A Jamaican Family Tree

Henry Graham -  there is strong evidence that he was born around 1823, most likely on the Thetford estate in St. John’s parish, Jamaica. He first appears in the 1826 Slave Register as a three-year-old with racial categorisation “mustee”. Henry was the son of Mary Smith, herself also a slave, and quadroon by racial categorisation.  (https://www.ancestry.com.au/search/collections/1129/records/3362159?nreg=1) Despite his beginnings under slavery, Henry survived into adulthood, coming of age around the time of emancipation. Henry would have been about 11 when slavery formally ended. At the age of eleven, in 1834, he would possibly have entered the apprenticeship system, and by 1838, at age 15, he would have been legally free. Freed children of lighter complexion were often singled out by the Anglican mission for education, and Henry’s trajectory fits this pattern. By the 1840s it would seem he had been drawn into the Church’s training network, and by the 1850s he was establi...

  Augustus Constantine Sinclair (1834–1891) Christened: 31 Dec 1834, Spanish Town, St Catherine, Jamaica. Wikipedia ,    https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939F-VN9K-HQ?i=265&lang=en Career in print & civil service (largely traced through newspaper of the time) Augustus started his career in print as a reporter of parliamentary debates for the Colonial Standard in 1864, referred to as a parliamentary reporter, Dec 1864. He compiled the House of Assembly debates, speeches and proceedings in 13 volumes between 1860-65 sessions. This covered the period of time that George William Gordon stood up for Jamaica's poor and downtrodden in parliament and his subsequent support for Paul Bogle who led the Morant Bay rebellion (both men are national heroes in Jamaica). For political context of the time -  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morant_Bay_rebellion ) 1860–65: Parliamentary reporter for the Colonial Standard ; compiled the House of Assembly debates, ...

Copeland John Stamers (1802–1866) was a Bermudian-born salt proprietor and public official who anchored the family’s fortunes in Turks & Caicos. Born in Bermuda in 1802 , he was living on Salt Cay by 1825 , where he owned salt properties ; in 1830 he married Caroline S. Smith of Bermuda, and they had three children: Benjamin H. , Copeland Place , and Susanna D. He died in August 1866 . His will left “all of my lands situated at the Caicos Islands,” including Breezy Point (East Caicos) —described as “one portion by original grant containing 1,360 acres … together with all horned cattle & other stock … and all houses and buildings”—to be divided equally among the three children; a court-ordered estate inventory followed in January 1867 . Copeland also served on the Legislative Council of the Turks & Caicos Islands , underscoring his status in the colony. In 1871 , the three children took a 99-year government lease over additional East Caicos land and, nine months lat...