| Description | (i) Reference to the inoculation of a negro child and to many runaway negroes. Also £6 12. 0. distributed among the estate negroes at Christmas "by order of Mr Nelson" (the Stapleton attorney in the Indies), 1777-1778
(ii) Memorandum of the number of acres of land planted in canes on Lady Stapleton's estates in nevis during Charles Hutton's management, 1777-1778
(iii) Informing lists of negroes (deaths and births), loss of horses and cattle, 1778-1779
(iv) Reference to £6. 12. 0. for 4 sheep "for the relief of the wounded Seamen in Byron's fleet after his engagement with D'Estaing (the French admiral)"; as much as £16. 10. 0. is paid for the hire of a vessel to St. Eustatius to search for a negro mason named Billy Carlton who haad run away, proclaiming the fact by neat of drum, and searching North American vessels (Hutton was away for 6 days)
(v) Two copies of an account of the sugar and rum produced crop 1781 with the disposal therof...
(vi) Daily Journal, May 1781
(vii) Daily Journal, June 1781
(viii) Letters from Nevis, all except two from Charles Hutton, 1777-1782. He refers to the American War and how that has closed the best timber markets (30 July, 2 November 1777); also to the poor quality of negroes bought by John Robinson, to runaways and the propriety of immediately selling them (24 April 1780). The two last letters in the bundle are to Mrs Stapleton from the attorneys John Nelson and John Taylor - the former reflecting on Hutton's management, the other describing him as a steady and careful man who must in the end prove the best of managers. It was Taylor who had audited and examined the accounts found in iii-v above. Concerning tthe efficiency or inefficiency of Hutton's work in Nevis, consult also Neave's letters to Mrs Stapleton . Hutton's management seems to have terminated in 1784, if not in 1783. |