Andrew Edwards

Andrew Edwards prop. registered 152 enslaved people on an unnamed estate in the 1817 Slave Registration. This was probably Cocoa Nut Hall, identified in Vere Langford Oliver Vol. 1 (pp. 231-233) as the estate of Andrew Edwards (dead by 1808) and his son, also Andrew Edwards. However, according to Oliver, this second Andrew Edwards was dead by 1815 when his sister Arabella Davis Edwards made her will. Oliver also shows (Vol. III. p 130) Thomas Edwards and Andrew Edwards buying in 1802 an unnamed plantation in parish of St Philip and division of Belfast for £22,000 from Sir George Thomas and his son William Lewis George Thomas.

1. There are inconsistencies in Vere Langford Oliver over the Edwards family, Cocoa Nut Hall and Comfort Hall. He shows [Vol. I p. 184] Elizabeth Crump, dau. and heir of Nathaniel Crump, marrying Andrew Edwards in 1781 or 1782: 'she inherited Cocoa Nut Hall.' Elsewhere [Vol. I p. 194] he shows Elizabeth Davis marrying 1778 Andrew Edwards of Cocoa Nut Hall, and dying in 1806 aged 45. Oliver also says that Nathaniel Crump, Elizabeth Crump's father, 'inherited Mercer's Creek alias Cocoa Nut Hall of 240 acres from his uncle George Crump' c. 1761. The summary of George Crump's will proved 1761 shows two estates, Mercers Creek and Mountain, the latter shown separately by Oliver of 120 acres inherited by Nathaniel Crump's brother George: it is not clear how the estate called Crumps of 360 acres in Mercers Creek [in fact, two estates, Crumps Windward of 300 acres in Mercers Creek and Crumps Stock of 60 acres in St Philip] 'conveyed in 1769' by Nathaniel Crump to his brother George fits into this family history. It possibly descended from Nathaniel and George's father Capt. Joshua Crump (d. 1756). Oliver shows Crumps of 514 acres in St Philips renamed by the 1850s as Comfort Hall.

1. Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. I pp. 184-186 and p. 194.