Isabella Parnther

Born in Jamaica, the daughter of John and Ann Parnther (was Bucknor), but in England by the 1830s, she was awarded the compensation for the enslaved on the Charlemont estate in Jamaica as owner-in-fee.

1. In 1851, Isabella Parnther, aged 68, born Jamaica, u[nmarried] head of household, Fund holder was living at the Vicarage, Churchyard Hatfield with [half-] sister Elizabeth W Bucknor 77 (also marked u[nmarried]) born Jamaica annuitant. Will of Isabella Parnther, spinster, late of Hatfield but recently of Hoddesdon, who died 02/01/1867 at Brook House Clapton, proved 22/02/1867, effects under £4000. The death of Isabella Parnther was registered at Hackney Q1 1867, which gave her age as 87. The Isabella Parnther baptised 11/05/1775 at St Andrew Holborn, daughter of Robert and Ann Parnther, of Bartlett Buildings, is not the same woman: LBS has concluded that this was the first cousin of the Isabella Parnther born in Jamaica.

2. In December 1829 the Privy Council heard on appeal from Jamaica the case of White v Parnther, in which John and Isabella Parnther were respondents. The case arose from legacies originally secured on the Hopewell estate under the will of William Bucknor in 1757. The report identifies John and Isabella as the children of Ann Bucknor and John Parnther. Ann was the widow of William Bucknor's son John, and shortly after her first husband's death in 1775 married John Parnther. Ann survived her second husband and died c. 1794, bequeathing to her children an annuity from her first husband that was entwined in the Hopewell litigation.

T71/871 Westmoreland claim no. 683, which also identifies her as 'Great Britain'.

1. 1851 census online; National Probate Calendar 1867; FreeUKGen, England and Wales Free BMD Database, Deaths, 1837-1983 [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online].

2. Jerome E Knapp, Reports of cases argued and determined before the committees of His Majesty's most honourable Privy Council 1829-1831 (London, 1831) White v Parnther pp. 179-230.