Ryley's, Windward or White's, Hermitage or Irish's, Tar River, all in Montserrat, 1870. * River, Dominica, 1871. * Fontabelle, Jamaica, 1874. * Hermitage, Grenada, 1874. *

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

, Roslyn Pen, Cromwell, Cromwell Mountain, all in Jamaica, 1874. * Bacolet or Hope, Baillies Bacolet, Westerhall, Morne Delice, all in Grenada, 1875. * Friendship & Greenwich, Jamaica, 1875. * Savoy and Orange River Pen, Jamaica, 1875. * Hazelymph Estate, Greenwich Plantation, Belvidere Pen, all in Jamaica, 1876. * Brodericks, Montserrat, 1877. * Clarke's Court, Grenada, 1877. *

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, Jamaica, 1877. * Rosalie, Dominica, 1877. * Grand Sable, St. Vincent, 1878. * Hopewell and Mount Horeb & West Vale, Jamaica, 1878.2016586808.
Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2019. * Halse Hall, Caswell Hill, Halse Hall Crawle etc., Jamaica, 1877/78.2016586794.
Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2019. *

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, Jamaica, 1878. * Hopewell, Mount Horeb and West Vale, Jamaica, 1878. * Carlisle, Jamaica, 1879.

1880s

* Laura, Mount Gay and Bon Accord, Granada, 1880. * Winchester, Hopewell Hall Pen, Jamaica, 1880. * Koningsberg, Cape Clear Pen, Jamaica, 1881. * Ayton, Jamaica, 1882. * Berkshire Hall, Jamaica, 1884. * Tuitts, Bethels, Luthers, all in Montserrat, 1886. * Weeks or River Head, Tar River, Montserrat, 1886. * Prospect, Industry, Cove Pen, all Jamaica, 1887.2016586797.
Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2019. * Halse Hall, Caswell Hill, the Lodge, Halse Hall Crawle; Springfield, Grimmett, Milk Spring pens; Milk, Priddles, Content, all Jamaica, 1887. *

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

, Jamaica, 1889.2016586803.
Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 May 2019.

References

External links

{{commons category-inline, West Indian Incumbered Estates Acts Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom Plantations (settlements or colonies)