This is a research project; I am not related to anyone from Antigua. That being said I try to give back to the group as much as I can seeing as my purposes are outside the mission of the group. The JEFFERSON family from Whitehaven, Cumberland, England were wine and spirits merchants and ship owners. They also owned three estates during the 1800s, growing sugar in Antigua: Yeamans, Yorks, and New Division. The latter two were purchased in 1832 from the OGILVYs of Scotland. Beyond that the JEFFERSONS had interests in Jolly Hill Estate, Golden Grove, and Greencastle, etc. Through their shipping they often transported sugar to England for such families as the CODRINGTONS, the JARVIS, the NUGENTS, and others. When sugar prices were depressed, they began buying up molasses in the island for their own purposes -- they produced in Whitehaven one of the best rums in England.
G. C. BISPHAM of a Barbados family along with a number of his siblings apparently relocated to Angtigua. G. C. Bispham looked after the interests of the Jeffersons in Antigua -- primarily YEAMANS ESTATE. The Jeffersons firm was R. & H. Jefferson (Robert and Henry -- there were several of each over a 200 year period). In the late 1700s. Captain Henry Jefferson was trading to the island of Antigua when in 1780 he met and married Anne TWEEDIE of the island. His son Robert is said to have been born in Antigua in 1785 -- this is possible but the child was christened in March of 1785 at Holy Trinity Church in Whitehaven. Shortly thereafter, the new family moved back to Whitehaven. I have recently discovered the christening records for most of the Jeffersons at Holy Trinity Church in Whitehaven. I know the Bisphams were born in Barbados. Several of them died in Antigua including G. C. Bispham (ca 1860), but I can find little information about this family in Antigua records. Any help here would be appreciated.
Thanks