Table Of ContentChildren
of UnCertain
fortUne
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Children
of Uncertain
Fortune
Mixed- Race Jamaicans in Britain
and the Atlantic Family,
1733–1833
daniel livesay
Published by the
omohUndro institUte of
early ameriC an history and CUltUre,
Williamsburg, Virginia,
and the
University of north Carolina Press,
Chapel Hill
The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
is sponsored by the College of William and Mary. On November 15, 1996,
the Institute adopted the present name in honor of a bequest
from Malvern H. Omohundro, Jr.
© 2018 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover images: Top: Lady Elizabeth Murray and Dido Belle. Unknown artist,
formerly attributed to Johann Zoffany. Circa 1780. Courtesy of Earls of Mansfield,
Scone Palace, Perth, Scotland. Bottom: The Morse and Cator Family. By Johann Zoffany.
1784. Image courtesy of the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums Collections.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Livesay, Daniel, author.
Title: Children of uncertain fortune : mixed-race Jamaicans in
Britain and the Atlantic family, 1733–1833 / Daniel Livesay.
Description: Williamsburg, Virginia : Omohundro Institute of Early American
History and Culture ; Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2018] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lCCn 2017030142| isBn 9781469634432 (cloth : alk. paper) |
isBn 9781469634449 (ebook)
Subjects: lCsh: Great Britain—Race relations—History. | Jamaica—Race relations—
History. | Racially mixed people—Jamaica—Social conditions—History—18th century. |
Racially mixed people—Jamaica—Social conditions—History—19th century. | Racially
mixed people—Great Britain—Social conditions—History—18th century. | Racially mixed
people—Great Britain—Social conditions—History—19th century. | Racially mixed people—
Civil rights—Jamaica—History—18th century. | Racially mixed people—Civil rights—Great
Britain—History—18th century. | Racially mixed people—Civil rights—Jamaica—History—
19th century. | Racially mixed people—Civil rights—Great Britain—History—19th century.
Classification: lCC da125.a1 l57 2018 | ddC 305.23089/0596009041—dc23
lC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017030142
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the
Green Press Initiative since 2003.
For Mary
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aCknowledgments
The list of acknowledgments is inevitably long for a first book. I have been
the lucky recipient of an incredible amount of assistance, support, and en-
couragement since beginning this project. Generous funding from a number
of different organizations enabled me to undertake research and writing. The
History Department at the University of Michigan supported me through-
out the whole of graduate school. A Pre-D octoral Fellowship and Rackham
Humanities Fellowship, along with summer funding from the International
Institute and the Center for European Studies at the university helped sig-
nificantly. The Institute of Historical Research at the University of London
and the North American Conference on British Studies both provided funds
allowing me to spend significant time in archives throughout the United King-
dom. A Fulbright Fellowship to Jamaica was instrumental to work through
the fantastic repositories on the island. Short-t erm grants from the Hunting-
ton Library, the American Philosophical Society Library, McMaster Univer-
sity, and the American Society for Eighteenth-C entury Studies broadened the
scope and increased the depth of the project. A National Endowment for the
Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Omohundro Institute in Williams-
burg, Virginia, not only allowed me to finish important sections of research
but also helped me to reconceptualize and rewrite the book in ways I never
could have done by myself.
The archivists who diligently dragged out countless boxes, pamphlets, and
books were key in undertaking this research and vital in discovering crucial
corners in the sources that were completely blind to me. My deepest thanks
go to Barbara DeWolfe at the William L. Clements Library who first hired me
to sort through the Tailyour Papers that formed the foundation of this project.
Robert and Sally Tailyour’s assistance with the correspondence, along with
their hospitality in hosting me in their Somerset home, allowed me to under-
stand their family’s wider history. Librarians at the Jamaica Archives, the
Island Record Office, and the National Library of Jamaica were patient, kind,
and helpful as I stumbled my way through their vast holdings. The archivists
at the National Archives of Scotland also opened the channels of communi-
cation to consult private papers throughout the U.K. Those records form a
key part of this study. The Montgomery and Compton- Maclean families were
especially generous to let me read their private letters, and Sir William Mac-
pherson was exceedingly hospitable, opening his house and library to me in
vii
viii aCknowledgments
Blairgowrie. I greatly enjoyed our daily lunches while on break from reading
his family papers. Finally, I owe a great deal of gratitude to the nearly anony-
mous workers at the British Library and the National Archives of England
who dutifully called up so much material.
