Ronnie Hughes: Barbadian Sugar Plantations Index 1640 – 1846

Author:

Jim Webster

Posted:

18 Jun 2020

Updated:

27 Aug 2026

4–5 minutes

to read

Comments:

Category: Bajan History, Bajan People, Barbados Genealogy, Barbados Plantations

Barbados Sugar Estate with Windmill and Factory

Ronnie Hughes (Ronald G. Hughes): Barbadian Sugar Plantations 1640 to 1846 index was compiled from deeds, wills, maps, census, newspapers, surveyors’ plans and correspondence.

The basis of this listing was Ronnie Hughes seminar paper 1977/78, Department of History, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, titled: “Barbadian Sugar Plantations 1640 to 1846“. Over the ensuing years this listing was added to by both Ronnie Hughes and Mary Gleadall.

The data in this listing was originally produced by the late Ronnie Hughes who gave Mary Gleadall permission to use and reproduce the information on her website plantations.bb. Mary Gleadall has kindly allowed BajanThings to re-publish this reference data here where it can be searched.

Although extensive, it is recommended that this listing be used in conjunction with the Barbados Plantations and Sugar-Works Handbooks 1912 – 1914 Handbook (also on this site) and Barbados Almanacs: Plantations & Sugar-Works 1848 – 1871 (also on this site).

Further information can be obtained from the Barbados Archives and the Shilstone Library who have copies of the combined Hughes / Queree Papers.

The listing of “Barbadian Sugar Plantation 1630 – 1846” remains the property of Ronald G. Hughes dec’d and Mary E. Gleadall.
The data in “Barbadian Sugar Plantation 1630 – 1846” is transcribed from antique sources, most over one hundred years old. The authors assume no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content. The authors make no warranties about the completeness, reliability or accuracy of the information. The information contained in this table is provided on an “as is” basis. Any action you take using this data is strictly at your own risk.

Using: Ronnie Hughes: Barbadian Sugar Plantations 1640 to 1846 listing

Ronald G. Hughes: Barbados Plantation 1630 – 1846 listing is scrollable horizontally and vertically. On a laptop you use the up, down, left and right arrows to move within the table. On a phone or tablet, swipe left or right, up or down within the table.

You can also sort by a column by clicking the arrow adjacent to the column title in the table header.

Multi-column sorting is also possible – but only on a laptop or a device with a keyboard. Sort the first columns. For subsequent columns you need to press the SHIFT key, then click on the up or down arrow adjacent to the column name in the table header. You can tell the columns that have been sorted as they only show a red arrow. Unsorted columns show an up and down arrow.

Advertisements

By sorting on the “Owner” column we can learn which individuals or families, or companies were the biggest land owners by number of estates, or number of acres; whether the same owners were in a similar position in 1630 as they were in 1846. Who owned the largest estate and who owned the smallest.

You can also filter fields using the search box. For example put in: “Lion Castle” and you will see all rows that contain the text “Lion Castle” or put in a name such as: “Parris”. This is a simple text based search. It does not handle complex searches like “Parris” OR “Mahon” or “Parris” AND “Mahon”. Alternatively if you are looking for an ancestor put in the name and see what comes up. You may need to refine your search.

Ronnie Hughes: Barbadian Sugar Plantations 1640 to 1846 listing

This table has 3,701 rows of data. Click here to download the data file in Excel format.

Note: The Ronald G. Hughes: Barbadian Sugar Plantations 1640 to 1846 listing is a sub-set of the Index of Plantations held by the Barbados Department of Archives (BDA) at Black Rock, St. James which was compiled by Ronnie Hughes and added to by Cecil Queree. This smaller listing was researched personally by Ronnie Hughes who was happy for it to be put online in 2004 on plantations.bb. The full Ronald Hughes/Cecil Queree listing is paper based and is not currently available online in a searchable format.

