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Messages - Sueengland

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Other Countries / Re: GRENADA: Fond Perdrix
« on: Sunday 21 July 19 13:33 BST (UK)  »
Hello Loraine and Philip

This is a long shot but looking for info onmy gt gt grandfather, Thomas Bishop, from Somerset, UK, who went to Grenada in approx 1865 with Thomas Hankey & Co and I believe worked on the plantatiin at La Sagesse, Requin and Marlmount. Charles Hagley, also from Somerset was a friend of Thomas Bishop. I think 15 farmers from Somerset went out to Grenada at about the same time. Im not sure if the Humphrey family was one of those families? My brickwall is in finding info from Grenada ... do you have any tips?

Sue

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Family History Beginners Board / Re: Researcher in Grenada, West Indies wanted
« on: Tuesday 04 June 19 12:06 BST (UK)  »
Thank you ... I will make enquiries!

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Family History Beginners Board / Researcher in Grenada, West Indies wanted
« on: Tuesday 04 June 19 11:42 BST (UK)  »
Hello

My brick walls in Grenada ard not coming down!

Does anyone know how to resource a professional genealogist in Grenada?

Thank you
Sue

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Family History Beginners Board / Re: John Dobson Ireland to Antigua 1840
« on: Tuesday 23 April 19 05:03 BST (UK)  »
Thank you Maiden Stone. Info came from handwritten notes of Irvin Bishop, a great grandson of Thomas Bishop who was born in Grenada in 1917 and died in 1995 in Greenwich, London. Alice Jane Dobson

1.   Born in Ireland in the county of Limerick.
2.   Daughter of John Dobson, an English soldier who came with the English Army from Yorkshire and is known to have taken part in the Battle of Vinegar Hill (1798) – a lifetime boast of his in his later life through the West Indies.
3.   John Dobson married twice in Ireland:
a.   First to Linda McNamara and had one son called Johnny; and
b.   Secondly to Mary Butler, an Irish girl whose father was of some means who objected strongly to the marriage of his only daughter to the English soldier of fortune and of the Protestant faith (Alice Jane of refined nature).
4.   John Dobson, with wife and child of the same name, Alice Jane, fled Ireland for the island of Antigua where there were many English families at the time and a stronghold of the Anglican faith in the West Indies.
5.   Before leaving the county of Limerick he privately arranged with a friend to send him out the ‘Limerick Free Press’, copies of which were sent to him for years afterwards to the West Indies.
6.   Alice Jane Dobson, (nee Butler), was known and admired for her red, red hair and singing voice to which John Dobson added a sweet baritone to the delight of all who heard them which made them very popular among the people of Antigua, especially those of the upper classes.
7.   Unfortunately, John Dobson with the usual imprudence of the Irish, went and rented the lovely big house on the island known as Jolly Hill where he and his wife hoped to entertain paying guests with their acting and singing as the island did not have many concert halls at the time.
8.   The venture failed. Dobson was left literally penniless with a wife and child of the upper class. Fortunately, a friend (Baillie) who had a big plantation called Bacolet on the island of Grenada asked him to go and take charge of it.
9.   The Dobsons of man, wife and child left Antigua for Grenada in 1865 on a sailing ship going to St George’s, Grenada. On the way the ship met up with one of those rainstorms for which that part of the world is famous.
10.   The Dobson family got wet for days running. When they reached Grenada and went onto the plantation the delicate wife caught a horrible cold. Despite all that the servants did to combat the cold, Alice Jane died. John Dobson was besides himself with grief for his young wife. He had her buried at the foot of the steps of the plantation house so that she should be always near to him and his little daughter.
11.   The grave stayed there with its marble tag on with the wife’s name and country of birth which were printed as a constant reminder through the change of owners.

To answer the other questions:
Do not know when Alice Jane Dobson born - but all notes point to it happening in Limerick.
I cannot find any reference to a Dobson family on the passenger lists to Antigua but am assuming between 1855-1965??
No record of Mary Jane's death or of the burial place at Bacolet or death notice.
John's marriage to Mrs Bayne's is in Irvin's notes. Mrs Baynes and John Dobson had a son called Richard. After John died Mrs Bayne and Richard eventually returned to the UK and Alice Jane never saw her half brother again. I do have a Grenada Births & Baptisms record of a birth in Grenada to Sarah and John Dobson on 1 Nov 1879.
Alice Jane Dobson married Thomas Bishop (her first husband) in St Andrew's Grenville Grenada (again from Irvin's notes). No record of Thomas' death but believed about 1888. There were three children of Alice and Thomas' marriage - Archie Gerald Wells Bishop, Florence Bishop and Tommy Bishop. After Thomas died Alice married a Mr McMillan. There is a reference on Grenadian Girl Word Press to Archie Gerald Wells Bishop (the son) probating the will of Alice Jane McMillan (his mother) in June 1947 in St David's Grenada.
Mrs Baynes owned an estate called Marlmount in St David's Grenada and when she married John he took over the estate and worked on it as an overseer I think. Alice and McMillan had a daughter that i know of called Alice Sylvia McMillan who married a Lennard Sergeant in Grenada. Alice Sylvia died in 1993 and I have a copy of her Administration of Probate.
I haven't identified a particular Butler family - just a general Google search with "Butler".

I hope this isn't too long and doesn't take up too much of your time but have tried to show the sketchy nature of the 'handwritten story'.

Sue

 



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Family History Beginners Board / Re: John Dobson Ireland to Antigua 1840
« on: Monday 22 April 19 13:09 BST (UK)  »
Hello

Thank you!  The history is inaccurate. John Dobson, a Yorkshire soldier, fought in The Battle of Vinegar Hill. This was in 1798. He married a McNamara first wife. His second wife was a Butler. The Butlers were well known in Ireland and the father Butler did not approve of the marriage as John Dobson was not Catholic. I think the marriages were in Limerick and that when the couple eloped to Antigua the wife was very young. Whilst in Antigua they entertained people at their house on Jolly Hill. There is an entertaining Dobson from Yorkshire who went by the stage name of Duval and who perforned vaudeville like acts, but i havent been able to make a connection with that line. The second wife was called Mary Jane Dobson and the child Alice Jane Dobson. I think she was born in Ireland. They went as a family to Grenada in 1865. I dont think John was in the Army when eloping to Antigua. John married a Mrs Baynes in Grenada and died soon after. Alice Jane Dobson married Thomas Bishop (my gg grandfather from Somerset) who already had 5 girls by his first wife who had died approx 1880. Haven't found any of the Dobsons on any census ... only a reference to Alice Jane Bishop in a Grenada handbook (1902 i think).

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Family History Beginners Board / John Dobson Ireland to Antigua 1840
« on: Monday 22 April 19 11:42 BST (UK)  »
Hello

Looking for John Dobson who was a Yorkshire soldier who went to Ireland, married a Butler and they had a daughter called alice jane dobson. John and wife had eloped to Antigua and they then sailed across to Grenada in 1865.  Any help would be appreciated. John's wife died shortly after arrival in Grenada and was buried on Baillie's Bacolet Estate.

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