The West Indian and Caribbean Trade - Information and Advertisements

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PETER ARBEAUD

A snippet of detail extracted from a Government Inquiry held in Jamaica in 1826:

Examination of Peter Arbeaud, taken before His Majesty's Commissioners of Legal Inquiry, the 8th day of February 1826, at Kingston, Jamaica.

Q. What is your name, your place of residence, and occupation?

A. My name is Peter Arbeaud; I live at the corner of the Wherry Wharf, in Kingston, and I am a jeweller and engraver. I am a Frenchman, born in Port-au-Prince, in St. Domingo, and came to this island on the 2d January, in the year 1815.

Source: A Letter to the Right Honorable Sir George Murray Relative to the Deportation of Lecesne and Escoffery from Jamaica - 1829

Trev.

[baltic]

A snippet of information - anything further on this gratefully received. Francis Ross from Tain, Scotland, was apprenticed to Robert Innes in Inverness in 1717 and apparently went on to work as a silversmith in Jamaica. I haven't found any other trace of him.

[dognose]

Hi Baltic,

Welcome to the Forum.

Many thanks for posting this information. Snippets of detail such as this will hopefully lead to further information coming to light.

The Incorporation of Edinburgh website has note of a Huw Ross, perhaps the brother of Francis, being apprenticed to Robert Innes in 1717. Innes is thought to have died in 1722. If the dating is correct, then they may have completed their term under another Master.

Regards Trev.

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JOHN DOANE

John Doane, goldsmith, formerly of Boston, died at the Island of Barbadoes, where for some years he had been resident.

Source: Boston News Letter - 13th August 1767.

(Reference refers to Boston, Massachusetts)

Trev.

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JOHN PAUL ELSTROM

Examination of John Paul Elstrom, before His Majesty's Commissioners of Legal Inquiry, the 8th day of February 1826, at Kingston, Jamaica.

Q. What is your name, your place of residence, and occupation? A. My name is John Paul Elstrom. I live at Port Royal, and am a watch maker. I am a Hanoverian by birth, and have been in this island nearly two years.

Q. Where did you last come from before you arrived here? A. From Porto Rico, in the Forte frigate–Captain Cochrane gave me a passage.

Q. When you were at Porto Rico did you hear any reports about this island? A. Yes, I did.

Q. State what they were, and at what time. A. About Christmas 1823, when I was at Porto Rico, a vessel arrived there from Havannah, and brought news that the St. Domingo negroes had some connexion witli the negroes of Jamaica, to make an insurrection there. At the same time we had an insurrection at Porto Rico, and I saw three of the negroes hung. At that time the negroes of Mr. Kortwright, at St. Anne's, in Porto Rico, set fire to a megass heap, by way of a signal, and rose, but they were put down.

Q. Have you any thing further to say in this matter? A. I have not.

(Signed) J. P. Elstrom.

Source: A Letter to the Right Honorable Sir George Murray Relative to the Deportation of Lecesne and Escoffery from Jamaica - 1829

Trev.

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P. BOURET HUSTE Successors to Tinaud

Plaza Principal, San Juan, Porto Rico


P. Bouret Huste - San Juan - 1910

See: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=18857&p=199508#p199508

Trev.

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GEORGE SAMUEL RANKIN

The mark attributed to George Samuel Rankin who was working in Bermuda c.1820:



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G. W. ABRAHAMS

67, King-street, Kingston, Jamaica

Mr. G.W. Abrahams, The Cheap Jewelry Store, 67, King-street, Kingston, Jamaica, will be glad to hear from firms offering goods to suit his trade.

Source: The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith - 2nd April 1894

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[dognose]

The account books of the Old Sheffield Platers, Watson & Bradbury, reveal the following customers in Jamaica:

1795-1797 James Clark - Kingston, Jamaica - £917-2s-3d
1796-1798 James C. Colthirst - Kingston, Jamaica - £593-13s-6d
1796-1812 Joshua Rouse - Kingston, Jamaica - £2,534-11s-5d
1795-1801 George Marshall - Spanish Town, Jamaica - £819-19s-9d

The amounts involved show the considerable business in the West Indian Trade.

Trev.

[dognose]

For information regarding silversmiths working on the island of St. Domingue (Haiti), see:

Orfèvres (silversmiths) de St. Domingue

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[Francais]

I was going through my list of French silversmiths in the islands, gleaned from the internet, and I ran into these.
I have no idea where I found them, but offer the info for what it is.

