William Hichens

Awarded with others (including Robert Hichens, q.v.) part of the compensation for the enslaved people on Stephen Blizard's in Antigua, apparently as trustees of the Stapleton family.

1. Almost certainly the London stockbroker William Hichens of Threadneedle Street, in partnership with his brother Robert and Frederic Harrison. Originally from St Ives, Cornwall, where the family had long been present. He was the son of William Hichens and Margaret Jope of Callington, born 1784. A cousin, John Knill, had been Inspector of Customs in Jamaica. William Hichens joined his brother Robert as a partner in his London stockbrokers around 1810. In 1817 they joined with Frederic Harrison to form the firm Hichens and Harrison. William Hichens invested heavily in railways, being listed in 1837 as 15,000 shares in the London to Brighton Railway and a further 1,000 in the London and Blackwall Railway and Steam Navigation Depot Company. He married Maria Lloyd with who he had at least 3 sons and 3 daughters. The family lived at 12 Park Place, Camberwell. Two of his sons joined the family firm, respectively becoming Chairman of the Stock Exchange and trustee, whilst another entered the East India Company. Death of William Hichens registered Q4 1849 Camberwell. Will of William Hichens, Stockbroker of Threadneedle Street, proved 09/02/1850.

T71/877 Antigua no. 363.

1. David Gore, A Cornish Inheritance: The Harveys of Chacewater (Basildon, 1997), pp. 53-54; Accounts and Papers; Railway Subscription Contracts Vol. XLVIII (London, 1837), 48:1 & p. 327 - available through Googlebooks: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DXJbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR109&lpg=PR109&dq=william+hichens+stockbroker&source=bl&ots=5iBrzB5qeq&sig=T9X6isAjVQ-Ft1_1qYyf7aItJRE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBGoVChMIkdPW_IqNxwIVBhg-Ch09BwIY#v=onepage&q=HICHENS&f=false; Catherine Hall, Keith McClelland, Nick Draper, Kate Donington, Rachel Lang, Legacies of British Slave-Ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain (Cambridge, 2014), p. 111; The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol.52 (1842), p. 341; England and Wales FreeBMD Death 1837-1915; PROB 11/2107.