Before the project was even a thought in my head, though, I was unbeliev-
ably fortunate to come under the guidance of Fred Anderson. Although I was
entirely ignorant at the time of how unusual it was for an undergraduate to
receive so much mentorship and personal attention, I have since strived to
emulate Fred as a teacher, scholar, and human being. My fortune continued
in graduate school under the direction of David Hancock, who was equally
generous with his time and supervision. David taught me never to be com-
fortable with my own assumptions or too quick to think that I had solved a
particular problem. If this book has been successful in uncovering a group of
silenced voices, it is owing to David’s help, guidance, and willingness to apply
pressure when needed. Julius Scott and Michael MacDonald were also excep-
tional advisers on my dissertation and gave careful and thoughtful comments
at every stage. Scotti Parrish, Dena Goodman, Martha Jones, Tom Green,
Sonya Rose, Damon Salesa, Sue Juster, and Kali Israel gave great instruction
and feedback in my initial inquiries as well.
A number of scholars have been exceedingly generous with their advice
on this project. David Lambert, Zoe Laidlaw, Peter Marshall, and Deborah
Cohen all contributed critical mentorship and feedback on early work. The
faculty and graduate students at the University of the West Indies, Mona,
helped me to sort through archival surveys in Jamaica. The late Glen Richards
kindly invited me to present twice to the university. His advice, along with
that of Sir Roy Augier, Swithin Wilmot, Kathleen Monteith, Dave Gosse, and
Jonathan Dalby pointed me in the right directions for a successful stint on the
island. Perhaps most importantly in Jamaica, James Robertson helped me to
navigate the archives and was a terrific fellow passenger on rides out to Span-
ish Town. A book prospectus seminar at the Omohundro Institute gave me
more help than I deserved once the dissertation was finished. Sarah Pearsall
offered invaluable criticism about how to rethink the book. She has been an
ideal mentor since, and I owe her tremendously for her guidance and help.
Barry Gaspar, Karin Wulf, and Phil Morgan each helped me to refine those
ideas even more and to apply them more specifically to the Caribbean. Like-
wise, Paul Mapp, Greg O’Malley, Molly Warsh, Jonathan Eacott, Kris Lane,
Amanda Herbert, Olwyn Blouet, and Chris Grasso gave critical feedback that
enriched my thinking about the book. Finally, a number of scholars of Atlan-
tic and Caribbean history have provided incredibly important comments on
aCknowledgments ix
my work over the years. Alison Games, Peter Mancall, Kathleen Wilson, Gad
Heuman, Christer Petley, Carla Pestana, Brett Rushforth, Michelle McDon-
ald, Rob Taber, Carole Shammas, Bernard Moitt, Roderick McDonald, and
Nicholas Popper have each helped to shape my ideas in fruitful ways.
This would have been a much different, and far less effective, book without
my time at the Omohundro Institute and the unmatched skill of its editors. I
have to thank Ron Hoffman and Sally Mason for making me feel so welcome
and for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime. Beverly and Doug Smith,
along with Kim Foley and Kelly Crawford, saw to all manner of problems,
big and small, with the utmost kindness and patience. I could not have been
luckier to have had my two years at the Institute overlap with the inestimable
Molly Warsh, who was not only an intellectual powerhouse for me to learn
from but also one of the kindest friends one could hope for. My other fellow
fellows were something of a murderer’s row of young academics. Jonathan
Eacott, Greg O’Malley, Alexandre Dubé, and Elena Schneider were each bril-
liant, funny, and warm, and gave me daily reminders of virtuoso scholarship at
work. As an early editor, Fredrika Teute challenged me to think big and write
a great manuscript, and her advice was crucial in making the book what it is.
Likewise, the suggestions from the manuscript’s two reviewers, Sarah Pearsall
and John Garrigus, dramatically improved the direction of its argument and
scope. Sarah’s recommendations were key for thinking through the dimen-
sions of family history, while John’s comments helped to sharpen the analysis
on the Caribbean. Nadine Zimmerli was a superb editor of the book. Not only
did she help me to navigate a long list of fantastic proposals from the review-
ers, but she gave expert feedback that clarified the argument and simplified
its structure. I owe a tremendous amount to the Institute’s apprentices who
checked every footnote dutifully and with tremendous patience. An enormous
amount of thanks is due to Kaylan Stevenson who suffered through torturous
prose to deliver a much more readable and, I hope, enjoyable, book. Her edits
were smart, thorough, and invaluable. Finally, I would like to thank Kelly
Crawford and Rebecca Wrenn for constructing terrific tables and family trees.
Colleagues in graduate school and beyond have been essential reposito-
ries of knowledge and friendship over the years. At Michigan, a solid crew
of Atlanticists regularly inspired me. Many thanks to Jennifer Palmer, Katie
Cangany, Jeff Kaja, Suzi Linsley, Will Mackintosh, Graham Nessler, Christine
Walker, Sara First, and Amanda Moniz. My flatmates in London, Allison Abra
and Angela Dowdell, both provided daily encouragement and camaraderie.
Alex Lovit and Liz Hudson have been amazing friends and great travel bud-
dies since the beginning of graduate school. At Drury University, I was for-
