Records of the Lennox family of Woodhead - containing the records of the Cunningham family of Craigends - Jamaican estate owners.

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): T-LX

Title: Records of the Lennox family of Woodhead - containing the records of the Cunningham family of Craigends - Jamaican estate owners.

Date(s): 1722 - 1852

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: c.1200 files

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s):

Administrative/Biographical history:

Archival history: Deposited by the Lennox family in February 1975.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: The papers of the Lennox family of Woodhead are divided into 16 record series (T-LX 1-16), each containing between 50-100 bundles of legal and financial papers, estate plans and family letters, dating from the 17th to the 20th century. Series T-LX 14 contains the most pertinent items for Caribbean studies and provides information about Jamaican sugar plantations owned by the Cunningham family of Craigends during the 18th and 19th centuries.

In total there are 90 files of legal papers, bonds, estate papers, cash records, account books, letters and diaries mostly relating to William Cunningham. Within T-LX 14 items 15, 16, 17 and 67 mention sugar plantations owned by William Cunningham and his heir, John Cunningham, in Jamaica during the late 18th and early 19th century. Item 18 is the copy of an heraldic patent granted to James Campbell of Jamaica in 1722 and two associated drawings of the event.

Items T-LX 14/15-17 contain three documents about the Grandvale Plantation, parish of Westmoreland, Jamaica, an estate listed as belonging to the heirs of William Cunningham of Craigends and Boyd Porterfield of Porterfield. Item T-LX 14/15, dated 1773, contains the valuation papers for the estate and lists slaves, cattle and estate equipment. Item T-LX 14/16 contains the accounts for the Grandvale estate, dated November 1828. Item T-LX 14/17 is the (draft) prospectus of a company that was formed to purchase Grandvale in Jamaica, with an advertisement for the sale of the said estate, dated November 1843.

Item T-LX 14/67 is the letter book of John Cunningham of Craigends, containing letters to his family and business colleagues, dated 1812-1821.

In one letter, dated 29th May 1812, John Cunningham writes to his plantation manager in Jamaica, a man called Taylor Cathcart, about the slaves in his charge, stating: 'Dear Taylor, I have had the pleasure of receiving yours accompanied by a list of the negroes and stock on Grandvale - I am happy to observe that the increase in births is likely to keep pace with the decrease occasioned by the deaths of the old and infirm people and I am so pleased to see that you afford every comfort to the women in a state of pregnancy. Indeed, I suppose you will always be disposed to do everything in your power for the comfort of all the slaves. It will be a very satisfactory and consolatory reflection to you after you have relinquished the management and retired from that situation in life.'

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement:

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Members of the public have full access to the collection on completion of a requisition form.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids: Printed catalogue

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals: Glasgow City Archives, The Mitchell Library, 210 North Street, Glasgow G3 7DN

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description:

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note: This record was amended and indexed June 2002 MR

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: 19th September 2001

Interest: Caribbean

Specific group:

Subjects

Sugar plantations

Trade

Slavery

Personal/Corporate names

Places

Jamaica