Nicholas Nugent

Dr Nicholas Nugent, awarded the compensation for the enslaved people on the Skerrett's estate on Antigua, which appears to have come to him in c. 1807 from his maternal uncle John Lynch of Antigua and Trinidad. Likely to be the same Nicholas Nugent who acted as an attorney for Norborne Thompson and Henry Shepherd Pearson, trustees for John Lyons deceased, in the compensation claim for Lyon's estate in Antigua.

1. 'Medical doctor with wide scientific interests and is chiefly remembered as a geologist and biologist' as well as being plantation owner. One of the third generation of Nugents to have lived in Antigua, following his father, Oliver (died 1802) and his grandfather, Walter (died 1758). The latter migrated to Antigua from Ireland around 1718, 'in the aftermath of the Battle of the Boyne'. The family had owned estates in Drumcree, County Westmeath. His mother was Bridget Margaret Lynch, sister of John Lynch of Antigua and Trinidad.

2. Vere Langford Oliver shows Nicholas Nugent's father Oliver Nugent of 'Nugents' as having built Clare Hall: 'sold his estate 1765 to Robert Skerrett', and bankrupt in 1777. The family estates have not yet been fully disentangled. The Clare Hall in the compensation records (owned by Sir Christopher Bethel Codrington) had changed its name (possibly back) from Skerretts to Clare Hall between 1821 and 1824, while 'Skerretts' appears in the compensation records in the 1830s as an estate belonging to Nicholas Nugent: Vere Langford Oliver shows Oliver Nugent's sister Antoinetta [or Antonetta] and brother-in-law Robert Skerrett as of "'Nugent's' alias 'Skerretts'", and says that after Antoinetta's death insolvent c. 1785 "'Skerretts' alias 'Nugents' alias 'Clare Hall' passed to the Codringtons."

3. Death "On the 2d inst.. In Porchester-terrace, Bayswater, deeply regretted, Nicholas Nugent, Esq., M.D., agent for the Island of Antigua, aged 62."

T71/877 Antigua claim nos. 266 and 267 (Skerretts).

1. http://www.nugentsofantigua.net/?page_id=20 is a family history by a descendant, Nicholas Nugent, of 'especially the branch that settled in the Caribbean island of Antigua around 1720, staying there for two and a half centuries, a quarter millennium'.

2. Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. II pp. 206-207 and pp. 312-313, and Vol. III p. 88.

3. Shipping and Mercantile Gazette 04/10/1843.

We are grateful to Peter Selley for his assistance with compiling this entry.