Barbados Almanacs: Plantations & Sugar-Works 1848 – 1871

This is the third in our series of stories based upon transcriptions of old plantation sugar-works tables and records. Previously, we published the sugar-works listings from the Barbados Handbooks 1912 – 24 and the Ronnie Hughes Plantation list 1640 – 1846.  The latter was previously published on the plantations.bb website which no longer exists.

The table below is derived from the Barbados Almanacs 1848 – 1871 with records drawn from eight Almanacs published during that period.  As well we have included graphs comprised of data from the consolidated Almanac and Handbook records 1848 – 1924.

Barbados Almanacs Over the Years

There is a long history of Barbados Almanacs  printed by various publishers, dating back to 1684 when John Seller published the “Barbados Almanack for XXX (30) Yeares, from the year of our Lord 1677, to ye year 1706 shewing the days of the month, the suns and place … Also, the moveable Feasts and other Useful Remarks calculated for the meridian of the Famous Island.” London [1684]

John Seller Sr. (d. 1697), one of the most important figures in the early history  of the map and chart-publishing trade in England offered the widest variety of stock during that era. In folio form he published a celestial atlas, two terrestrial atlases, a sea atlas, several coasting pilots, as well as a large number of separately issued charts. In addition, he also published a number of navigation handbooks, almanacs, pocketbooks, miniature sea-atlases, and made a variety of mathematical and navigational instruments and tools. [Cyclopaedia]

The BMHS Journal #28 contained an article, “Book and Pocket Almanacs” [1960 – 61] by E. M. Shilstone on pages 81 and 82.  In our research, we have found references to the following publications but have not established the years of first nor last publication and would suggest this only serve as a guide for those wanting to dig deeper into the history of the almanacs.  The list was derived from Jerome S. Handler’s, A Guide to Source Materials for the Study of Barbados History 1627 – 1834 [1971] and Family Search.

• Grew, Theophilus., “The Barbados Almanack, for the year of our Lord 1752: being Bissextile or Leap Year [Philadelphia 1751], a broad sheet, printed on one side, giving standard almanac information as well as the names of the island’s Assembly and council members.
• Dolland, John., “An Almanack for the Island of Barbados, for the year 1765: being the first year after Bissextile or Leap Year [London, 1764] printed for Holst, Matthias.
• Holst, Matthias., “Barbados Almanac”, 1785  Published by H. Woodfall for Matthias Holst and sold at his house in Broad Street – Bridgetown. Horst’s almanacs were published for at least a 30-year span.  A reproduction of his 1797 almanac is available through Amazon.
• Orderson, Issac Williamson., “Barbados Almanac”, 1787
• Downes, James J., “An Almanack for the Island of Barbados 1822 [London, 1822, 46 pages]
• Phillips, Tobias., “Barbados Almanac”, 1828 series continued until 1858 
• Springer, “Barbados Almanac”, 1842.
• Bowen, Israel., “The Barbados Almanac and Diary.” In 1863 the Barbados Almanac and Diary was published by Israel Bowen, Bookseller and Stationer at No. 20 Broad Street, Bridgetown, Barbados.  In 1866 it was published by I. Bowen and Sons the new title of the firm.  In later years, probably after the death of Israel Bowen the Founder, the Almanac was issued annually by the Firm of Bowen and Sons, its present name, up to at least 1887.

By 1818 the almanacs, in addition to listing: Phases of the Moon, Court Days, Militia Days, Feast Days, Members of the Barbados Council and myriad other information, began publishing the number and type of sugar-works (wind or steam) and the quantity of land per parish. It is the plantation and sugar-works information on which we have focused our attention.

Plantation & Sugar-Works Consolidation

For his 2014 Master Thesis, Patterns of Wealth in the Sugar Colony of Barbados, Peter J. Koby did a detailed analysis on the types of sugar-works, number and sizes of plantations utilizing Richard Ford’s Barbados map of 1674, the Barbados Census of White Residents 1679 and Herman Moll’s map of 1736.

Although we often think of a plantation as a large estate, the 1679 census recorded over 2,500 plantations, with some as small as one acre. Ford’s map of 1674 shows 811 plantations and Moll’s map of 1736 lists 946.  Due to the limitations of space and legibility, it is assumed that the maps tended to only show the larger plantations with sugar-works.

By the time the 1848 Barbados Almanac was published, there were just over 500 plantations, with sugar-works, listed. As in the case with the maps of Ford and Moll, the smaller landowners were not included therefore the actual number of plantations or holdings would have been greater than those listed. In 1861 small landowners owned approximately five percent of the acreage not listed in the Almanac.

As can be seen in the charts below, the number of acres and the number of plantations remained fairly stable between 1848 and 1871.  Post-1871 the number of plantations begins to drop off steadily as estates were consolidated, sugar-works combined and land sold as lots or converted to tenantries.

Technology

On Ford’s map of 1674 the legend identifies three types of sugar-works: windmills, water mills and cattle mills.  Ultimately, the water mills and the cattle mills were replaced by windmills.  It remained this way until the 1800’s when new technology is introduced in Barbados.

