This page includes copies of some of
the source material I have come across about the
Wilkin family.
RESOURCES
1. Transcript
of papers from the Incumbered Estates Commission
The
West Indian Encumbered Estates Act was passed to
facilitate the sale of estates that were subject to
debts or where the owners were bankrupt. The laws of
conveyancing were so cumbersome that it was often
impossible to complete a sale of land in a reasonable
time.
National Archives at Kew. The following document
includes a list of the children and 2 grandchildren of William
Henry WILKIN (1810-1883). However, I did not have Blanch
recorded as a child of William. It appears that Henry and
William both died in 1883 and the ownership of the various
estates in Nevis had to be resolved. Until I saw this document I
had been unaware of Henry WILKIN.
Transcription
of a document found in C0 441/24/2 Papers & Correspondence:
Wilkin (deceased) : Clay Gut, etc: Nevis No 208
This
bundle of papers at the National Archives in Kew covered the
estate of Henry Wilkin deceased (1883). I transcribed two
documents amongst the bundle of papers which were kept
seemingly in no particular order .
DO'C
December 2011
"In the matter of the
Estates of Henry Wilkin late of the Island of Nevis in the West
Indies Esquire deceased.
"I William Henry
Wilkin of the Island of Montserrat, Proprietor but at present
staying at 12 Hobury Street Chelsea in the County of Middlesex one
of the above petitioners make oath and say as follows:
1. I have read the
Petition annexed hereto purporting to be the Petition presented in
the above matter by myself and the other persons therein named for
the sale of certain estates in the Island of Nevis in the West
Indies namely Clark's Estate Clayghaut Estate Hicks Estate and
other Estates the property of the late Henry Wilkin of the Island
of Nevis aforesaid at the time of his death.
2. The said Henry
Wilkin deceased was my Uncle and I believe the Statements in the
said Petition to be true.
3. I am not aware
that any Petition in the matter has been presented before the
Legal Commissioners in the Colony wherein the said Estates are
situate or before the Commissioners in England."
The
above document was sworn by William Henry Wilkin in London on
29th July 1889. It shows that the family believed that Henry
owned the various Estates and that if Henry was William
Henry's uncle then William Henry's father (also called William
Henry) had a brother.
I
did not have time to find, read or transcribe the petition
referred to. However, this later petition records the names of
the petitioners two years later.
“In the matter of the Estate of
Henry Wilkin deceased ex parte William Henry Wilkin and other
petitioners – 2nd November 1891.
“Upon the petition
of William Henry Wilkin, Ada Ann Penchoen (wife of King Pitman
Penchoen), Laura Howes (wife of Seymour Wylde Howes), Margaret
Fleck West (widow), Emily Wilkin (Spinster), York Wilkin, Mary
Emry (wife of the Reverend Joseph Emry, formerly Mary Wilkin),
Blanch Wilkin (Spinster) and Edwin Blackburn and Ida Blackburn
(infants by Sara Evelina Wilkin widow, their testamentary
guardian) filed the 17th day of August 1891.”
Under this petition Seymour Wylde
Howes (Laura's husband) became receiver and manager of the
plantations and estates called Clay Gut – Dacents – Huggins –
Clarkes – White Hall – Saddle Hill – Stanley & Bowman
Sands – Hicks – Spring Hill all in the island of Nevis and
House & Land in Charlestown
The
grand children Edwin and Ida BLACKBURN were the children of
Henry and Eva Mary BLACKBURN who must have died before 1891. Eva
Mary's first spouse was Harry LEWIS but I don’t have any dates
for that marriage.
Another file CO
441/22/2 records matters before the West Indian Incumbered
Estates court concerning the Howes and Wilkins families and
explains why matters were not settled until 1891/92
because of various mortgages etc.
Recollections
of
Eva Wilkin – from interviews by Barbara Cox in
1988
copyright Brian Bowrin, FLICKR
I was born in Montserrat, October 31, 1898. My mother was
born in England and my father in Montserrat. My grandfather came
out from Yorkshire and bought land in Montserrat. My father went
to England as a young man, met and fell in love with my mother.
They were married and came out to Montserrat. They had a
terrible time; my mother got typhoid fever, then rheumatic
fever, she was ill most of the time. Every year got worse and
worse with the cotton and sugar and the price went down to five
cents a barrel. They had Dorothy first, then Ruth and then me
and then we went to England and my brother Bill was born there.
We went to England and Dad stayed behind in Montserrat
for a little time to try to get the estate in order again but he
gave it up and he came to England and we tried to have a farm in
England but he didn’t know anything about farming. That was in
Hampshire. It was a wonderful place to grow up in. I was about
two years old when we went to England, I might have been a
little older. I remember going to an infant school. Everybody
was about six years old and I remember sitting writing in a copy
book that Montserrat lime juice is the best and I remember
jumping from the desk and running to the teacher and saying,
“That’s where I come from."
I went to school all the time in England and then I went
to college at Avery Hill just outside London in 1917. That’s
where I got fascinated with drawing. As a child I was the best
behaved child in the world. If there were a pencil around, I
drew people, I didn’t like chairs
or anything like that. They gave me a scholarship I was two
years at Avery Hill and then I got this scholarship for another
year to do nothing but draw and I went to Westminster Central
School of Arts and Crafts. I had a smarthing of everything.
Then my mother died in England (1914)
and my father came to Nevis; my uncle (her only
uncle was William Henry Wilkin 1863-1931. Perhaps she meant
her great-uncle Henry who died in 1883) left
him this place (Clay Ghaut).His
other place in Montserrat got rented. I didn’t come back with
him but Ruth did. I was at college then. That was after the
first World War about 1919. I remember going down to the Strand.
The Principal said we could all go to London on Armistice Day
and we were all in the train and I said what’s all that noise,
I’ve never heard such noise. It was all of London shrieking. And
then we got to Charing Cross and I couldn’t get by the people.
Everybody seemed to be out. Oh! It was a wonderful sight.
Then I went to a very lovely college in London, London
Chelsea Whitelands Training College, so I could teach anywhere.
I liked life drawing; I could do that for the rest of my life. I
went to teach for about three months then Ruth told me to come
out. My father, Ruth and Bill were here. Ruth had met Norman
(Maynard) and I came out for the wedding in about 1925. We
worked the sugar mill until 1940, then my father died in 1950.
I used to ride around and look after the cotton. I had a
large group of people in this room (the mill) each with a pile
of cotton to be cleaned. I had a gramophone and I would put a
record on. We got lot of cotton cleaned to the sound of the
music.
As long as my eyes hold out I can still do the small
children easily. The only time you can do work is when you can
sit down and forget about everything else, but I can’t do that
because I can’t see for one thing for another thing and I am
getting dull mornings. Its’ lovely having people popping in. It
would be a month sometimes when Dad and I were here without
anybody coming.
