Thomas Shephard

Slave-owner on Antigua, 'formerly of London' when he made his will in 1767 and dying at Bath in 1769. His estates passed to his eldest sister Elizabeth Byam, after Thomas Shephard's brother Jacob was found to be lunatic and his other brother Richard predeceased him.

1. Will of Thomas Shephard [late of London but now] of Antigua proved 09/01/1770. In the will he left £300 to his mother, £150 each to his sisters (Elizabeth the wife of Samuel Byam; Susannah Shephard and Mary Shephard), an annuity of £10 p.a. to Kitt a free black man 'formerly a slave to my father' but for many years and then still a servant 'to mother's family', and £40 to the poor of Cerne Abbey in Dorset. He left his unnamed plantations to his brother Richard Shephard for life in his original will, but in a codicil [also of 1767] left them instead to his brother Jacob for life providing Jacob was not (as he suspected) 'lunatick'.

Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. III pp. 80 and 83.

1. PROB 11/954/77.