John Morant II

Son of John Morant I and father of John Morant III. It's not clear which of the family estates were inherited from his father and which were established by John II, but John II greatly increased the family's slave-holding. Probate records for John Morant I include ownership of 29 enslaved people in 1683 and John Morant II's include 213 enslaved people in 1724.

1. John Morant II died 03/10/1721 in his 44th year.

2. John Morant of Vere, Esquire. Estate probated in Jamaica in 1724. Slave-ownership at probate: 213 of whom 113 were listed as male and 100 as female. 64 were listed as boys, girls or children. Total value of estate at probate: £10669.46 Jamaican currency of which £4219 currency was the value of enslaved people. Estate valuation included £0 currency cash, £4061.46 currency debts and £0 currency plate.

3. Probably the John Morant mentioned in Sir Nicholas Lawes' letter c. 1720: "John Morant, mentioned Councillor, was brought up a shoemaker, is a moral man. Pretended to be of the Church, but vehement for the country principles; therefore variable, and a fit tool to these mentioned before, for any new emergency, to pull down the Church, &c."

Burke's Landed Gentry (1879) p. 1123.

1. James Lawrence-Archer, Monumental Inscriptions of the British West Indies (1875) p. 299-300.

2. Trevor Burnard, Database of Jamaican inventories, 1674-1784.

3. Letter from Sir Nicholas Lawes, governor of Jamaica, to the Bishop of London, c. 1720, 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. 3 p. 8.