Plantation Name	Parish	Year	Owner’s Name	Acreage	Manager’s Name	Source	Record ID
_No Planatation Name	St. James	1600s	Taylor, Robert	_No Acerage		Quaker	1600-RH-MG-1000
_No Planatation Name	_No Parish	1654	Byam	_No Acerage			1654-RH-MG-1090
_No Planatation Name	_No Parish	1654	Harrison	_No Acerage			1654-RH-MG-1091
_No Planatation Name	St. George	1664	Harrison, Margaret	20			1664-RH-MG-1143
_No Planatation Name	St. George	1664	Byam, William	200			1664-RH-MG-1142
_No Planatation Name	_No Parish	1664	Huncks, Dame Alice	200			1664-RH-MG-1144
_No Planatation Name	Christ Church	1669	Oistine, Edward	_No Acerage		Quaker	1669-RH-MG-1163
_No Planatation Name	St. Thomas	1679	Ayshford, James	_No Acerage		Quaker	1679-RH-MG-1308
_No Planatation Name	St. Thomas	1679	Pin, Richard	_No Acerage		Quaker	1679-RH-MG-1309
_No Planatation Name	_No Parish	1725	_No Owner	_No Acerage			1725-RH-MG-1741
_No Planatation Name	_No Parish	1767	Jackman	_No Acerage		Maynard, G.O.	1767-RH-MG-2078
_No Planatation Name	_No Parish	1793	Wyn, John	_No Acerage		Quaker	1793-RH-MG-2306
_No Planatation Name	St. Andrew	1833	Alleyne, Reynold Abel, Sir	_No Acerage		Maynard, G.O.	1833-RH-MG-2765
_No Planatation Name	_No Parish	1849	_No Owner	_No Acerage			1849-RH-MG-3186
_No Planatation Name	St. George	_Undated	Sutton, Richard	106		Quaker	_Undated-RH-MG-4531
Abbey	Christ Church	_Undated	_No Owner	_No Acerage		H/Q 1	_Undated-RH-MG-4532
Abingdon	_No Parish	1865	_No Owner	_No Acerage			1865-RH-MG-3256
Abingdon	St. Michael	1878	Fasson, Dr.	_No Acerage			1878-RH-MG-3281
Adams Castle	Christ Church	1674	Hackett	_No Acerage		H/Q 1	1674-RH-MG-1182
Adams Castle	Christ Church	1679	Hackett, Robert, Sir	400		Hughes, R.	1679-RH-MG-1310
Plantation Name	Parish	Year	Owner’s Name	Acreage	Manager’s Name	Source	Record ID

We extend our thanks to Mary E. Gleadall NC, USA for sharing the Ronnie Hughes: Barbadian Sugar Plantations 1640 to 1846 snapshot which previously resided on her website plantations.bb and for allowing this valuable research data to be re-published here.

* Notes on Ronnie Hughes: Barbadian Sugar Plantations 1640 to 1846 data set

Within the original data there are a few duplicated fields that will be consolidated in a later addition for:

Tait for: 1778
Thickett for: 1674 and 1682

We have removed some typos in acreage data that will be consolidated in a later addition for:

Airy Hill for: 1842 and 1846
Airy Cot for: 1848, 1871 and 1912
Amity Lodge for: 1935-37
Tamarind Cottage for: _undated
Tamarind Hall for: 1847

In the research done by Ronnie Hughes, details on slave ownership numbers were recorded for only 13 plantations. Better details on slave ownership can be found at: UCL Legacies of British Slave Ownership.

