People Australia

James Walcott (1791-1872) was among the first emigrants to the Swan River colony (Western Australia), arriving in January 1830. He was born on 10 May 1791 to John Israel Walcott and Sarah (née Pemberton), and was baptised in St Michael’s Parish, Barbados.[1]  John and Sarah had married in the same parish on 17 September 1785.[2] James had at least two siblings, John (d.1839) and Sarah (b.1792).[3] Following the death of his father in June 1813, James and his brother John took over their father’s estate, though the exact contents of his estate, including property holdings, are unspecified.[4] At this time James and John advertised the sale of three enslaved people, “a complete groom, a house servant, and a prime field negro.”[5]

James married Johanna Forrester, a minor, in April 1815.[6] Johanna’s father, Lewis Forrester, was James’ father’s business partner in the firm ‘Walcott & Forrester’, which sold more than 1,363 enslaved people, brought to the colony from Africa between 1803-1805. For example, in December 1803 they published an advertisement stating that

The Subscribers will expose for Sale on Wednesday the 28th Instant, at the Sale Room of Messrs: McInroy, Sandbach, McBean & Co. on the front ground of Plantation Werk & Rust; 329 Prime Young Slaves. Imported in the Ship Diligent, Capt. David Marshall, from Bonny [now in Nigeria, West Africa]. Walcott & Forrester.[7]

The firm also offered rewards for enslaved people who had escaped from the sale room. In March 1806, for example, they advertised ‘THIRTY JOES REWARD’,

having strong reasons to believe that Two New Negro Men, of the Angola Nation, advertised in Mr. E. J. Henery's paper of last week as having strayed from the Sale Room upon Plantation Vlissingen, were in reality stolen from thence… But should it appear, that the Advertisers' Suspicions are ill founded, and that the Slaves have of their own accord absented themselves, Five Joes Reward will be given to whoever will secure and restore them to Walcott & Forrester. N. B. One of the above Negroes has a cross on each of his temples.[8]

The partnership was dissolved in May 1805 and Forrester announced his intention of leaving the colony.[9] However, a Lewis Forrester, serving in the 4th Company of the Demerary Militia, earned a promotion to lieutenant in 1807, indicating that he may have remained in the colony.[10]

In 1812 Demerara was combined with Essequibo, and formally ceded control to Britain in 1815, offering opportunities for British people to buy property from anxious Dutch residents. (The colony later merged with Berbice in 1831 to form British Guiana.)  In Demerara, James Walcott owned or acted as an attorney for various plantation estates.[11] He jointly owned the ‘Batchelor’s [sometimes Bachelors] Adventure’ plantation, located on the island of Laguan and purchased from Hugh M’Leod, with his brother John from June 1815 onwards.[12]  The transfer of ownership also included 110 people who were enslaved on the plantation.[13] In March 1816, James transferred the rights to Batchelor’s Adventure to the sole ownership of John.[14] (In 1817 ‘Bachelors Adventure’ had 265 enslaved people.[15]) At the same time, James transferred his rights (and his rights acting as attorney for his sister Sarah Walcott) to the ‘Airy-Hall’ plantation, in Abary, along with all enslaved people, to John. [16] Airy Hall was described in 1812 as a cotton plantation “containing 500 acres in good cultivation, and with all necessary buildings.”[17] James also owned the ‘Good Hope’ plantation from March 1816.[18] He acquired 52 enslaved people along with the plantation from the previous owner Benjn Teyssen. Under James’ ownership, the plantation’s enslaved population grew to at least 65 in 1817.[19] The Good Hope plantation was “situated on the west bank of Mahaica Creek, between Plantation Helena and Hand in ‘t Veld”[20] and was considered “excellent for [cultivating] Plantains, as well as Cotton.”[21]  

In 1823 the landmark Demerara Rebellion saw more than 10,000 enslaved rise up against the regime. While their largely unarmed and peaceful protest was harshly put down, its repercussions were significant, and it is often credited with strengthening the British anti-slavery cause.

