John Atkins of Ashcott

Son and heir of Elizabeth White of Ashcott (q.v.). Both he and his mother had been in Jamaica. It is not clear whether he had changed his name or his mother had remarried.

1. Will of John Atkins of Ashcot [sic] Somerset [made in 1836] proved 27/04/1841. Under the will he recited his inheritance of lands in England and Jamaica, and the legacy of £1000 to each of his children, under the will of his mother Elizabeth White. The £1000 legacies from his mother to his children he said he considered to be paid by his own bequests to his children. He had regularly received the dividends on £11,865 consols held in trust for his wife, 'the whole, some of which or part...may be considered to belong to me or be my right', and he authorised her to leave this sum to whichever of their children she saw fit. He left his plantation or sugar works in the parish of Trelawny Jamaica called Forest 'with the negro grounds thereunto belonging' and adjoining land he had recently purchased at Duan Vale amounting in whole to 1288 and a half acres, 'with all my rights to or respecting my Negro apprentices', to his wife Maria during her widowhood for life, subject to a payment of £500 p.a. to his son William; after her death, the estate and his house at Ashcott were left to William for life and then to his heirs, male or female, failing whom the property went to the next son Charles White Atkins and his children, and so on through further sons Henry and Richard White and daughters Matilda, Ann and Emily. He left his farm called Sutton to the last three, together with £1000 each; and an annuity of £100 p.a. to his daughter Maria out of his farm called Moorlinch [?]. He left his son Charles White Atkins his land, wharf buildings etc. at the Rock in Trelawny and further land opposite the wharf in Falmouth Harbour in Jamaica, together with his two shares in the Falmouth Water Company. He left the Moorlinch farm itself also to Charles White Atkins, and further farms in Somerset to his other sons, Henry Atkins and Richard White Atkins. He provided schedules of the rentals of the Moorlinch and Spring Farms, and a table of the dates of birth of his eight children (a son John who featured in the will of Elizabeth White proved in 1820 had apparently died by 1836). In a codicil of 1837 he recorded the death of his son Henry and reallocated Henry's inheritance, also replacing Richard White's legacy of a parcel of land (which went instead to William Atkins) with £1000. In a second codicil of 1839 he recorded the purchase of further land in Somerset.

Gentleman's Magazine Vol. 170 (Jan-June 1841). Obituary Jan. [1841] p. 108. 'Dec. 2 [1840] Aged 82 [sic], [death of] John Atkins Esq. of Ashcott House, late of Jamaica.' If this age is correct, then his youngest child was conceived when John Atkins was aged around 72.

1. PROB 11/1943/377