Papers of William Hewitt

MS 522

Papers of William Hewitt

1759-1786

The papers are concerned chiefly with Hewitt's work in the West Indies 1767-1771 and 1776-1781, predominantly the latter period. The West Indian territories covered by the papers are Grenada, the Grenadines, St Vincent, Dominica and Tobago, primarily Dominica. The majority of his personal correspondence (1772-1781) is taken up with persuading the Treasury to pay his salary, and there is also material relating to his land interests in Dominica and his dealings with British merchants who invested in the West Indies.

The financial papers and accounts (1759-1781) in the collection cover a longer time span than any other type, as some of the material dates from before he went to the West Indies. There are also documents concerning Hewitt's personal property, mainly bonds concerning payment for Crown lands in Dominica, 1767-1777. There are papers relating to slaves owned by him between 1768-1781. There are also legal papers (1768-1781) and official documents concerning land in Tobago, St Vincent and Dominica, 1764-1781, including commissioners' instructions, surveys, maps and correspondence. The collection also includes papers created following the death of William Hewitt, mainly relating to the settlement of his estate, 1781-1790

There collection also includes a number of letters from Viscount Lifford, but in spite of his position of Lord Chancellor in Ireland, there is very little information in them concerning Irish affairs. The material also spans the period of the American war, and there is material from 1779-1780 which contains detailed information concerning military and naval movements in the West Indies.

The material was received by the University of London in two separate deposits, in 1960 and 1971. The second deposit has been listed consecutively with the first, and begins at item number 343. Within these 2 groups the material has been arranged according to type of document, and then chronologically within these types.

The following abbreviations are used in the descriptions:

n.a. no address

n.d. no date

English

4 boxes, 14 volumes

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

Access to this collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the supervised environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room.

William Hewitt was born in Coventry in 1719. He was the son of William Hewitt, mercer and draper, and later Mayor of Coventry, whose eldest son James, later Viscount Lifford, became Chancellor of Ireland in 1768.

Little is known of Hewitt's activities before 1766, but internal evidence suggests that he resided in both Coventry and London before he moved to the West Indies. In 1766, through Lifford's intercession, he was appointed 'His Majesty's Commissioner for the Distribution of Land in the Southern Caribee Islands' (Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica and Tobago). Hewitt also held several minor appointments at the same time, such as Customs officer and aide-de-camp. The work of the Commission terminated in 1771 and Hewitt returned to England.

In 1776 he was appointed Commissioner 'for adjusting the differences that have arisen or may arise in respect to sales and leases of lands in the islands of Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent, Dominica and Tobago,' and returned to the West Indies.

Hewitt did not receive his salary or expenses for the period 1776 to 1781. He lost his estates on Dominica when the island fell to the French in 1778, and having been involved adversely in several bankruptcies, he left considerable debts. He died in St. Eustatius on 16 May 1781.

The material indicated by reference codes 1 to 342 was identified in about 1960 amongst papers stored at the Goldsmiths' Hall in London. These papers appear to have belonged to Prideaux and Sons, a firm of solicitors which had previously conducted their business from the Hall. These items were deposited on permanent loan at the University of London Library by the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, Mr W A Prideaux in 1960 and 1961.

The second deposit of Hewitt material (from reference 343 to the end) was sent to the Library in 1971 by the Archivist of Barbados, who had been sent the papers by the Records Preservation Section of the British Records Association in 1965. This material also had originally come from the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.