In addition, James and John Walcott co-owned the ‘St Christopher’ estate in 1826.[22] That year the plantation held 158 enslaved people.[23] The St Christopher compensation totalled £7,256, but this compensation was received by John in November 1835.[24] As James does not appear to have been awarded any slavery compensation, it is likely that he was bought out by John sometime during or after 1826.[25] James Walcott is not listed as owner or manager after 1826, suggesting that he may have divested himself of property and interests in the West Indies around this time.[26]

Walcott also invested in the Dutch-controlled colony of Suriname, east of Guyana, sometime before his emigration to the Swan River in 1830. In July 1831, following his emigration to the Swan River, Walcott explained to Governor Stirling that, ‘[w]ith a few thousand pounds the wreck of a large West Indian fortune, I had recently purchased an interest in a Coffee Plantation in the Colony of Suriname, but finding it very unhealthy, I was induced on the formation of this settlement to give it a preference to either of the neighbouring colonies.” He reported having received “very unpleasant news from England relative to the sale of some property I left in my Agents’ hands, and the disappointment arising from this source,” which appears to refer to his Suriname interest.[27]  While Walcott does not name his agent, it may have been the Liverpool-based firm Bolton and Littledale, who had financed the Batchelor’s Adventure estate in 1816.[28] Bolton and Littledale secured loans and lines of credit for many West Indian slave owners, including James’ brother John, and in return received cotton, sugar and other slave-produced goods in the Liverpool market.[29]

James Walcott and his wife Johanna had ten children, six born before the family’s emigration to the Swan River: John Charles (c.1817-1893) Elizabeth Elliot (1818-1904), James Perry (1820-1891), Samuel Nicholls (b.1824), Ellenor (b.1826), and Mary Ann (b.1828).[30] John and Elizabeth, the eldest children, may have been born in Demerara.[31] However Elizabeth was baptised in Bristol in November 1818, and James was listed as a merchant residing in Park Street in Saint Augustine, Bristol.[32] The children’s places of birth indicate that the family had moved to Britain by around 1818. Two of James’ sons, John and James, were briefly admitted to Blundell’s School between October and December 1828, indicating that the Walcotts may have been residing in Devon at the time.[33] The family finances were clearly derived, at least in part, from Demerara’s and Suriname’s slave regimes.

James and his family emigrated to the Swan River colony aboard the Wanstead, departing London on 14 August 1829 and arriving in the colony on 30 January 1830.[34] Another son, Robert, was born en route.[35] The early records of land for the Swan River indicate that James brought to the colony capital of £1,574, 12s, 3d (£1,132, 12s, 3d of which was deemed applicable to the cultivation of land).[36] This capital investment was derived in part from profits stemming from his interest in the coffee plantation of Suriname and from his previous interests in various estates across Demerara. James recalled explicitly in a letter that, after being “induced on the formation of this settlement…& having decided to go,” that he “laid out accordingly all the ready money [he] could muster.”[37] According to the method of granting land based on the value of their assets, then set at 40 acres for every £3 invested in the colony, Walcott was entitled to claim 15,093 acres of land.  He secured 17,333 acres, worth £170 more than his recorded assets.[38] He also brought with him seven servants, John and William Jones, Thomas and Anna Dorsett, Joseph Antonius Martain, and Thomas and Mary Pinder.[39] Walcott was in partnership with his brother-in-law Charles Ridley, who shared familial and business interests in Demerara.[40]

As one of the earliest colonists to the Swan River, Walcott had the privilege of selecting prime locations for his land grants at Swan River. He was initially granted 2,500 acres of land with his partner Charles Ridley.[41] This land was later divided by the surveyor-general John Septimus Roe, in order so that Walcott and Ridley could share “a proportion of the flat…land.”[42] Walcott also selected land in the Avon district, at Location H, Beverley, which he named ‘Yangedine,’ and later near York, which he named ‘Walcott Estate’.[43] The locations of Walcotts’ grants were later described as “places where the soil appeared most promising,” and were situated “on the right bank of the Swan,” directly opposite the land of Governor James Stirling.[44]

Walcotts’ farms were situated on the Traditional Country of the Noongar, which created tensions between traditional owners and settlers around access to food and land. For example, in August 1833, one of Walcotts’ bulls was taken by Noongar.[45] In March 1834, Walcott signed a petition to Governor Stirling complaining of the “repeated thefts [which] have been committed” by Indigenous people that settlers found their farms subject to.[46] The petition detailed the “constant state of alarm” of the settlers “for the safety of our flocks,” and warned that the attacks “appears to be increasing and…call[s] for some prompt and efficient interference on the part of the Local Government.”[47] Indeed, violence reached a climax in October 1834 with the Pinjarra Massacre on Binjareb Noongar Country, south of Perth.

