Samuel Martin (planter)

Samuel Martin (1694 in Greencastle Estate – 1776) was a prominent planter in Antigua.[1]

Samuel Martin was born on the Greencastle Estate, Antigua, the son of Major Samuel Martin, who, in 1701, was murdered during a slave revolt after having demanded the enslaved Africans on his estate work on Christmas Day. The seven year old Samuel escaped a similar fate, being hidden in nearby fields by his nanny. She was herself enslaved and was subsequently freed in recognition of this act.[1] Samuel was sent to live in Ireland while his mother remarried Edward Byam.[2]

He wrote Essay upon Plantership (1754), a treatise on managing a sugar plantation.[3][4]

Martin fathered 21 children, at least sixteen of whom died during his lifetime.[5] The eldest of his sons, Samuel, became a British member of parliament and secretary to the Treasury; Henry became comptroller of the Navy, a member of parliament, and a baronet; Josiah was governor of North Carolina.[6]

  1. ^ a b Jeppesen, Chris. "Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds: Uncovering connections between the East India Company and the British Caribbean colonies through the British Library's Collections" (PDF). Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  2. ^ Kalamaula Maioho, Miller. "Lydia Thomas". Geni. Geni.com. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  3. ^ "Samuel Martin the elder of Antigua". Legacies of British Slave-ownership. UCL Department of History. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  4. ^ Foy, Anna M. (2016). "The Convention of Georgic Circumlocution and the Proper Use of Human Dung in Samuel Martin's Essay upon Plantership". Eighteenth-Century Studies. 49 (4): 475–506. doi:10.1353/ecs.2016.0032. S2CID 163277043.
  5. ^ Sheridan, Richard B. (1994). Sugar and Slavery: An Economic History of the British West Indies, 1623-1775. Canoe Press. pp. 200–207. ISBN 978-976-8125-13-2.
  6. ^ Sheridan, Richard B. (1960). "Samuel Martin, Innovating Sugar Planter of Antigua 1750-1776". Agricultural History. 34 (3): 126–139. JSTOR 3740144.