Hall family

Historical Background

The Hall family engaged in sugar production on the island of Jamaica for over a century and participated in the rise of Jamaican planter society during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The early generations of Halls directly supervised their plantations, while the later descendants lived in England as absentee landlords, leaving the management of their estates to attorneys and overseers.

Thomas Hall (b.1660?) immigrated to Jamaica from Worcester, England, and his name first appears in the collection on a letter from his brother, Henry, addressed to him at Port Royal in 1711. In 1720, Thomas and his wife Patience financed the plantation activities of their son, William (b.1696), a planter from the parish of Westmoreland, and his associate, James Campbel, with a loan of four thousand pounds. In 1721, William's brother, Thomas (b.1694), who was afflicted with a disabling disease, left Jamaica for curative powers of the spas of Bath, England. It is in a letter from Thomas (b.1694) to William (b.1696), dated July 24, 1721, that the first mention of sugar is made. Thomas writes, "I find shugars to be a better comodity then I expected, but money and credit as scarse here as in our Island, and nothing to had without yr. penny, therefore hope/earnestly beg/ y'll shipp me somemore shugars by yr. first safe hand, pray let them be Either fine or course, provided they be dry..."

In 1723, William Hall married Mary Kirkpatrick, daughter of Hugh Kirkpatrick from the parish of St. James, Jamaica, and two years later, Thomas Hall (b.1725) was born. At the age of eighteen, Thomas was attending to the affairs of his family's sugar plantation in St. James parish, while his father conducted business and engaged in politics in the island's capitol, St. Jago de la Vega or Spanish Town.

By 1741, Thomas Hall (b.1660?) had died and Patience Hall, during a severe illness, made her last will and testament, leaving the bulk of her estate to her grandson, Thomas Hall. In 1746, William Hall and David Dehany arranged Thomas' marriage to Mary Dehany and the two were united in 1747.

Against a backdrop of conflict among England, France and Spain that was often played out in the West Indies, William and Thomas Hall produced sugars, molasses, and rum for export to England; bought "Negroe" slaves to labor in their cane-fields; and imported the necessities they couldn't produce- foodstuffs from the North American colonies and manufactures from England. In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle brought a period of security to the region, but created confusion among planters who were unsure of future prices or what commodities would be in demand.

During this period of peace, which lasted until the beginning of the Seven Years War in 1756, William Hall experienced increasing financial distress, which he attributed to his difficulty in collecting his debts. By 1758 William Hall had died and his widow, Mary, had married Col. James Barclay.

Thomas Hall witnessed the administration of Governor Charles Knowles (1752-1756) and the dispute over moving the capitol of Jamaica from Spanish Town (St. Jago de la Vega) to Kingston. Powerful planters and residents of the western parishes opposed the efforts of Kingston merchants allied with Knowles to relocate government offices, the Assembly, and the island's archives to the port of Kingston. The merchants also sought to remove the militia and its artillery to Kingston, a move which would have left Spanish Town defenseless in time of war.

After Knowles dissolved the Assembly on November 8, 1754, in part, for authorizing expensive capital improvements to Spanish Town's infrastructure, influential planters, including Charles Price, Rose Fuller, and Edward Manning, responded by forming an "Association" for "carrying on good Government, and the welfare of this Island." Although Knowles managed to move the colony's archives, which served as the repository for land and property records, his influence at the King's court was less than the power of the petitions of his opponents and his actions were finally disallowed.

In 1756, in anticipation of the lieutenant governor's call for a new Assembly, Charles Price and others who represented the "country interest," secretly petitioned Thomas Hall to declare his candidacy as a representative from St. James.

By 1758, Thomas Hall had moved to London with his family and left Samuel Cleland, his attorney, in charge of his sugar estates, Tryall, Irwin, and Johnshall. Hall entered into a copartnership with John Rusea, who managed the overseers on the Johnshall and Irwin Estates. James Hindlater oversaw the operation of Tryall estate.

In late 1761, Thomas Hall returned to Jamaica to find his estates in great disorder and confusion, largely because of the severity of John Rusea. During his stay in Jamaica, his wife, Mary, died. Hall arranged his affairs and returned to London by September of 1764. By November 1772, Thomas Hall had died. Thomas Hall's second son, William, emigrated to Jamaica shortly before his father's death to pursue a career as a planter.

The bulk of Thomas Hall's estate went to his oldest son, Hugh Kirkpatrick Hall (b.1748?). Hugh managed his estates from England through Cunningham and Cleland, attorneys in Jamaica, and John Kennion, his agent in London. In 1782, in addition to the Irwin and Tryall estates in St. James parish, H.K. Hall owned the Kirkpatrick Hall estate, located in the parish of Westmoreland. In 1793, records show an additional sugar plantation called Hallhead estate in the parish of St. Thomas in the East.

In 1790, Mrs. Alice Kennion took over management of her late husband's business affairs and by 1807 was managing Hallhead estate. In 1811 Hallhead estate was owned by Mrs. Alice Kennion and Thomas Gordon and in the possession of John Stewart and Charles Harris. In 1821 Hallhead is the property of John Hall, son of H.K. Hall's brother Thomas Hall (b.1758?), and Thomas Gordon.

The estates of Irwin, Tryall, and Kirkpatrick Hall and the pen at Stapleton were inherited by Thomas Kirkpatrick Hall, son of H.K. Hall and Mary Kenyon. Pens were "seasoning" facilities where new slaves and livestock were adapted to forced labor conditions. T.K. Hall, an absentee owner, lived in England and served as sheriff of Staffordshire, England, between 1817 and 1820.

Slavery was finally abolished in Jamaica by decree on August 1st 1834. This Emancipation Act created an interim period of "apprenticeship" in which slaves were required to work for their masters for four years before they were free.

Information in the preceding historical note was drawn from sources in the Barnett/Hall Collection.

From the guide to the Hall Family Papers and Sugar Plantation Records, 1709 - 1892, (University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.)