In February 1837 the Walcotts’ property suffered significant damage from a fire that “destroyed the whole of the thatched dwelling-house, and kitchen adjoining, with about thirty bushels of barley, and ten of wheat, in the latter building.” The damage was described by a newspaper report as “a very serious one…not more than four or five trunks were saved, and very little furniture.”[48]

At Swan River, James’ family continued to grow, with the births of Matthew Friend (b.1831), Pemberton (1834-1883), Rachel Johanna (1836-1876) and Robert (c.1839-).[49]

Walcott was unable to adequately improve his grants and in February 1837 was forced to sell his 12,000 acres of land in the York district to settle his debts.[50] In 1837 he temporarily left the colony for Mauritius.[51] His Avon grant of 8,000 acres was advertised for sale in May 1839, and was purchased by fellow settler Samuel Viveash for £16,000.[52] By the late 1840s Walcott had sold all his land grants.[53] Following his loss of land, he relocated to Champion Bay to live with his son James Perry who owned and ran the pastoral station Minnenooka.[54] Town lots held in his wife Johanna’s name in both Perth and Fremantle also were returned to the crown in 1841, unimproved.[55] James Walcott died on 17 February 1872 at Greenough Flats, Irwin, Western Australia, aged 80.[56] His wife Johanna passed away four years later, also at Greenough.[57]

James’ Walcott's children played prominent roles in the continued colonisation of Western Australia. His son James Perry was involved in various expeditions resulting in the appropriation of large tracts of Indigenous Country for pastoralism.[58] His younger son Robert was also a pastoralist in the Pilbara region. In 1882 in the context of frontier conflict, Robert advocated for the use of violence against the Indigenous population, arguing that settlers should be allowed “to give Our natives a good dressing…In the early days of Champion Bay the natives were shot right and left for sheep and cattle stealing.”[59]

Footnotes
[1] ‘James Walcott,’ St Michael Parish Barbados Baptisms, 1791, Church of England 1637-1849, RL1/5,  Ancestry.com Online Database, https://www.ancestry.com.au/imageviewer/collections/9788/images/004934431_00285?pId=290873

[2] ‘Marriages,’ St Michael Parish Barbados, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, Church of England, 1771-1794, Ancestry.com Online Database, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.au/imageviewer/collections/9788/images/004934431_00215?pId=274535

[3] ‘Baptisms,’ St Michael Parish Barbados, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, Church of England, 1837-1849, Ancestry.com Online Database, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.au/discoveryui-content/view/280855:9788?tid=&pid=&queryId=3a98ff9f3a7dad5bdaa984c608950308&_phsrc=Gnd279&_phstart=successSource; ‘John Walcott,’ Legacies of British Slavery Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/8129 ; John married Mary Ann Barnwell in Essequebo, on the 13^th June 1812: Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 13 June 1812, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18120613edrg.html

[4] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 12 June 1813, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18130612edrg.html

[5] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 12 June 1813, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18130612edrg.html

[6] ‘Banns of Matrimony - between James Walcott, born in Barbados, of the Protestant Religion, bachelor, being of age, on the one part; and Miss Johanna Forrester, born in this Colony, also of the Protestant Religion, a minor, but assisted by and with consent of her Father, Lewis Forrester, Esq. on the other part.’ Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 15 April 1815, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18150415derg.html

[7] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 17 December 1803, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18031217edg.html; Essequebo and Demerary Gazette, 19 November 1803, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18031119edg.html;  Again, Walcott and Forrester advertised the sale of 218 “prime…slaves” from the ship Minerva, which had journeyed from Cape Coast Castle to Demerara. Walcott and Forrester were also the agents for the sale of 242 enslaved people who had been transported on the ship Alert in 1804 and 353 enslaved people from the Swift in 1805. David Richardson, ed., Bristol, Africa and the Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade to America: The Final Years, 1770-1807, vol. 4 (Bristol: Bristol Record Society: 1996), 261, 264, 266.

