Correspondence with agents and others, 1790-1854

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Slavery in Jamaica, Records from a Family of Slave Owners, 1686–1860

Correspondence with agents and others, 1790-1854

Collection: Slavery in Jamaica, Records from a Family of Slave Owners, 1686–1860 Volumes Correspondence with agents and others, 1790-1854

The earliest surviving correspondence relating to the estate is contained in a letter book 1790-1811, which contains copies of Munbee Goulburn's correspondence with his attorney, 1790-1791, and his son Henry's responses to similar correspondence, 1804-1811. Correspondence bundles, containing letters from attorneys, overseers and other interested parties in Jamaica, and copy responses from the recipients, survive from 1793, and in good series from 1797. In the whole period 1797-1854, correspondence lacks only in the years 1818-1825. The original bundles (apparently, from surviving labels, created by Henry Goulburn) have been retained, and the contents arranged in order of recipient's use (i.e. for in-letters, by date of receipt, not of dispatch, an important factor in understanding the recipient's views and responses when mails were disrupted as they were, especially, in the early period by French attacks on British shipping). It should be noted that accounts, supplies lists and expenditure abstracts were generally separated by Goulburn from their covering letter, and filed in distinct bundles (whether upon receipt or later is unclear). Some however remained with the correspondence and have been left where they are found. As security, letters from Jamaica were frequently copied before being entrusted to the mail, and the copy sent with the subsequent letter endorsed on it. The brief list of letters gives date of original, and only mentions date of copy where this seems helpful.

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