Thomas Maxwell Hinds

Slave-owner in Barbados, identified in the will of Ann Hinds (q.v.) as one of her sons and as the owner of Mount Pleasant. The Register of Claims for Barbados no. 2902 shows WILLIAM Maxwell Hinds of Great Britain, owner-in-fee, claiming unsuccessfully for the compensation, which was paid to the mortgagees. The estate appears to be Mount Pleasant, for which the same number of enslaved people were registered in 1834 as the property of Thomas M. Hinds. To date no sign of William Maxwell Hinds has been found in Barbados or Britain, whereas the death of a Thomas Maxwell Hinds was registered at St Pancras Q4 1838.

1. The will of Thomas Maxwell Hinds formerly of Hampton Wick, now of no. 2 Tavistock Place, Russell Square was proved 31/03/1840. The will, dated 20/10/1837 is three lines long, and leaves all his property to his sister, Mary Maxwell Hinds. Mary Maxwell Hinds daughter of Benjamin Hinds married Rev. John Image at St Giles Camberwell 25/03/1841: she had been born in Barbados c. 1803 or 1808.

2. A nephew of Hinds and son of Mary Maxwell Hinds and the Rev. John Image was Selwyn Image (1849-1930), artist, designer, writer and poet associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement and the Century Guild of Artists. Shares in the Mount Pleasant planation passed down from Thomas Maxwell Hinds through John and Mary Image and, in due course, to Selwyn Image and his siblings by 1907. The shares were finally sold in 1914.

3. Son of Benjamin and Ann Hinds of Barbados. Of Barbados and Hampton Wick. Died in London 1838.

1. PROB 11/1924/204; Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online]; 1851 census online (which shows her as 43 or 48).

2. See 'Selwyn Image & Mount Pleasant plantation, Barbados', William Morris Gallery.

3. R. L. Arrowsmith (comp.), Charterhouse Register 1769 -1872 (London & Chichester, Phillimore, 1974). Thanks to Catherine Smith, Charterhouse Archivist, for this reference.