Plantation	Parish	Year	Owner	Acres	Slaves	Source	Record ID
Newcastle	St. John	1643	Lindsay, Alexander	66	4	Hughes, R.	1643-RH-MG-1059
Hillaby	St. Thomas, St. Andrew	1674	Fretwell, Ralph	195	166	Hughes, R.	1674-RH-MG-1242
Alleynedale Hall	St. Peter, St. Lucy	1680	Terrill, Michael	100	60	H/Q 8	1680-RH-MG-1317
Halton	St. Philip, St. George, St. John	1680	Rous, John	470	204	Hughes, R.	1680-RH-MG-1353
Thickett	St. Philip	1682	Frere, Tobias & Spiar, Thomas	209	123	H/Q VI/3	1682-RH-MG-1411
Springfield	St. Joseph	1699	Waterman, John	500	169	HQ 5:83	1699-RH-MG-1473
Adams Castle	Christ Church	1715	Graeme, George & Frances	246	61		1715-RH-MG-1542
Four Hills	St. Peter	1741	Walker, William	271	80	H/Q 99	1741-RH-MG-1877
Lamberts	St. Lucy	1803	Phillips, John Randall	_No Acerage	178	H/Q 221	1803-RH-MG-2417
Airy Hall	St. Thomas, St. Joseph	1804	Armstrong, Griffith & King, Alexander	74	59	H/Q 6	1804-RH-MG-2425
Alleynedale Hall	St. Peter, St. Lucy	1804	Maxwell, James	220	105	H/Q 8	1804-RH-MG-2426
Springfield	St. Joseph	1804	Pile, Richard Parris	_No Acerage	173	Hughes, R.	1804-RH-MG-2433
Alleynedale Hall	St. Peter, St. Lucy	1816	Higginson, John	295	115	H/Q 8	1816-RH-MG-2511
Rowans	St. George	1819	Gibbes, John & Joseph T.	147	78	H/Q 5/36	1819-RH-MG-2568
Taitts	St. James	1825	For sale – Forster Clarke	300	145	H/Q VI/1	1825-RH-MG-2700
Rowans	St. George	1829	Higginson, John	147	70	Hughes, R.	1829-RH-MG-2734
Bagatelle	St. Thomas	1834	St. John, Charles	165	69	Slave Return Record	1834-RH-MG-2771
Plantation	Parish	Year	Owner	Acres	Slaves	Source	Record ID

Errors

If you spot an error please contact me by either leaving a comment below or clicking on the BajanThings Contact Burts link and choosing from the Subject drop-down: “Barbados Maps/Plantations – Forward to: Jim Webster“. Please detail the error together with the “Record ID” so it can be found and amended.

Many thanks

Jim Webster
table updated: 18^th July 2023.

If you enjoyed this post leave a comment…

12 responses to “Ronnie Hughes: Barbadian Sugar Plantations Index 1640 – 1846”

James Webster
12th September 2024
Wildey (incl. Upton & Kent) was acquired from the Webster family in 1969 by the Barbados Government to expand the Pine housing estate.
Reply
Samuel Patty, Goolsby
24th November 2023
Theophilus Patty married Elizabeth Baker on 9 July 1657 at St Michael’s in Barbados. He had sons in Barbados that were in the military.
He later moved in Charleston, now known as the Carolina’s where he purchased the now called Boone Hall Plantation which he gave it to his daughter as a wedding present when she married John Boone.
Wondering if you have any history on Theophilus Patty between Barbados and the Boone Hall Plantation and the Boone Hall. This was my Grand Pa – 12 generation’s back.
Thank you.
Reply
Sabrina
14th December 2020
I am searching for information on the Folkes family from St. James.
Reply
1. Jim Webster
  14th December 2020
  I do see a Simon Folkes as owner of Hansen plantation in Christ Church for the year 1710.. Have you tried Family Search or Ancestry? I did a quick look a Family Search and was able to pull up records (birth’s, baptism’s) for a number of Folkes in Barbados over the 170 and 1800’s. https://www.familysearch.org/search/record/results?q.surname=folkes&q.birthLikePlace=barbados&m.defaultFacets=on&m.queryRequireDefault=on&m.facetNestCollectionInCategory=on&count=20&offset=0
  Reply
2. Morris Greenidge
  11th April 2023
  What time frame are you looking at?
  Reply
Marysia Bucholc
29th November 2020
1846-RH-MG-3057 Christ Church Newton 1846 Lane, Richard Stuart Hughes, R.
1914-RH-MG-3508 St. John Edge Cliff 1914 Greaves, Sir W.H. 102 Chandler, J.E. Sinckler Year Book
I have a taped recording with Annie C. Bayne in which she says that her grandfather, Michael Thomas Greaves, managed this estate from about 1845 until about 1863, at which time he bought Edge Cliff Plantation (possibly with financial assistance from a Corbin) and managed that estate until he passed the management to his son, Michael Thomas Corbin Greaves. He died of yellow fever [in 1881].
His son had only been manager for a few years when he died of typhoid fever at the age of 27 [in 1886].
It was then that JE Chandler took over the management.
Sir WH Greaves became the owner of Edge Cliff at some point after his father’s and brother’s deaths.
Reply
1. Jim Webster
  29th November 2020
  Marysia,
  Thank you for adding further information to the record. It is important to capture some of the first hand accounts and family stories while we can. Jim
  Reply
Marysia Bucholc
29th November 2020
1825-RH-MG-2621 This estate appears in records I have found with only one F (Clifden, St. John)
see: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estates/
Reply
Jim Webster
11th November 2020
James, these are the record’s I’ve found of Leach’s: 1638 List of Landowner’s of 10 or more acres: Daniel Leech and Mathew Leech (note spelling). From the 1825 Francis Barrallier map of Barbados: E. Leach in St. Michael. I couldn’t find any references to Leach in the Barbados Almanacs or Handbook lists of Sugar-works owners or managers. All the best with your search.
Reply
James Leach
10th November 2020
Do you have any records of the Leach family in St. James, Barbados?
Reply
1. Jim Webster
  11th November 2020
  I will check the various records and let you know
  Reply
Peter Reece
18th June 2020
This list is very incomplete with many omissions.
Reply