[8] Essequebo and Demerary Gazette, 22 March 1806, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18060322edg.html

[9] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 8 November 1806, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18061108edg.html; Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 24 May 1806, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18060524edg.html

[10] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 12 September 1807, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18070912edrg.html

[11] James also owned a property on High Street, Bridgetown, which may have been either a business or place of residence. See Barbados Mercury and Bridge-town Gazette, 13 March 1819, https://www.dloc.com/AA00047511/01525/

[12] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 17 June 1815, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18150617derg.html. During the Walcott brothers’ period of ownership, two enslaved people, Damon and Baron, individually absconded from the plantation and were placed in the colony jail. See ‘Arrested Slaves,’ Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 25 March 1815, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18150325derg.html; ‘Arrested Slaves,’ Demerary and Essequebo Royal Gazette, 11 November 1815, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18151111derg.html

[13] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 17 June 1815, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18150617derg.html

[14] The Royal (Colophon) Gazette, 9 March 1816, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18160217rg.html

[15] ‘Bachelor’s Adventure estate,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/11659. N.B: there is potential for confusion here, as the LBS lists two entries for ‘Bachelors Adventure’, including ‘Bachelors Adventure and Enterprise,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/884. These appear to be different plantations, as in 1817 the latter is listed as owned by John Hopkinson and held 619 enslaved people.

[16] The Royal (Colophon) Gazette, 9 March 1816, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18160217rg.html. By March 1816, John Walcott had mortgaged the Batchelor’s Adventure plantation to ‘Messrs. Bolton and Littledale from Liverpool’. See The Royal (Colophon) Gazette, 9 March 1816, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18160217rg.html

[17] ‘For Sale,’ Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 19 September 1812, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18120919edrg.html

[18] The Royal (Colophon) Gazette, 16 March 1816, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18160316rg.html

[19] ‘Good Hope Estate,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/1057

[20] The Royal (Colophon) Gazette, 16 March 1816, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18160316rg.html

[21] Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 10 September 1808, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18080910edrg.html

[22] ‘James Walcott,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146652229; ‘Good Hope estate,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/7840; ‘St Christopher estate,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/1000; ‘John Walcott,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/8129. The £7,256 compensation for the St Christopher estate was awarded to John Walcott.

[23] ‘St Christopher estate,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database.

[24] ‘John Walcott,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database.

[25] Jane Lydon, “From Demerara to Swan River: Charles Dawson Ridley and James Walcott in Western Australia,” Australian Journal of Biographical History (Special Issue) 6, no. 1 (2022), 27.

[26] James’ father-in-law Lewis also owned several plantations in the West Indies, including ‘Good Fellowship’, purchased by Lewis sometime between 1812 and 1817. Good Fellowship was sold by Lewis in May 1817 and was annexed with the neighbouring plantation ‘Bishop’s Hope’. See Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 22 August 1812, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18120822edrg.html; Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 19 April, 1817, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18170419rg.html; Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette, 24 November 1804, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18041124edg.html and Essequebo and Demerary Gazette, 25 February 1804, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18040225edg.html.

[27] State Records Office of Western Australia, Colonial Secretary’s Office, series 2941, accession no. 36, volume 16, folios 190-192. James may also have held property or had financial interests in Jamaica, as the West Australian Dictionary of Biography notes that James “suffered financial misfortune in England & Jamaica,” though further details have not yet been located. See James Walcott, Western Australian Bicentennial Dictionary (WABD) pre-1829-1988, ed. Rica Erickson (Perth: University of Western Australia Press, 1987.

[28] The Royal (Colophon) Gazette, 17 February 1816, https://www.vc.id.au/edg/18160217rg.html

[29] Alexey Krichtal, ‘Liverpool and the Raw Cotton Trade: a Study of the Port and its Merchant Community, 1770-1815,’ MA dissertation, Victoria University of Wellington, 2013, http://researcharchive.vuw.ac.nz/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10063/2952/thesis.pdf?sequence=1, 46.

[30] ‘John Charles Walcott,’ WABD; ‘Elizabeth Elliot,’ Baptisms solemnized in the parish of Saint Augustine the less in the County of the City of Bristol,’ Bristol Church of England Parish Registers, PstAug/R/2/C, 1813-1820, Ancestry.com Online Database, https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.au/imageviewer/collections/61685/images/engl0082d_p-st-aug-r-2-c-2_m_00164?treeid=&personid=&hintid=&queryId=e4444cbe8a87102030c3535643a79f8a&usePUB=true&_phsrc=Gnd283&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&pId=553229; ‘James Perry Walcott,’ WABD; ‘Samuel Nicholls Walcott,’ WABD;  ‘James Walcott,’ WABD.

[31] ‘John Charles Walcott,’ and ‘Elizabeth Elliot,’ Brady Family Tree in Western Australia, https://www.bradyfamilytree.org/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I12829&tree=Brady2008.

