Government of Bermuda Archives

Daniel Trimingham,

August 1806, Paget Vestry Assessments, 1805-1824, p. 8

These reproduced images are used with permission of the Government of Bermuda Archives.

Note: The different parishes in Bermuda began keeping assessments, or records, in about 1800. Parish taxes were based on these assessments, which were taken every few years, and were kept in books. Slave-owners listed their assets, including enslaved people they claimed as property, in these books, of which the Paget Vestry Assessments and the Devonshire Parish Records are two.

Two brothers, Daniel and Francis Trimingham, shared the "ownership" of Mary Prince’s father, Prince. Prince is listed in the Paget Vestry Assessments, 1805-1824 in the August 1806 assessment for Daniel Trimingham. He is valued by Daniel Trimingham as “1/2 Prince £50,” Bermudian currency. In the same book, and for the same month and year, Francis Trimingham also valued Prince at “1/2 Prince £50,” Bermudian currency. Prince’s total value was £100 Bermudian currency.

Daniel and Francis Trimingham shared the "ownership" of six other enslaved men, as well. These men were Thya, Jobson, Will, Joe, Tom, and Kitt, and they were probably put to work in the Trimingham shipbuilding yard, along with Prince. The brothers also listed enslaved women and children, but they did not share the "ownership" of these individuals.

Between them, and including the seven enslaved men whose "ownership" they shared, the Trimingham brothers listed 33 enslaved people for their Bermuda holdings. The total reported value of these enslaved people is £1850 Bermudian currency. The value of the enslaved men is £660 Bermudian currency, about one-third of the total value of all the Bermudian-based enslaved people claimed as property by these two brothers.

The Trimingham brothers’ wealth was gleaned from their Bermuda holdings, but also from part ownership of a West Indian sugar plantation called the Adelphi Estate on the Island of Mustique, which was under the Government of the Island of St. Vincent. In their wills, Francis and Daniel Trimingham left their shares to their sons, first cousins Francis and George Trimingham.

The 1817 Slave Register of Former British Territories for St. Vincent indicates 59 enslaved people at the Adelphi Estate, with 19 of these individuals located at associated Trimingham properties at Kingston, St. Vincent (United Kingdom, National Archives, Slave Registers, St. Vincent T71/493 p. 404). It seems that between them, the Trimingham brothers "owned," shared, and partially "owned" upwards of 100 enslaved people.

These enslaved individuals would have performed a variety of jobs. Enslaved women working as domestics would have done laundry, cooked, and kept gardens. Skilled enslaved men, like Prince, who was a sawyer, would have worked in the maritime economy as coopers, carpenters, and sailors, for example. Still others would have been put to work in the fields of the Adelphi Estate.

Daniel and Francis Trimingham were merchants. They owned shares in vessels that traded between colonies. The Seaflower, for instance, of which Daniel indicates having a three-eighths share in the Paget Vestry Assessment, 1805-1824 for August 1806, made 13 trips to Newfoundland between 1807 and 1811. The vessel carried sugar from St. Vincent to Newfoundland, and left Newfoundland with cod.

1806 PAGET VESTRY ASSESSMENTS, BERMUDA

1812 DEVONSHIRE PARISH RECORDS, BERMUDA

Richard Darrell, October 1812, Devonshire Parish Records, 1798-1839, p. 100.

Richard Darrell was Betsey Williams’s uncle. Her mother Sarah and Richard were half siblings. Though they had different mothers, Captain George Darrell was their father. Captain George Darrell was Betsey’s grandfather. He was the man who had purchased Mary Prince and her mother from Charles Miners and had given them both to Betsey as a “gift.”

When Mary ran away from the Ingham farm, she went to her mother who was living at Richard Darrell’s. Sue (Susannah), an enslaved woman listed in the assessments for Richard Darrell in the Devonshire Parish Records, 1798-1839, is Mary Prince’s mother. She is valued by Richard Darrell at £35 in 1812.

Richard Darrell's October 1812 assessment also lists an enslaved girl, Beck. Beck is a shortened form of the name Rebecca, which is the name of Mary Prince’s youngest sister. Beck is valued at £25 Bermudian currency in the 1812 assessment.

Some, or all, of the enslaved boys listed in the assessment may be Mary’s and Rebecca’s brothers. Mary was the eldest of 11 siblings, seven brothers and four sisters. Her sisters were Hannah, Dinah, and Rebecca. She does not give the names of her brothers, but Rebecca was the youngest child in the family.