You might also find these posts of interest…

Advertisements

Search BajanThings:

BajanThings is a passion project dedicated to preserving and sharing Bajan culture, stories, and history.

Your support helps cover the annual costs of running the BajanThings website and fuels our mission to document and share Bajan stories for future generations.

We accept donations via Stripe and PayPal.

Make a Donation to BajanThings

Thank you for your support!

If you would like to be kept informed when there are updates to BajanThings please subscribe to our e-mail update notification. Whenever there is new content added to BajanThings, you will receive an e-mail telling you of the update:

Subcribe to BajanThings

Advertisements

Notice Board:

High Altitude Research Project (HARP) 1962 – 1967 has been updated with pictures of the landing of HARP at Foul Bay.

Thor Heyerdahl’s Ra Expeditions to Barbados: Ra I 1969, Ra II 1970 has been updated with some additional Black & White photos.

Barbados Oceanographic Research Facility 1957 – 1979 has been updated with some photos of the remnant underseas SOSUS cable.

The BajanThings 101 on AI chatbots has been updated for 2025 to include: ChatGPT, CoPilot, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok (xAI) & Claude.

Lord Nelson’s statue – Bridgetown, Barbados has been updated following its removal on 16^th November 2020 with details of the public subscribers and details about the forged Nelson-Taylor letter.

The Printed Maps of Barbados 1500 – 1980s has been updated and split into 5 sections: 1500s – 1700, 1700 – 1800, 1800 – 1900, 1900 – 1980s & Addendums.

P/O George HF Inniss: 31st May 1916 to 5th February 1941 has been updated.

St. Philip, Barbados in the 1950s & 1960s. A very brief recollection of the people and events updated to include details of the homemade helicopter built by Three Houses factory manager Bob Reece.

Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? The Empire Windrush story has been updated.

Errol Barrow – Statesman, Prime Minister of Barbados, RAF Navigator World War II has been updated.

Torpedoing of the Cornwallis in Carlisle Bay, Barbados, 11^th September 1942 has been updated.

Memorials for departed friends has been updated, a fourth cairn has been added.

British Ship: Scottish Star Torpedoed – 19th February 1942 has been updated with a section on Michael Doyle AB.

Last 5 Comments:

Donald A. Goddard on Major Teddy Goddard – a Bajan policeman from below the cliff
Leo Young on High Altitude Research Project (HARP) 1962 – 1967
Raymond Weekes on Pitching Marbles in Barbados
Sean Chandler on Blue Box Cart. The growing years 1982 to 1991
Kate on Blue Box Cart. The growing years 1982 to 1991

A BajanThings Recommendation

Barbados Island life: photographs and stories by Craig Burleigh that celebrate Barbados island life in the 1970s

Craig Burleigh is an American born, Bajan bred, San Francisco Bay Area based professional photographer. On his website Barbados Island Life Craig has pulled together his back-catalogue of photographs of Barbados from the 1970s together with the stories behind those photographs.

Just Launched is Craig’s new book:
Barbados Island Life – A Love Affair
available online now.