As early as 1768, in Jamaica, a mill, driven by the steam of boiling water, was built, but it only operated successfully for a few weeks.  The vertical three-roller mill, most often wind driven, had been the standard for crushing sugar cane for hundreds of years.  Unfortunately, the power of the steam driven mill was such that connecting it to the three-roller mill caused damage and planters were slow to adapt to the new technology.

Capital was difficult to raise at a time of declining sugar prices and when planters were confronting the problems of abolition but there were also good reasons for this caution before making the investment in steam. If well-maintained, steam mills were reliable. However good servicing by qualified mechanics could not be assured and spare parts might take weeks to arrive. A mill out of order in the harvest season created a problem no planter wished to confront. On some islands, according to Beachey (1957: 64), the shortage of fresh water was a problem.  At the time of the 1848 Barbados Almanac there was only one steam mill operating in Barbados.

In 1794 John Collinge, an English axle-tree maker, designed a new type of mill consisting of three hollow iron rollers, laid horizontally with the upper roller pressing down on the lower two. The new design offered two important advantages: (1) as heavy pieces of machinery they could stand the power that steam provided, and (2) they permitted multiple milling of bagasse. Millers had long appreciated that multiple milling would increase the extraction of juice but with the old three-roller mills the labour costs made such an exercise uneconomical. Now with the new design the cane could be made to flow through a succession of linked horizontal three-roller units.

As well, advances in the boiling and curing houses, most notably the vacuum pan and centrifugal, first developed for the sugar beet refineries of Europe, were also introduced into the sugar cane industry of the West Indies. The vacuum pan, under artificial conditions of reduced pressure, lowered the boiling point of the cane juice and thus greatly economized on fuel. (J. H. Galloway)

Although slow to be introduced in Barbados, the introduction of the new technologies was recorded in the Barbados Almanacs 1848 – 71 and can be seen in the table below under: Sugar-Works, Steam, Wind and Sugar-Works Details.

Other Observations from the Almanacs

During the period of 1848 – 1871 there were numerous things impacting the cane sugar industry of the West Indies. As mentioned, the cost and efficiencies of new technology, labour costs after emancipation and the growing competition from the European sugar beet industry, were driven, in part, by consumer demand for low cost sugar.

Subsidies or bounties paid by European countries to their local sugar beet producers kept sugar prices low and had a very negative impact on the sugar cane industry, especially toward the later part of the 19th century.  This was a double edge sword for the British Parliament, with local consumers, who benefited from inexpensive sugar, and the sugar cane owners who were pushing for action to have the bounties eliminated or counter balancing tariffs introduced against the European beet sugar industry.

Mayson M. Beeton (son of the celebrated Mrs. Beeton – who wrote the definitive guide for keeping a home in Victorian Britain), working for the Daily Mail while stationed in the British West Indies in the 1890’s , wrote extensively about the impact of the Foreign Sugar Bounties and ultimately published a book on the subject, “The Truth About the Foreign Sugar Bounties.”

Subsidies or Bounties paid by European countries to their local sugar beet producers kept sugar prices low and had a very negative impact on the sugar cane industry, especially toward the later part of the 19th century.  This was a double edge sword for the British Parliament who had local consumers, who benefited from inexpensive sugar, and the sugar cane owners who were pushing for action to have the Bounties eliminated or counter balancing tariffs introduced against the European beet sugar industry.

SUGAR BOUNTIES AND THE WEST INDIES
Extract from a speech at Christchurch, November, 1898. taken from: Problems of Empire: Papers and Addresses by the Rt. Hon. Thomas Allnutt Brassey (1904) pages 131 & 132

What the decline in sugar has meant for the West Indies.
The present evils in the West Indies are not solely due to the late hurricane, but to causes of deeper root. Owing to the competition of bounty-fed Continental sugar, the islands have been declining in prosperity for some time. The Royal Commission reported last year that the sugar industry was threatened by such reduction in the immediate future ‘as may not in some of the Colonies differ from extinction.’ The result has been that whereas formerly three-fourths of the exports were the products of the sugar-cane, there is now want of employment, reduction in the rate of wages and in the standard of living, and consequent inability to meet expenditure. Many of our West Indian possessions, as, for instance, British Guiana, St. Vincent, Barbadoes, and Dominica—the conditions of which are described in the Report—are entirely dependent on the sugar industry, and the price of sugar has fallen to less than half of what it was in 1882.

Countervailing duties.
The remedies proposed by the Royal Commission are peasant proprietorship and the encouragement of minor industries, better communication, and the increase of the fruit trade, besides grants of money to the various islands. Whilst there may be some justification under the special circumstances for the grants recommended by the Royal Commission, I am strenuously opposed to dealing out doles of Imperial money, because such a policy is an inadequate remedy, and because it will tend to sap the energies and self-dependence of the people and the government of the Colonies concerned. The question before us is, Are British subjects to be ruined by artificial competition? Attempts have been made and failed to secure the abolition of bounties; the only remaining course is for the British Government to impose countervailing duties on bounty – fed sugar. The British people have made great sacrifices in order to abolish slavery; they would do the same again for a great object. The sacrifice involved in the present case is small.

