William Hibbert (planter)

William Hibbert (1759–1844) was the sixth son of Robert Hibbert (1717–1784) and Abigail Scholey. With his brother George Hibbert and cousin Robert Hibbert (1769–1849) William was a partner in the West Indian merchant house Geo. Rob. & Wm. Hibbert. The firm was involved in the slave trade and principally with the shipping, insurance and distribution of sugar from the West Indies.[1]

This article is about the West Indian planter. For the cricketer, see William Hibbert (cricketer).

External image
Portrait of William Hibbert at the National Trust

Hibbert was born in Manchester in 1759. In the 1780s he moved to Jamaica to work in his uncle's slave factorage business in Kingston, Jamaica, where his brothers Robert and Thomas were already working.[2] In 1782, Hibbert won £20,000 (or a share of it) in a Benefit Lottery, and returned to England in 1782, where he continued working in the London branch of the family business.[3] Hibbert married Elizabeth Greenhalgh in 1784.[2] Elizabeth was the daughter and co-heir of Robert Greenhalgh of Bolton-le-Moors (the other co-heir was her sister Mary, who married William Hibbert's brother Samuel).[4][1] They had eight children. In 1797 he purchased land from the Leicester family and built the country estate Hare Hill.[3] On his death in 1844 the house passed to his son William Tetlow Hibbert.

Under the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 and the later Slave Compensation Act, British slave-owners were paid compensation for the loss of slave labour. The Legacies of British Slave-ownership database shows thirteen claims with which Hibbert was involved, often as a mortgage holder with other family members.[1]

Hibbert lived in Clapham from 1810 until his death and was buried in the churchyard at St Paul's Church, Clapham. His estate was valued at more than £100,000, a legacy of his slave-ownership. His two daughters Sarah and Mary Anne commissioned an almshouse on Wandsworth Road, Clapham in his memory. The eight Hibbert Almshouses were built in 1859 to provide accommodation for older women from the parish of Clapham.[5] The building has an inscription which reads; ‘These houses for eight aged women were erected by Sarah Hibbert and Mary Ann Hibbert in grateful remembrance of their father William Hibbert Esq. long an inhabitant of Clapham anno domini 1859.’ The Almshouses were designed by Edward I'Anson and are Grade II listed.[6]

References
  1. "Wiliam Hibbert, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". UCL Department of History. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  2. Wills, Mary; Dresser, Madge (August 2020). "The Transatlantic Slave Economy and England's Built Environment: A Research Audit". Historic England Research Department Reports. Historic England: 165.
  3. "The Hibbert family of Hare Hill". National Trust. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  4. Harleian Society (1869). The Publications of the Harleian Society. Robarts - University of Toronto. London : The Society.
  5. "About". Hibbert Almshouses. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  6. "Hibbert's Almshouses". Historic England. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.