Barbados Parish Registers

The church registers for the whole island are only complete from 1825 onwards.

Some of the early registers are missing or were destroyed by the humid climate or by the force of hurricanes such as those of 10 & 11 October 1780 and 10 & 11 August 1831.

The 1831 hurricane killed 1477 people. The number was thought to be understated and estimated to be closer to 2500.

In the key Cumberbatch parishes of St. Peter, St. Andrew & St. Lucy the registers commence from: 1779, 1825 & 1747 respectively, although the churches were established shortly after settlement in the 17th century.

However, there are stories of parish registers going missing.

The St. Lucy registers were thought to have been taken by the parish priest, who is said to have taken the registers, tied his horse to a tree, boarded a ship for England and neither he, nor the registers, were ever seen again.

The St. Andrew registers commence from 1825; again the story is that the parish priest John Brome took the registers back to England on his retirement intending to write a social history. He died at Dorset Square in London in 1828, aged 61 (Genealogists' Magazine; C. J. Stanford Mar 1974 Vol. 17 No. 9). The registers have never been located.

All Saints Chapel, St. Peter, a church by any measure and critically close to the Cumberbatch plantations, is said to be the oldest church on the island as it has never been destroyed by any hurricane, although it has suffered damage. A chaplaincy was established at All Saints Chapel around 1659.

William Arnold is buried at All Saints Chapel, St. Peter, and he is said to have been "The First English Settler to step ashore from 'William and John' at Holetown 17th February 1627".

Some registers are said to have been thrown into the sea in a fit of rage.

Sadly, much information about the early Cumberbatch settlers may have been lost forever.

Cumberbatch of Barbadoes

This family assumed the name of Cumberbatch. Traditionally they believe themselves to be descended out of Cheshire. They have possessed lands in Barbadoes since the time of the Civil Wars, and these, or some of them, are now the inheritance of Mr. Abraham Carlton Cumberbatch, late Consul at Constantinople. Beyond the foregoing particulars, placed in the form of a tabular pedigree, I have been unable to ascertain anything about them, although several members of the family have very courteously afforded me all the information in their power.

Here is a transcript of the 1753 Act of Parliament for the change of Surname

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My Research into the Cumberbatchs of Barbados

The descendant tree of Joshua Cumberbatch of Bristol and his children, the Cumberbatch Settlers of Barbados . You will need to zoom in and around the document. If any of these people are of interest to you then drop me an email and quote the person's name and reference number. These are the original white plantocracy class who owned the Cleland & Ebworth Plantations in St. Andrew, and the St. Nicholas Abbey & Farm Plantations in St. Peter, Barbados.

Cumberbatch Plantations in Barbados

A map highlighting the location of these plantations in St. Peter & St. Andrew.

Cleland Plantation including Lammings & Breedys - St. Andrew

	107 acres
	1674 - Known as Cox's Plantation
	1719 - Col. William Cleland bequeaths "Cox's" Plantation St. Andrew to his wife Sarah Cleland.
	1721 - Plantation is known as Cleland, pronounced Cleeland.
	1728 - Sarah Cleland and William Tryon, both of England, sell Cleland Plantation to Abraham Cumberbatch of Barbados for £6,000 - 107a (107 acres) - St. Andrew
	1730 William Hall of St. Peter sells [Breedys?] to William Breedy of St. Michael for £60?. 34/333 Bounders ; Abraham Cumberbatch, Hon. James Dottin Burnt House, Abel Dottin Greenland, Edward Lamming decd, Richard Downes decd. William Breedie (sic) at once sells same plantation to Abraham Cumberbatch for £5,000.
	These were the Cumberbatch Settlers original Plantations. A 1750 map of Barbados by Thomas Jefferys entitled: "A Map of The Island of Barbados Drawn from an Actual Survey, and from the Observations of Mr Griffith Hughes* M.A.F.R.S.* By Tho^s Jefferys, Geographer to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales" It is dedicacted to Henry Grenville Esqr Governour (sic) of Barbados, His Majesty's Hon^ble Council... and the Members of the Assembly..." has three Cumberbatch Plantations only in St. Andrew which are Cleland, Breedy and Lammings. This map was in Griffith Hughes' 1756 publication 'A Natural History of Barbados'.
	A transcript of the Cleland Plantation Slaves as of 27^th March 1834 (Note this is 9 pages and 1.2 MB and slow to load)

