Part 226s – Smith Robertson Genealogy – Indenture Research – 1821 Mary Ann Smith

fternoon,

Supper turned out well and was good last night; the ginger chicken stir fry with sesame noodles, and actually it was prepped and ready to eat in the 30 minutes as per Rachael Ray’s claims. And the nice things about it; it was easy and I had second helpings.

Today’s first Transcription is extremely short in the continuing saga of my search and research for the genealogy and ancestry clues of my ggg-grandfather James Smith. This Record is the last Smith-related Document in Item 2 of the microfilm FHL [1563329] of the Grenada Registers of Records, 1817-1837 (v. R2-Z2). And no, there are no hints of any direct connection or link to ggg-grandfather James. But please remember that my statement is not a discounting to the possibility, it’s just that I see no clue or evidence that sticks out in the Document.

The date of this Record is 6 January 1821 and the date of entry to the Register is 9 January 1821. It is on page 519, as follows:

And my transcription –

519

Examd

Entered 9th January 1821

Grenada
Know all Men by these Presents that Mary Ann Smith
free Colour Woman for divers Good Causes And I Consideration me hereunto moving
have Enfranchised Manumitted and made free And by these presents do fully
freely and Absolutely Enfranchise and make free my Young female Slave named
Hager and all her Iʃsue and Increase hereafter to be born And I do hereby
Release And for ever Discharge the said Young female Slave Hager And her
Iʃsue as Aforesaid of and from all and all Manner servitude And Slavery What
Soever Hereby Giving and Granting unto the said Hager and her Iʃsue as Aforesaid
as for as I have fully may or can all the priviledges? And advantages of a free born
Subject of Great Britain In Witneʃs Whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and
Seal this sixth day of January in the Year of Our Lord One thousand Eight hundred
and Twenty one
Sealed And Delivered In the Presence of }
Loftus H. Otway, Chas Lewis }

Mary Ann Smith (LS)

Grenada
Acknowledged before me by Mary Ann Smith the party executing
the Within Deed of Manumiʃsion as and for her free and Voluntary
act and Deed this Eighth day of January One thousand Eight
hundred and Twenty One.

Owsley Rowley D.Reg.

In my initial draft of the transcription I could not make out the name of the individual Hager, the person who Mary Ann Smith was granting manumission or freedom. I found a subsequent 1821 Annual Increase/Decrease Return page from the Slave Registers of Former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 database of The National Archives of the UK via Ancestry.com.

All-things-being I was able to correlate the 1821 Record of the Grenada Register to this page 284 from the 1821 Annual Increase/Decrease Return. From the 1821 Increase/Decrease Return, and if this is the same person, child, referred to in the 9 January 1821 Entry of the Grenada Register a number of assumptions can be made.

The child Hager, as recorded on both the 8 January 1821 Increase/Decrease Return and the 6 January 1821 Manumission Record, was born about September 1820. Her mother’s name was Rose, and Hager was born in Grenada. The “Colour” entry of “Creole” from my past readings and research indicates that the person who is designated as “Creole” was born of parents not originating of the country in question, in this case Grenada. It can therefore be surmised that her mother Rose may not have been from Grenada.

It becomes enigmatic when I note that Hager’s holder is, as written in the 6 January Document of the Register, Mary Ann Smith, a “free Colour woman”. The corresponding Mary Ann Smith entered to the 8 January 1821 Annual Return is a “Proprietor of the Town of St. George.”

What a way to discover one’s genealogy and ancestral past!

Enjoy,

Jim