Amaryllis Collymore

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Amaryllis Collymore
Born
Amaryllis Renn Phillips

1745 (1745)
Died1828 (aged 82–83)
NationalityBritish
Other namesAmarillis Collymore, Amarillis Colymore
Occupationplantation owner and businesswoman
Years active1784–1829

Amaryllis Collymore (1745–1828) was an Afro-Barbadian slave who gained her freedom from her relationship with a white man. The couple had eleven children and she successfully ran a plantation allowing her to acquire numerous other properties, to become the wealthiest free black woman in the colony at the time of her death.

Life[]

Amaryllis Renn Phillips was born into slavery in 1745[Notes 1] on Barbados, during British colonial rule[2] where records indicate she was a mulatto.[3][4] She was purchased by Robert Collymore in 1780, from Rebecca Phillips, a free coloured hotelier,[4][5] along with her five mulatto children,[5] four of whom were Robert's children.[6] In 1784, Robert arranged their manumission by selling her and the children to a friend, James Scuffield.[4][6] Selling a slave to a trusted third-party to avoid high manumission fees was a common practice during the period in Barbados.[7]

Robert acquired Lightfoots, a 42-acre sugar plantation with its 44 slaves, to provide for her and the children.[4] Collymore expanded the estate to over a hundred acres[8] and was able to buy seven properties throughout Bridgetown, on Canary Street, High Street and James Street, which she rented out.[4][9] She also ran a successful shop.[4] By 1805, Collymore owned another property, on Roebuck Street, which she sold for £800.[6] She and her daughter, Katherine Anne Collymore, were the recipients of a bequest from Renn Phillips in his 1809 will.[10]

In 1824, when Robert died, he bequeathed she and her eleven children, full title to Lightfoots and the slaves working on the plantation.[6] Among her children, besides Katherine were Frances Lasley, Margaret Jane, and Robert (baptized 18 February 1792),[11] Thomazin Ashby (baptized 6 June 1795),[12] Elizabeth Clarke (baptized 13 June 1798),[3] Samuel Francis Collymore, Jackson Brown Collymore[13] and Renn Phillips Collymore, who would become the great-great grandfather of Frank Collymore.[2] Collymore's will, dated 1826[6] (or 1829 but which was probably the date the estate was probated),[13] left her estate, worth over £10,000 to relatives. She devised a home in Bridgetown and a plantation known as Haggat Hall, and 67 slaves, as well as silver and personal property.[6] At the time of her death she was "the richest free woman of color in pre-emancipation Barbados".[8]

Death and legacy[]

Collymore died on 16 December 1828 and was buried in the St. Mary's Churchyard in Bridgetown.[4][9] The house that Collymore and her children occupied is now the Morningside Building, and houses the Arts Department of the Barbados Community College.[4]

Notes[]

  1. ^ If her tombstone is correct that she was 78 years old at her death, she may have been born in 1750; however, as the date of 1745 is given by Dr. Karl Watson, the president of the Barbados National Trust, that date was used.[1]

References[]

Citations[]

  1. ^ Watson 2014, pp. 244, 249.
  2. ^ a b Gafoor 2010.
  3. ^ a b Sanders 1984, p. 240.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Watson 2014, p. 249.
  5. ^ a b Paugh 2017, p. 271.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Welch 1999.
  7. ^ Candlin & Pybus 2015, p. 43.
  8. ^ a b Candlin & Pybus 2015, p. 39.
  9. ^ a b Nation News 2015.
  10. ^ The Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 2000, p. 54-55.
  11. ^ Sanders 1984, p. 217.
  12. ^ Sanders 1984, p. 228.
  13. ^ a b Handler 2009, p. 121.

Bibliography[]

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