The Farm Plantation - St. Peter

	167 acres, 80 slaves
	1793 Marriage settlement
	1825 Abraham Parry Cumberbatch
	1842 - 1892 Abraham Parry Cumberbatch
	A transcript of the Farm Plantation Slaves as of 26^th March 1834 (Note this is 2 pages and 282KB and slow to load)

St. Nicholas Plantation - St. Peter

A brief history of St Nicholas Abbey

	407 acres, 184 slaves in 1834
	c.1641 Jointly owned by Benjamin Berringer with John Yeamans
	1811 Chancery Court Sale : Edward Carleton Cumberbatch & *Lawrence Trent Cumberbatch* purchase the plantation.
	1834 Inventory of Lawrence Trent Cumberbatch who died December 1833: St. Nicholas & Ebworth valued at £55,974. St. Nicholas : 407 acres @ £50/acre and Slaves @ £60/slave = £20,350 land + c.184 slaves = £11,040; the remainder is possibly personal effects. The 1834 slave registration identified 184 slaves at St. Nicholas.
	1842 - 1849 Lawrence Trent Cumberbatch
	1850 Charles Cave. The plantation remains in the Cave family; the present owner, who lives on the estate, is Lt. Col. Stephen Cave.
	A transcript of the St. Nicholas Abbey Plantation Slaves as of 3^rd March 1834 (Note this is 8 pages and 1MB and slow to load)
	As of February 2004 the estate is up for sale following the death of its owner Lt. Col. Stephen Cave in November 2003. Saint Nicholas Abbey, the house, 400 acres of land and the old sugar mill, syrup factory and the bases of two windmills are for sale at a guide price of US $7 million (£3.7 million). See: The Telegraph Article.
	2006 - Acquired by Larry Byron Warren

A brief history of St Nicholas Abbey

Ebworth Plantation -St. Peter

	260 acres
	1776 Elizabeth Welch sells to Stephen Welch of St. James.
	1780 Stephen Welch originally of Barbados but then Ebworth [Estate], Gloucester, England
	1816 Lawrence & Edward Cumberbatch
	1834 Inventory of Lawrence Trent Cumberbatch [died Dec 1833] - Shilstone XXXV 260 acres @ £40/acre = £10,400
	1842-1849 Lawrence Trent Cumberbatch decd
	A transcript of the Ebworth Plantation Slaves as of 19^th March 1834 (Note this is 7 pages and 940KB and slow to load)

Extent of Cumberbatch Slave Ownership by March 1834

Owner's Name	Plantation Name	Parish	Male Slaves	Female Slaves	Total Slaves
Abraham Parry⁵	Cleland	St. Andrew	115	117	232
Lawrence Trent¹	St. Nicholas Abbey	St. Peter	83	101	184
Lawrence Trent¹	Ebworth	St. Peter	78	84	162
Abraham Parry⁵	Farm	St. Peter	20	27	47
Richard²		St. Peter	11	16	27
Lawrence Trent¹	Speightstown	St. Peter	8	7	15
John Edward²		St. Peter	4	4	8
Mary Laurentia²		St. Thomas	1	2	3
Elizabeth²		St. Peter	0	1	1
Elizabeth C.⁴		St. Peter	0	1	1
Elizabeth L.⁴		St. Thomas	0	1	1
Totals			320 (47%)	361 (53%)³	681

¹: deceased; he died 19^th December 1833.

²: a freed mulatto slave, previously owned by Lawrence Trent Cumberbatch

³:It was common on Barbados plantations for there to be a higher proportion of female slaves to males. Female slaves were worked and were encouraged to breed more slaves. They were not, however, permitted to marry or to have their children baptised. During the 17^th - 18^th centuries slave owners risked punishment, and even deportation, if their slaves attended church. On other islands there was a higher proportion of male slaves who were literally worked to death. A constant supply of new slaves was essential to those islands.

⁴: A child.

⁵: Was living in England.

Victorian moral values did not apply on sugar plantations. Encouraging slaves to have children outside of marriage helps to explain the Schomburgk's 1845 observation:

"In England every fifteenth child is illegitimate, in Belgium the fifteenth, in Sweden the fourteenth, in Prussia the thirteenth, in France the thirteenth, in Austria the ninth, in Bavaria the fourth; in Barbados the illegitimate children exceed those born in wedlock." (Schomburgk, The History of Barbados p.90).

The ancestors of the Barbados CUMBERBATCHs were from Bristol, England


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	Cumberbatch Family History, Cumberbatch Genealogy and Cumberbatch Ancestry

Cumberbatch Family History, Cumberbatch Genealogy and Cumberbatch Ancestry