John Wren

William Stephenson, William Sutton , Grenada

George Clinton Jamaica

Maurice

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THE FAVOURITE JEWELLERY STORE

70, King Street, Kingston, Jamaica


The Favourite Jewellery Store - Kingston - 1921


The Favourite Jewellery Store - Kingston - 1922

The business of L.A. Henriques.

Box detail:


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NEUMAN TOBIAS

42, Harbour Street East, Kingston, Jamaica


Neuman Tobias - Kingston, Jamaica - 1892

Neuman Tobias was also noted as being granted US Patents for 'Improvements to Combination Padlocks' in 1908 and for 'Fire Escapes' in 1926.

Trev.

[dognose]

A table that shows the extraordinary amount of silverware exported to West Indies during the period 1801-1810. The amounts shown reveal that the West Indies were by far the biggest customer for exporters of British silverware at that time. The figures, I believe, can be viewed as reliable, as the Duty on such exported silverwares could be claimed back by the manufacturers.



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LOUIS DUPONT

London and St. Domingo

For information regarding Louis Dupont see: Orfèvres (silversmiths) de St. Domingue

Trev.

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STANISLAUS BESSON

La Baye, Grenada

An erroneous idea has prevailed, that the insurrection in Grenada originated with the French inhabitants. On its first breaking out, the rumour was that the French had landed at La Baye; but on the same morning, (the 3d of March, 1795,) a letter from Mr. Home, President of the Island, and then unfortunately in the neighbourhood of La Baye, was brought to his Secretary Mr. Byles, at St. George's, of which the following is an extract. "No French have landed at La Baye, but the free people have risen against the whites ;" and on the 7th of May, Mr. M'Kenzie, who had succeeded to the Presidency, in consequence of the massacre of Mr. Home, who with many other of the white inhabitants had fallen into the hands of the insurgents, addressed the Council and Assembly in a speech beginning with these words: " It is a very sensible affliction to me, to meet you for the first time in a season of great public calamity. A general insurrection of the French free coloured people, broke out here on the 3d of March." Victor Hughes, and his brother Commissioners at Guadaloupe, had signed commissions, appointing Julien Fedon, a mulatto coffee planter, commandant-general; Stanislaus Besson, a mulatto silversmith at La Baye, second in command; and Charles Nogues, and Jean Pierre de Valette, two other free coloured men, captains in the French Republican service ; and had given them a flag, on which the words Liberte, Egalitie, ou La Mort were inscribed in large characters; an inscription which well denoted the sentiments by which they were actuated. One of their first acts was to murder a French priest, the Abbe Peissoniere, which shewed they had no particular predilection for Frenchmen; and no commission was given by Victor Hughes to any of the French white inhabitants, although most of them afterwards joined the insurgents, either encouraged by their successes, or intimidated by their menaces.

Source: Thoughts on the Abolition of the Slave Trade - Joseph Marryat - 1816

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WILLIAM ROACH

Kingston, Jamaica


PRIVATE ACTS 1788

Anno 29, Georgii III

An act to secure to'William Roach, of the parish of Kingston, watchmaker, the exclusive right of carrying into execution his new-invented machine for raising water.

Source: The Laws of Jamaica: 1760-1792

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M. BAYLEY

Barbados

Its a long journey for a retail jeweler from Barbadoes, West Indies, to come to Philadelphia on a buying trip, but M. Bayley, who conducts a thriving business on that British-owned isle, appeared among the wholesalers this week and stocked up for a long season.

Source: The Jewelers' Circular - 1920

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JOHN WOLMER

Kingston, Jamaica

Noted as a goldsmith at Kingston who left in his will provision to establish a school. The will was dated 20th May 1729 and Wolmer died at Kingston on the 29th June 1730, after residing there for "upwards of twenty years".

An act to repeal part of an act entitled, "An act to explain and enforce the last will and testament of John Wolmer, late of Kingston, goldsmith, deceased; and rendering his donation to the said town more useful; and for erecting and establishing a free-school in the said town;" and also to amend the same act; and to add to the number of trustees of Wolmer s free-school thereby erected; and to enable the said trustees to appoint a treasurer..
3rd December 1774.

Source: The Laws of Jamaica: 1760-1792 - 1802

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ROBERT SPENCE

Jamaica

DEATHS

May 21 - At Pennant Vere, Jamaica, Mr Robert Spence, eldest son of Mr Spence, jeweller, Edinburgh, esteemed and lamented by all who knew him.

Source: The Scots Magazine and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany - 1812

Robert Spence was the eldest son of the Goldsmith, Alexander Spence. Robert was born on the 6th February 1786 and apprenticed to his father on the 26th September 1800.

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