Hi Busybod, sugarbakers and GcReckord.
Every once in a while I google the surname Reckord just to see what comes up and was really interested to discover this thread. I hesitate to say delighted, however, on account of what I have to share.
My great aunt, Sophie Reckord left us a family tree she researched (the analogue way) back in the 1960s; just a list of names and dates. The Reckord name (with a ck) is so very rare it makes it easy to track and so my own research has been to verify and 'flesh out the bones' of her findings.
Sophie traced the family way back to a William Reckord, born in Jamaica 1726. It is his son, William b1758 who submitted the slave audits for the Westlands Sugar Estate; my own ancestor was his youngest brother Edward Rhodes Reckord. ER Reckord's grandson James was born at sea near Sulawesi, Indonesia in 1830 (between abolition and emancipation) and I wonder if this was the moment that their part of the family was returning to Britain (albeit a roundabout way). I believe the family was originally Scottish since there are many Scottish place names in Westmorland and the family ultimately re-settled in Glasgow.
While I've traced some of my ancestors back to a London cheesemonger neighbouring Dickens and to rural Norfolk folk working for the original Coleman's Mustard family; all very rosy old England, it's sobering indeed to now learn the other side my family's connected to a much darker history and the more I learn the more appalling it gets.
The Reckord's Westlands Sugar Estate lay at the very westernmost tip of Jamaica, what is now south Negril.
Halfway along the road between Westlands and Savannah La Mer lay the estate of William's contemporary, Thomas Thistlewood. They were practically neighbours. Thistlewood's detailed diaries are published as a book and provide insight into the life and preoccupations of a small-scale estate holder. The lives on Thistlewood's estate ran parallel to those of our own ancestors. The diary itself is quite dry but if it interests anyone I'd highly recommend reading it alongside the book Mastery Tyranny and Desire, which describes Thistlewood and his environment in their historical context. Jamaica was notorious for being perhaps the harshest of the West Indian plantocracies.
Today, prompted by seeing this thread, I discovered something more - Whilst I've not yet been able to establish a direct connection, I found mention of a Samuel Reckord as captain of a ship, The John Alexander. The Reckord name in that part of the world was surely too rare to be a coincidence? In 1676, he is mentioned for bringing a cargo of 'Calabars' to Barbados; captives from the Bight of Biafra.
How much worse can this family get?
Lastly, I'm attaching an 1851 map of Jamaica which puts the Reckords clearly on the map.
Pól
