Sarah Anne Walkinshaw

Probably widow of William Walkinshaw and sister-in-law of Edward Walkinshaw of Liverpool (q.v.). Given as Sarah Anne Walkenshaw in the compensation records.

1. William Walkinshaw ('her husband') registered 2 enslaved people the property of Mrs Sarah Walkinshaw in Trinidad in 1825, shown as 'family of Harrison'.

2. In the West Indies in the 1820s and early 1830s for the birth of her children Emily (c. 1824), Jessie (c. 1825), William Burnley (c. 1827), Sarah [possibly also called Adelaide?] (c. 1829), Flora [possibly also called Frances?] [c. 1831] and Julia (c. 1833). The places of birth of the children are seen in later censuses: Jessie age 24 married to Simeon Moseley, a dentist, living with Julia age 17 at 15 Whitefriar Gate, Hull, in 1851, both born in Trinidad; Burnley age 24, a Surgeon Dentist, living with his sisters Emily age 25, Adelaide age 23 and Frances age 20, at 39 Devonshire Street, Middlesex, in 1851, all born in the West Indies.

3. William Walkinshaw registered enslaved people on Clyde Cottage estate in 1834.

4. William Walkinshaw perhaps had died by 1837 when Edward Walkinshaw wrote to the Commissioners about Clydesdale Cottage, saying the residuary interest was 'vested in a widow with eight destitute children', a possible reference to Sarah Anne Walkinshaw. In 1837 the Commissioners wrote to Mrs Sarah Walkinshaw 10 Brunswick Buildings Weymouth 18/12/1837 about the claim for Clydesdale Cottage.

5. In 1841 Sarah Walkinshaw, "Ind.", age 35, was living at Lambeth Green, Surrey, with her children Mary (18), Emily (17), Jessie (16), William (14), Sarah (12), Flora (10) and Julia (8), all born out of county. There is no sign of Sarah in the later censuses or of a death for her.

6. It was probably her daughter who was the Emily Margaret (d. 1880) daughter of Dr William Walkinshaw of Naparima Trinidad who married the journalist and Punch editor Charles William Shirley Brooks. There is other evidence that William Walkinshaw was a physician: at the marriage of his daughter Flora Georgina to William Henry Valpy (a surgeon) at St George's, Bloomsbury, Flora's father was William Walkinshaw M.D.

7. In Trinidad No. 1842A-C, Sarah Anne Walkinshaw shared the compensation with W.A. Harrison of Uxbridge and John Harrison of Blandford Forum of Dorset: a possibly connected will, that of Elizabeth Walkinshaw formerly Harrison of St Olave Southwark Surrey proved 05/05/1820 is short and provides little direct evidence: in it, Elizabeth Walkinshaw formerly Harrison identified her late husband's brother as John Walkinshaw and left her property to her nephews John Goodrich Goshin and John Vernalls and nieces Mary Ann Jones and Elizabeth Vernalls.

T71/894 Trinidad Nos. 1838, 1840 and 1842A-C.

1. Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database on-line], Trinidad (personal) 1825.

2. 1841 and 1851 censuses online.

3. Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database online].

4. T71/1611. T71/1594 p. 154.

5. 1841 census online.

6. ODNB G.C. Boase, rev. H.C.G. Matthew 'Brooks, Charles William Shirley (1816-1874), journalist and playwright'. Charles William Shirley Brooks and Emily Marguerite Walkinshaw married at St Pancras 19/08/1854, when her father was shown as William Bannatyne Walkinshaw (dead); Ancestry.com, London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 [database online].

7. PROB 11/1630.