Sir James Edward Colebrooke

Sir James Edward Colebrooke sold estates (and enslaved people) on Antigua, including Colebrooke's, to John Adams Wood, the 'owner' of Mary Prince c. 1832.

1. Son of Sir George and Lady Mary Colebrooke, baptised St Botolph Bishopsgate 06/08/1761. Will of Sir James Edward Colebrooke of Tonbridge Kent proved 14/01/1839.

2. Sir James Edward Colebrooke sold 'the Gaynor estates' which had come to his family through the marriage of his father Sir George Colebrooke (1729-1809) and Mary Gaynor (d. 1818). Sir George Colebrooke has an entry in the ODNB as 'banker': the entry details his marriage in 1754 to Mary, daughter of Patrick Gaynor of Antigua. Sir James Edward Colebrooke's brother Henry Thomas Colebrooke (1765-1835) also has an entry as 'administrator in India and scholar.'

3. Sir James Edward Colebrooke married 1820 Mrs Louisa Ann Stewart but died without issue and was succeeded by his nephew Sir Thomas Edward Colebrooke to his 'title and large fortune (£15,000 p.a.)'. Sir James Edward Colebrooke's mother's cousin, Augustine Pentheny (d. 1811 in Dublin) reportedly made £300,000 in Antigua and Santa Cruz [St Croix], having started as a journeyman cooper under the patronage of Peter Gaynor, his maternal uncle and Sir James Edward Colebrooke's maternal grandfather; Peter Gaynor reportedly gave £200,000 to Sir George Colebrooke and Mary Gaynor on their marriage in 1754.

T71/ 877 Antigua no. 93 (Brecknock) [which shows John Adams Wood as 'owner-in-fee by purchase from Sir J. C. [=E.] Colebrooke bart.] and Antigua no. 263 (Colebrooke's).

1. Ancestry.com, London England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials 1538-1812 [database online] [which transcribes his mother as 'Sady']; PROB 11/1905/99.

2. Vere Langford Oliver, 'The History of Antigua, one of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the first settlement in 1635 to the present time Vol. II part 1 p. 9-11 [which gives Peter rather than Patrick Gaynor as Mary Gaynor's father]; ODNB online H.V. Bowen, rev. Anita McConnell, 'Colebrooke, Sir George, second baronet (1729-1809), banker'; ibid., Richard F. Gombrich, 'Colebrooke, Henry Thomas (1765-1835), administrator in India and scholar.'

3. Vere Langford Oliver, 'The History of Antigua, one of the Leeward Caribbees in the West Indies, from the first settlement in 1635 to the present time Vol. II part 1 p. 11, citing Gentleman's Magazine 1811 p. 187. Mary Gaynor is however shown as Peter Gaynor's posthumous daughter ibid p. 9. The will of Augustine Pentheny of Dublin proved 29/04/1812 does not really support the asserted level of wealth: he left monetary legacies of some £1300 and annuities of £210 p.a., with his residuary estate after 14 years passing to the two daughters of his brother Doctor Peter Pentheny formerly of Santa Cruz, Mary and Ellin, both of them married to men of Santa Cruz, George B. Shelley and William Bourke respectively.