[32] ‘Elizabeth Elliot,’ Baptisms solemnized in the parish of Saint Augustine the less in the County of the City of Bristol,’ Bristol Church of England Parish Registers, PstAug/R/2/C, 1813-1820.

[33] Arthur Fisher, eds, The Register of Blundell’s School, Part 1, The Register, 1770-1882 (Exeter: J.G Commin Publishing, 1904), 122; Joan Walcott, ‘Captain Pemberton Walcott,’ Early Days 10, no. 1 (1989): 13-14.

[34] Wanstead passenger list, State Records Office of Western Australia, consignment 5000, accession no. 36/6/2-3, Western Australia Passenger Arrivals and Departures – Swan River Colony 1826-1838, produced by Graham Brown for the Swan River Pioneers Special Interest Group of the Western Australian Genealogical Society, Family History WA Online Database, http://data.fhwa.org.au/component/content/article/72-members/358-swan-river-colony-arrivals-and-departures-1829-1838

[35] Wanstead passenger list, SROWA, cons5000, acc. no. 36/6/2-3.

[36] ‘Return of property on which land has been claimed from 01/06/1829-30/06/1830,’ State Records Office of Western Australia, cons5000, 683/02.

[37] SROWA, series 2941, cons36, volume 16, folios 190-192.

[38] ‘Return of Lands in Western Australia assigned up to the 20^th day of July 1832,’ SROWA, cons5000, acc.683/03.

[39] Wanstead passenger list, SROWA, cons5000, acc. no. 36/6/2-3.

[40] ‘Charles Dawson Ridley,’ Legacies of British Slavery Online Database, University College London, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146652249; ‘Charles Dawson Ridley,’ People Australia Online Database, Australian National University, https://peopleaustralia.anu.edu.au/biography/ridley-charles-dawson-33189/text41405; Lydon, “From Demerara to Swan River: Charles Dawson Ridley and James Walcott in Western Australia,” AJBH, 29.

[41] SROWA, series 2941, cons37, volume 17, folio 144.

[42] SROWA, series 2941, cons37, volume 17, folio 144.

[43] ‘James Walcott,’ WABD.

[44]  SROWA, series 2941, cons37, volume 17, folio 144; Warren Bert Kimberly, History of West Australia: A Narrative of Her Past Together with Biographies of Her Leading Men (Melbourne and Ballarat: F.W Niven & Co., 1897).

[45] SROWA, series 2941, cons36, volume 38, folio 97.

[46] SROWA, series 2941, cons36, volume 31, folio 45.

[47] SROWA, series 2941, cons36, volume 31, folio 45.

[48] Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 11 February 1837, 849.

[49] ‘James Walcott,’ WABD; ‘Pemberton Walcott,’ WABD; ‘Rachel Walcott,’ WABD; ‘Robert M. Walcott,’ WABD.

[50] ‘For Sale,’ Swan River Guardian, 9 February 1837, 69.

[51] Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 18 March 1837, 867.

[52] ‘The Government Gazette,’ Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 8 June 1839, 92; ‘James Walcott Esquire to Mess’rs Viveash and Smith,’ 17 June 1849, State Library of Western Australia, acc.711A/39.

[53] ‘James Walcott,’ WABD

[54] ‘James Walcott,’ WABD; ‘Tibradden Homestead Group,’ Register of Heritage Places, Heritage Council of Western Australia, 2014, http://inherit.stateheritage.wa.gov.au/Admin/api/file/7874a4d6-7884-0acc-20a3-6a8f0c57d233, 2.

[55] Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal, 6 July 1839, 108.

[56] ‘James Walcott,’ WABD; ‘James Perry Walcott,’ Find A Grave Online Database, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210687564/james-percy-walcott

[57] ‘Johanna Perry Walcott,’ Find A Grave Online Database, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/210687576/johanna-walcott

[58] The Settlers’ Expedition to the Northward from Perth, under Mr Assistant-Surveyor A.C. Gregory’, in Augustus Charles Gregory and Francis Thomas Gregory, Journals of Australian Explorations (Brisbane: James C. Beal, Government Printer, 1884), 13–30; Lydon, “From Demerara to Swan River: Charles Dawson Ridley and James Walcott in Western Australia,” AJBH, 40.

[59] West Australian, 8 December 1882, 3.