Colonel Peter Beckford (c. 1643 – 3 April 1710) was an English-born planter, merchant, military officer and colonial administrator who served as the acting governor of Jamaica in 1702. A prominent member of the planter class in the English colony of Jamaica, by the time of his death Beckford had acquired ownership over 20 plantations, 1,200 slaves and earnt what historian Noel Deer described as "perhaps the greatest fortune ever made in planting." [1] [2]
Peter Beckford was born in London c. 1643. His father was also named Peter Beckford and was from Maidenhead; one of Beckford's uncles was Sir Thomas Beckford, who served as the sheriff of London, while another was Richard Beckford, a sea captain who was engaged in trade with the English colony of Jamaica from 1659 onwards.[ citation needed ]
After the Commonwealth of England launched a successful invasion of Jamaica in 1655, the colony proved a lucrative business proposition for English colonists who wished to establish sugar plantations there. In 1662, Beckford emigrated to the island, taking with him two or three Black slaves, and engaged himself as hunter and horse catcher. [3] Having served as a seaman, he was granted a thousand acres (4 km2) of land in Clarendon by royal patent on 6 March 1669.
He took an active part in island politics, representing Saint Catherine Parish in the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1675, and was later called to the colonial council, where he was appointed President. He was appointed Chief Justice of Jamaica in 1703. [4] He was the first Custos of Kingston, and a street was named after him there. He was renowned for being haughty with a strong temper and was involved in many heated debates.
Beckford was twice married—first to Bridget, who died in 1691, and then again to Anne Ballard in 1696—and had two sons, the eldest of whom was also called Peter.
When he died suddenly in a fit of passion in 1710, he was the wealthiest planter in Jamaica. Charles Leslie claimed Beckford was "in possession of the largest property real and personal of any subject in Europe." This wealth was reputedly in the form of 20 Jamaican estates, 1500 slaves, and £1,500,000 in bank stock. [5] [6] His death resulted from an accident on 3 April 1710 when he rushed to the defence of his son, who had caused a commotion when the governor, Thomas Handasyd, tried to dissolve the House of Assembly. Swords were drawn, and the elder Beckford allegedly fell down the stairs and died of a stroke. [7]
Peter junior gave him a grandson, William Beckford, generally known as "Alderman Beckford" and twice Lord Mayor of London. He in turn produced the great grandson, William Thomas Beckford, the writer and art collector. The latter had his great grandfather's portrait on display, according to Henry Venn Lansdown:
Petersfield in Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica is named after him.
The Caribbean Island of Jamaica was initially inhabited in approximately 600 AD or 650 AD by the Redware people, often associated with redware pottery. By roughly 800 AD, a second wave of inhabitance occurred by the Arawak tribes, including the Tainos, prior to the arrival of Columbus in 1494. Early inhabitants of Jamaica named the land "Xaymaca", meaning "land of wood and water". The Spanish enslaved the Arawak, who were ravaged further by diseases that the Spanish brought with them. Early historians believe that by 1602, the Arawak-speaking Taino tribes were extinct. However, some of the Taino escaped into the forested mountains of the interior, where they mixed with runaway African slaves, and survived free from first Spanish, and then English, rule.
Barbados is an island country in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, situated about 100 miles (160 km) east of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Roughly triangular in shape, the island measures some 21 miles (34 km) from northwest to southeast and about 14 miles (23 km) from east to west at its widest point. The capital and largest town is Bridgetown, which is also the main seaport.
Sir William Beckford was a Jamaican-born planter and Whig politician who twice served as Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and 1769. One of the best known political figures in Georgian era London, his vast wealth derived from the sugar plantations and hundreds of slaves he owned in the British colony of Jamaica. In Britain, Beckford was a supporter of the Whig party, including Prime Minister William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. He also publicly supported progressive causes and frequently championed the London public.
Slavery in the British and French Caribbean refers to slavery in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire.
Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Codrington was an English Army officer, planter and colonial administrator who served as governor of the Leeward Islands from 1699 to 1704. Born on Barbados into the planter class, he inherited one of the largest sugar plantations in the colony. Codrington travelled to Europe during the late-17th century and served in the Nine Years' War and War of the Spanish Succession, taking part in numerous engagements.
Edward Long was a British-born planter, historian and writer best known for writing a book about the history of Jamaica in 1774 which was heavily rooted in proslavery thought.
William Knibb, OM was an English Baptist minister and missionary to Jamaica. He is chiefly known today for his work to free enslaved Africans.
Richard Lee I was the first member of the Lee family to live in America.
William Beckford of Somerley was a Jamaican-born planter and writer who wrote on the topography and conditions of slavery in the British colony of Jamaica and the history of France.
Peter Beckford was a Jamaican-born planter, politician and merchant who served as speaker of the House of Assembly of Jamaica from 1707 to 1713, and again in 1716. The son of one of the richest men in the colony of Jamaica, Beckford sat in the House of Assembly of Jamaica for three decades and acquired a vast financial estate. His wealth would go on to support the political careers of his children in Great Britain.
Colonel Sir Thomas Modyford, 1st Baronet was a planter of Barbados and Governor of Jamaica from 1664 to 1671.
Elizabeth Home, Countess of Home was a Jamaican-born heiress, noblewoman and absentee plantation owner. Already rich from her merchant father, she married James Lawes, the eligible son of Jamaica's governor, in 1720. They moved to London, and his death in 1734 left her a wealthy widow. Home married the spendthrift William Home, 8th Earl of Home in late 1742. He abandoned her soon after, and she spent her next years living an extravagant lifestyle. She owned plantations in the parishes of St Andrew and Vere in Jamaica, owning over 423 slaves on her plantations.
Sir Peter Beckford was a British writer, planter, art collector and politician who was the patron of classical composer and pianist Muzio Clementi. A prominent member in the English fox hunting community, he owned a pack of hunting dogs and wrote the work Thoughts upon Hunting (1781) which served as a guide to the practise.
The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was primarily used for sugarcane production, and experienced many slave rebellions over the course of British rule. Jamaica was granted independence in 1962.
English colonist William Vassall (1592–1656) is remembered both for promoting religious freedom in New England and commencing his family's ownership of slave plantations in the Caribbean. A patentee of the Massachusetts Bay Company, Vassall was among the merchants who petitioned Puritan courts for greater civil liberties and religious tolerance. In 1647, he and John Child published New-England’s Jonas cast up in London, a tract describing the efforts of colonial petitioners. By early 1648, Vassall moved to Barbados to establish a slave-labor sugar plantation. He and his descendants were among the Caribbean's leading planters, enslaving more than 3,865 people before Britain abolished slavery in 1833.
Colonel Sir James Drax was an English planter and military officer. Born in Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, Drax migrated to the English colony of Barbados and acquired ownership of several sugar plantations and slaves. Drax was expelled from Barbados by the Royalists because he was a Parliamentarian, but he returned in 1651 when the island was returned to Parliamentarian control. Drax returned to England, where he died in 1662. He would go on to establish a dynasty of wealthy slave owning sugar planters.
Major-General Thomas Handasyd was a British Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Jamaica from 1702 until 1711. Born in Elsdon, Northumberland, he served during the Stuart period from 1674 to 1710.
Edward D'Oyley was an English soldier who served as Governor of Jamaica on two occasions.
Thomas Sutton was the speaker of the House of Assembly of Jamaica in 1691-92 and 1698.