British moral responsibility for the West Indian people.
If by the imposition of a duty to checkmate the policy of France and Germany the price of sugar is raised to the extent of 2l. a ton, it would mean less than a farthing a pound to the consumer, but a great deal to the West Indian producer. If that sacrifice is too great, it might be met with a lessened duty on tea. Already the Canadian people have realised the injustice done to the West Indies by bounty-fed Continental sugar and have taken action to counteract it. Allow me to quote from a letter just received from a well-known Canadian. ‘We have,’ he writes, ‘succeeded in getting our Government to give the West Indies a preference in our market. We had free sugar before; now we are paying hard cash to help the Empire.’ The British people must remember that they have great responsibilities in regard to the West Indies. The negro population was brought to those islands as slaves under the authority of the British Government; we are morally responsible that those people do not starve. The present distress in the West Indies is due, at any rate in part, to foreign protective duties and bounties, of which the people of the United Kingdom have been reaping the benefit, to the loss of their West Indian fellow-subjects.

Top plantation families 1848 -1924

The table below lists the top plantation-owning families from 1848 to 1924 showing the percentage of plantation acreage owned.  In the period 1848 to 1914 the top 20 owners  controlled 36 to 40 percent of the total plantation acreage.  By 1924, with the consolidation of plantations the top 20 owners now owned nearly 50 percent of the acreage.

Top landowners by percentage of total acreage owned by year

As we noted in our previous post about the Barbados Handbooks, the Handbooks along with the additional data from the Almanacs, give us an even clearer picture of  the major landowners during a period of almost eighty years: 1848 – 1924.

The Haynes family can be found on plantation ownership records going back to 1674 at New Castle, St. John and over the centuries the family has owned a variety of estates throughout the island including Clifton Hall, Bath, Haynes Hill, Bissex Hill and others.

The Pile family are recorded on Barralier’s, 1825 map of Barbados with Conrade Pile listed as owner of Brighton and Sedgwicks, St. George.  The family still owns Brighton’s to this day. Both the Haynes and Pile families were major landowners throughout the  years 1848 – 1924.

The early 20th century would see many new families coming to prominence, often buying plantations from the Chancery Court. by 1924, as consolidation continued companies began to take on a leading ownership role.

It is clear  that while many of the traditional plantocracy still maintained a dominant role in the sugar industry that there were new families and corporations growing in influence.

Absentee Landowners

Beginning in 1861 the Almanacs started to identify absentee owners.  In 1861 and 1863 the Almanacs gave a breakdown of acreage by resident owner, absentee owner and small landowners (not listed). Between 1861 and 1871 just 23 percent of plantations owners were classed as absentee owners. However based on acreage, absentee owners owned 41percent of the acreage, suggesting the absentee owners owned larger plantations: Owners such as the: Briggs, Ellis, Ashby, Alleyne, Best, Foderingham, King, Kellman and Haynes families.

The Barbados Almanac Sugar-Works Table

Getting the Most from the Barbados Almanac Sugar-Works 1848 – 1871 Table

We have provided the table below in a format that allows for the quick retrieval of information whether it be by plantation name, size, wind or steam operation, ownership or manager, All the data has been transcribed from the original publications so we would recommend if you are doing serious research that you refer to the source. An additional and invaluable source are the Hughes – Querree Papers available through the Shilstone Library at the Barbados Museum and the Barbados Archive, Black Rock.

Should you want to do complex filtering or pivots, beyond what is offered in the tables above, you can click here to download the complete Plantations and Sugar works in Barbados 1848-1924 spreadsheet which is in xlsx format.  This spreadsheet consolidates the Barbados Almanacs 1848 to 1871 data, the Barbados Handbook 1912 -1914 and data for 1924 from BMHS (Barbados Museum & Historical Society) Journal Vol. XLV.

The information contained in these tables is provided on an “as is” basis by the authors. Plantations and Sugar works in Barbados 1848 to1871 were transcribed by Frances Ward and Jim Webster from multiple sources that include:

• Barbados Almanacs: 1848 to 1871
• familysearch.org

Using the Barbados Almanac Sugar-Works 1848 – 1871 Table

The plantations and sugar-works table 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.

By sorting on the “Owner” or “Owner Surname” column we can learn which individuals or families, or companies were the biggest land owners by number of estates, or number of acres and whether the same owners were in a similar position in 1924 as they were in 1912. This information includes who owned the largest estate and who owned the smallest, which had been consolidated and which had been sold off in lots.

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.”

In addition, at the top left of the table you can paginate the table and choose to show, 10, 25, 50,100. If you choose say 10 lines per table you can page through the other sheets by pressing the Previous or Next links or the left or right navigation arrows at the bottom right of the table.

• _Unlisted – the information was not in the original documents
• _Consolidation is used when plantations have been combined into one operation
• _No Works means the wind or steam works are no longer in operation or exist
• _Sold in Lots – plantations which were subdivided or sold as small lots usually an acre or two

The Barbados Almanac Sugar-Works 1848 – 1871 Table

Please note there are 4,023 rows of data in the table!