1759 - 1816
Aretas Akers II, born in St Kitts in 1759, the son of plantation owner Aretas Akers I (1734-1785) and Jean Douglas (?-1768, herself the niece of the Governor-General of the Leeward Islands). Husband of Jane Akers née Ramsay and father of Aretas Akers III (both q.v.). The estate of Aretas Akers II and his brother Edmund Fleming Akers (q.v.) were the subject of protracted legal wrangling among legatees and creditors.
His father brought his family to England in 1782 when St Kitts was captured by the French. Aretas Akers II married Jane Ramsay, daughter of Rev. James Ramsay (1733-1789), a prominent campaigner against the slave trade, in Camden, London, 19/03/1795. They had 7 children: Jane Charlotte (baptised 08/02/1796 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent), Isabel Rachel Rebekah (baptised in Margate, Kent, 09/08/1797 and buried in Margate, Kent, 12/08/1797), Aretas III (baptised 21/06/1799 in St Pancras), Mary (baptised 21/04/1802 in St Pancras), Edmund Fleming (born 24/12/1803, baptised 02/04/1804 in Marylebone and buried 24/08/1807 at St John's in Margate, Kent), Caroline (born 02/02/1810 and baptised 19/10/1811 in Brighton, Sussex) and James Ramsay (baptised 05/1814 in Hanover Square, Westminster).
Aretas Akers II and his brother Edmund Fleming Akers were trustees of their father Aretas Akers I and spent more than 20 years untangling their father's financial affairs so that his will could be executed. Edmund Fleming Akers gave a mortgage to his brother Aretas Akers II for 203 enslaved persons and 165 acres of land on Monkton's Land, St Vincent, 02/11/1790. In their claim for compensation for ownership of enslaved persons in Jambou Vale in 1835, the widow and son of Aretas Akers II claimed compensation under the will of Aretas Akers II as mortgagees and residuary legatees of Edmund Fleming Akers.
Listed at 29, City Chambers, London, "Merchant, commerce" in 1790.
Aretas Akers II died in 1816. In his will he left £1400 a year to his wife, £25,000 to his eldest son Aretas III, £15,000 to his son James Ramsay, £10,000 to each of his daughters Mary and Caroline and the residue to his eldest son Aretas III.
T71/892 St Vincent claim no. 463 (Jambou Vale).
Akers Family Papers held at the Senate House Library, University of London, summary available at http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=7516&inst_id=14 [accessed 29/06/2012]. Bernard Burke, The heraldic register, 1849-1850 : with an introductory essay on heraldry, and an annotated obituary (London, E. Churton, 1850) p. 100. Births, baptisms and burials of children at Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812 [database online] and www.familysearch.org batch nos. C01362-3, C03524-4, I04762-5, I06409-0, P00840-1.
Akers Family Papers, op. cit.. Bonhams auction of a list of 203 enslaved persons appended to a mortgage, available at http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16761/lot/83/ [accessed 29/06/2012].
Bailey's London Directory (5th ed., London, Bailey, 1790).
Will of Aretas Akers II transcribed at Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919), Vol. 5 p. 313.
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Absentee?
British/Irish
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Name in compensation records
Aeneas Akers
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Spouse
Jane
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Children
Jane Charlotte (1796-), Isabel Rachel Rebekah (1797-1797), Aretas (1799-1855), Edmund Fleming (1803-1807), Mary, Caroline (1810-), James Ramsay (?-1876)
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Will
Aretas Akers now of Holles Street, Esq. Will dated 9 June 1814. Whereas in March 1797 I intermarried with my wife Jane, and I have issue by her two sons, Aretas A my eldest son and Jas. Ramsay A. My youngest and only other son, and two daus. Mary A. and Caroline A., and I secured by my bond £400 a year to my wife during her widowhood, and her fortune was vested in trustees for our lives and the for our children. I appoint my said wife and Geo. Douglas of Tunbridge Wells, co. Kent, Esq,. and the Rev. Richd Warde of Yalding, clerk, Ex’ors, they and Rob. Houston of Gt. Cumberland Street, Esq., G., a suit in Chancery to be instituted, Government securities to be purchased which shall yield £1000 a year, my wife to have the income. I bequeath her all furniture, etc., £10,000 apiece for each of my daus. at 21, £15,000 for my son Jas. Ramsay A. at 21, £25,000 for my eldest son Aretas A. at 21. All residue of personal estate to my said eldest son in tail, and on death of all issue to the children of my brothers Edmund Fleming A. and John Houseton A., and of my late sister Isabel Morson. To my wife £200 immediately. I give my 100 acres of uncultivated land in St Vincent to my eldest son and all my books, watches, seals and family portraits. To my dau. Mary the small bedstead which her sister Jane used. My son Aretas not to be educated at a public school except to a University. My wife to give up all control over my nephew Henry Morson the son of my sister Isabel M. A black marble to be put over the grave of my two children who were interred in Margate church and a small monument near it, and a monument to be placed over the grave of my son buried in Yalding church. Proved 24 Dec. 1816 by Jane Akers, widow, the relict, and the Rev. Richard Warde, p.r. to G.D., Esq.
Transcribed at Vere Langford Oliver, Caribbeana being miscellaneous papers relating to the history, genealogy, topography, and antiquities of the British West Indies (6 vols., London, Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1910-1919), Vol. 5 p. 313. |
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Occupation
Merchant and plantation owner
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£3,814 0s 9d
Beneficiary unsuccessful
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Father → Son
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Husband → Wife
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Brothers
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Son → Father
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Beneficiary of Trust → Trustee
Notes →
Under a deed of 03/05/1799 Aretas Akers [II] appointed Richard Walter Forbes of Ely Place as trustee of land and enslaved people on St Vincent.
Deed Book 1799, British Library, EAP688/1/1/10,...
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29 City Chambers, London, Middlesex, London, England
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Holles Street, London, Middlesex, London, England
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1805 - ????
Enslaved man brought to England as a domestic servant; his former owner was indicted for the mistreatment of Thompson in 1824.
Document comprises 4 parts, written recto and verso across 5 folios: 1. An inventory and valuation of enslaved persons at Windsor Estate, St Elizabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 2. An inventory and valuation of enslaved persons at Williamsfield settlement, St Elisabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 3. An inventory of animals at Windsor Estate, St Elizabeth parish, Jamaica, 1814. 4. A cover note outlining the contents of the document.
© Copyright Legacies of British Slavery - UCL Department of History 2024
CITING THIS RECORD:
'Aretas Akers II', Legacies of British Slavery database, http://wwwdepts-live.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/-1815334016 [accessed 8th November 2024].
