Thomas Kerby of Antigua and Mincing Lane

Slave-owner and major slave factor.

1. Will of Thomas Kerby [late of Antigua] merchant Mincing Lane proved 14/04/1748. The will - rich in detail - has not been fully analysed but included the following provisions. He left his daughter Sarah Kerby a 'negro woman' called Frances who had attended her since she was a child and 'reputed hers', as well as another enslaved woman named Sarah daughter of 'my negro woman' Dido and a young boy named Little Toney, son of a woman named Molley and 'one of those that I bought with my Old North Sound plantation from Mr Nathaniel Carpenter, Mrs [Mr?] Thomas Thornbery and others.' He specified that an enslaved woman named Celia in his possession or that of his son Hamilton at Antigua or his sister Warner was also the property of his daughter Sarah, bought for her from money given her by Col. Valentine Morris. He left her £2000 and a further £1000 if she should marry and survive her husband, together with an annuity of £100 p.a.: he left her £200 p.a. until marriage. He left his daughter Elizabeth the wife of Thomas Warner of Antigua an enslaved woman named Phillis who had usually attended her when she was a child and called hers, and three other named enslaved people. He left his son-in-law Thomas Warner £2000. He manumitted a woman named Molley then with him in Britain and left her £6 p.a. for her care of his deceased wife. His residuary heir was his son Hamilton: another son Thomas Norbury had predeceased him, as had his daughter Jane Blizard.

1. PROB 11/761/230.